The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

The Duke and I (With 2nd Epilogue) by Julia Quinn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Note: My rating is for the original work, not the expanded work - as in, I read the original book and the first epilogue, but have not yet read the second epilogue which was written some time after the original book appeared.

Violet Bridgerton has four unmarried children, Anthony (29), Benedict (27), Colin (22), Daphne (21), Eloise (17), Francesca (16), Gregory (12), and Hyacinth (10; and yes, that's in order of ages, and yes the family does in fact go A to H in order). Her, as in Violet, husband died at some point prior to the start of this book. I know - now - but didn't at the time, when he died - he died in 1803 and it is currently 1813. So Violet has been a widow for 10 years, and became a widow at the age of 37 (making her 47 now). And has four children to find spouses, and two more coming fast into 'needing' a spouse found.

This book here specifically focuses on Daphne, though Anthony and Colin play big-ish roles, and Benedict and Hyacinth are not that far behind (Gregory is probably at or just behind Hyacinth in 'screen time' but I think of him as having less for some reason). Eloise and Francesca are there in the book as well - and there are family 'stuff' that occurs, but they mostly aren't in the book - the most a reader gets is the fact that they look very much alike, and Simon (the outsider) couldn't tell them apart.

Right, so Simon. He's the other main character. He is Duke of Hastings. A prequel tells the tale of Simon's emergence into this world - no I mean birth from mother, not emergence into society. The Hastings, as in Simon’s parents, had tried very hard to have living children, but they kept failing – stillborns, and other mishaps occurred. Finally, when the Duke was 40 (or, no, it was the wife who was said to be forty – one of the reasons the doctors said that they should stop trying, because she kept failing, and she was 40 now). Right, messed that sentence up. So, finally when the Duke was presumably older than 40, and his wife was 40, a baby was finally born alive. The Duke was so happy that he proudly wandered around holding the child, completely unnoticing as his wife bleed to death. They were kind of friendly with each other, the duke and duchess, but it wasn’t a love match and it didn’t really impact him much, apparently, when the wife died – since he has his heir now. I mention all this because I’m leading to the part wherein the duke is a massive asshole, and when it turned out Simon had a few issues with talking, like not talking for his first years, the father decided he was an idiot and pushed him from his life. Therefore warping young Simon’s mind.

The story opens with Simon just back from his world travels (there’s an easy thing I can insert here to say why he was on his world travels, but I’ll leave something, eh, for people to read for themselves). And the Bridgertons (well, the three older brothers, the mother, and Daphne) at a party that the duke (since Simon is now the duke) visits. Simon had been at school at the same time as Anthony and they are friends – he, as in Simon, knows the Bridgetons. Though he hasn’t yet meet Daphne.

Daphne, we the readers, learn quickly really desires to find a husband. So she can have a big family. But she isn’t having much luck finding that husband – because, and there are several theories about this, but her own theory (based on some things people have said and the like) is that she is seen as too much of a friend – ‘different’ than the ‘other young unmarried women’. She’s, therefore, someone men can relax around – and apparently men don’t marry such women. Apparently. Though some men do still pursue such a woman – the very old, the very dim, and the very stupid – and the first meeting of Daphne and Simon occurs while Nigel, one of Daphne’s dimwitted pursuers, is very aggressively indicating that he wishes to make Daphne his wife. One thing leads to another, and obviously Simon can’t leave a woman to be violated (or something like that) in a back hallway at a party, so he steps forward, only to see Daphne punch out Nigel.

So – there are similarities between the two Quinn books I’ve read. Large families (at least on one side), one of which is a wiser than her years youngster (I’m referring to Billie’s sister (from ‘Because of Miss Bridgerton’) and Hyacinth); and strong women. The strength is ‘explained away’ somewhat the same way – both had brothers (or more exactly, in the case of Billie, grew up very close to another family who had many brothers). Billie, though, is a more independently minded woman than Daphne.

Right, so – Simon finds out immediately that he’ll be swamped by young unmarried women and their mothers if he goes to parties – which is okay, in its way, because he never planned to go to parties – except that his friends, while he was away on his world tour, went and got married – and they, with their now married wives, wish to have the duke at their parties. I mention this because Daphne is in a somewhat similar/different situation (similar in being pushed by mothers (her own), and um . . stuff, my brain just shut off so I’ll push past). I mention because Daphne and Simon come to an agreement to pretend to court each other because Simon thinks this will cause him some greater ability to dodge these unmarried women and mothers (Daphne thinks otherwise), and Daphne does this because she expects that being courted by a Duke will push her out of the ‘she’s just a friend’ zone. And so the two court.

The first book I read by Quinn also involved the Bridgertons, but was a prequel book. Because I have the dates, I can note that Because of Miss Bridgerton is set in 1779, Violet was born in 1766 (though she married into the family, so I should use Edmund (the dead husband's name) for this - he was born in 1764, so he was 13 during the events of 'Because of', and dead during the events of the Bridgerton series. If I recall correctly, Edmund wasn't around in that earlier book either, because he was away at school. I think.

I liked the first book I read by Quinn more – the ‘Because of Miss Bridgerton’, because I liked the characters more, and it seemed to have a touch more humor (though both have humor).

Rating: 4.78

December 2 2016




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