The Duchess by Danielle Steel
- Shalini Prasad
- Mar 29, 2020
- 4 min read
The only book of Danielle Steel I read was ‘No Greater Love’ many moons ago. I had loved that book very much. So, when I saw this book at the library, I thought it would be a good read that would get me as emotional as ‘No Greater Love.’
Synopsis:
We follow the story of Angelique Latham, the daughter of a Duke through his second marriage to an aristocratic French woman. She is loved by her father very much and is brought up at Belgrave castle, where she is taught how to run the estate. She is obviously pretty and has a head for business as well, much better than her two stepbrothers.
But when her father dies, the stepbrother turns her out immediately, sending her to work as a nanny to a family he knows, stating that she is a very distant cousin and is in need of work. Her father, having anticipated this, left her a good sum of money which would give her a respectable and comfortable life, should her brother refuse to take care of her.
Misfortune strikes again when she is kicked out of her nanny job. Without references or connections, she is unable to find employment in England. She desperately makes her way to Paris, where she rescues a young woman fleeing an abusive madam. Angelique sees an opportunity – to open an elegant house of pleasure that protects the women and serves only the best of clients.
Living on the edge of a scandal, can she ever make a life of her own? Or regain her rightful place in the world?
Review:
This historical story is set in the 1820s, where laws forbid women from inheriting anything from their fathers and everything went to the male heirs of the family. This law seemed to be the beginning of Angelique’s misfortunes.
The main character is very young, pretty and intelligent, which is emphasised many times throughout the book. Everybody who meets her is immediately enthralled by her beauty and intelligence. Everyone seems to be falling in love with her or wishes to possess her. Even though she is always stuck in situations that are not very ladylike, people seem to immediately recognise that she is definitely a cut above everyone else. Angelique is a strong, determined young woman with a head for entrepreneurship. You can’t help but root for her.
The story sheds light on the situations faced by many young women of the time due to the inheritance laws. The desperation that people are pushed into due to circumstances. The only thing that kept Angelique going was her determination and a keen business sense, even though some of her decisions were quite unconventional.
Her misfortunes lead her to move to Paris in search of employment but in vain. She finds a woman, Fabienne, beat up and bleeding in a gutter and takes her back to her hotel and nurses her to health. Fabienne is a prostitute who is trying to make money without the help of a madam or a pimp, as they take all her money anyway. But, having a madam or pimp gives her some protection, without which she ended up in the gutter, beat up by a client.
When Angelique hears Fabienne talk about the workings of that life, an idea strikes Angelique’s mind. She talks about starting her own brothel in the heart of Paris if Fabienne can bring in the girls. Her pleasure house is not going to be like all the others, oh no. She is only going to employ women who are mature and interesting, beautiful and elegant. She wanted these women to be intellectually stimulating as much as they will be physically so.
I couldn’t wrap my head around how an aristocratic girl like her, brought up the way she did, just jumped at the chance to build a whore house. She doesn’t know anything about that life but took a leap of faith anyway. She had just moved to Paris for work and hadn’t hit that desperation yet, at least not according to me. She could have used her keen business acumen into literally anything, before becoming a madam and throwing herself in a scandal.
After 16 months of business success, there is a murder which forces her to close her house temporarily. But, the murder had nothing to do with her, and I didn’t understand the logic behind her having to close shop for a year. It was probably just required in the story for her to move on to the next stage of her life.
After the incident, she goes to New York where she meets a handsome fellow, gets married and has a son. Then, something tragic happens and a reason arrises for her to finally go back home.
Despite the obvious drawbacks, it was a good book. The story about redemption and karmic payback is always a good read, and Danielle Steel is a good enough author to carry the story well. I would recommend it as a summer read, breezy and light.
P.C. Internet
Rating: 3.5/5
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