Narrated by Cornell Collins
The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting is a queer historical romance set around the Regency period, featuring a couple of would-be rogues – siblings Robin and Marianne Loxleigh (almost no-one in their sphere gets it), who are both seeking to marry into financial security. Robin at least (I’m not so sure about Marianne) intends to treat his wife with kindness and respect, so in terms of many aristocratic marriages of the time it sounds positively romantic. He is gay, so sex with a woman would be a chore but he’d do it if his wife required it of him and wanted children.
Robin has set his sights on Alice Fenwick, an 18-year-old who will inherit £20,000 upon her marriage – although her family have been careful not to bandy that about, trying to avoid the very thing that Robin is.
Alice’s uncle is baronet Sir John Hartlebury (Hart to his friends) and he is a very protective sort. He is instantly suspicious of Robin and starts to look into him.
In the meantime, Marianne is trying to snare a Marquis (who happens to be an old enemy of Hart’s), even though she’s far more attracted to Hart’s near-penniless best friend Giles Verney.
Alice is not quite the ingenue she’s made out to be however. She has plans and dreams of her own that do not involve a season or marriage but she would like to get her hands on her inheritance.
Seeking to prove that Robin is a card sharp (he is), Hart challenges Robin to a game of piquet which leaves Robin deeply and irredeemably in debt. Along the way there has been an undeniable attraction building between the two men. The method Hart employs to allow himself to have what he really wants is to offer for Robin to work off the debt with his body for a month. It sounds worse than it is. Robin is an entirely willing participant and does not feel that he is being forced. In fact he feels that the debt is merely the excuse and he’s having a fine time.
Of course feelings become involved, but how can they be together forever? Apart from that, gay relationships are outlawed, Robin is deeply protective of Marianne and wants to ensure her safety and wellbeing. Hart usually lives in the country and that would be too far away for Robin to come to Marianne’s aid should she need it.
Things come to a head when Marianne gets closer to her goal of becoming a Marchioness and people from Hart’s past cause trouble.
I’ve a feeling the book was intended to be funnier than it was to me on audio. I suspect I’d have been greatly more charmed by the story had I read the book. Cornell Collins’ narration didn’t work very well for me here I’m afraid. I’ve had some extremely positive experiences with his narration in the past and I’m sure I will again but I struggled with the characterisation (of Hart in particular) as well as the pacing.
Throughout the book Hart was played as a very grumpy fellow – and that did fit with the text. But Mr. Collins portrayed him as extremely aggressive and shouty. He wasn’t a mere curmudgeon; to my ears he sounded actively hostile much of the time – even with his friends or his sister. I thought he’d been taken up to 11 and maybe he needed to be dialled down to about a 7 or 8.
It wasn’t just Hart who was more strident than I thought the text called for; Marianne also sometimes came across as more threatening than the text indicated, at least to me. (Only sometimes however because Marianne could be fierce and magnificent indeed when she wanted to be. It was the intermittent pettiness I don’t think was textual.)
The uneven pacing threw me as well. Mr. Collins would speed up in sections of dialogue or text which had the effect of making certain characters sound angrier than they perhaps were supposed to be or otherwise just impatient. It was inconsistent so it could not be remedied by listening at 0.8 or 0.75 speed.
I did a test about my feelings for the narration versus the text. I read the last section in print, having borrowed the book from the library. The connection between Robin and Hart was much more apparent in the book than in the audio. I missed some of the romantic connection when I listened – I think because of the aggression which disguised it.
I’ll listen to Cornell Collins again. Like I said, I’ve enjoyed his work very much before but I don’t think his performance in The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting was his best, though I may well be an outlier here.
Kaetrin
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I found your review really interesting, Kaetrin. I read the book a couple of times when it first came out and then listened to the audio just recently. I really like the book and would probably rate it at A-.
I agree about Cornell Collins possibly not being the best fit for this book but, as my main issue was that I didn’t like his voice for Hart, I’d probably give the narration a B grade. I didn’t really notice the pacing and I already knew the characters from my previous readings so I thought it was an okay listen.
Two of my favourite narrations are by Cornell Collins – KJC’s ‘Any Old Diamonds’ and Alexis Hall’s ‘Pansies’ – but I find his narration of the Will Darling trilogy unlistenable. IMO his narrations work with dryly witty stories but not so much with more ‘rompy’ type stories that need more oomph.
That’s interesting – I think I have Any Old Diamonds on audio – I certainly have it in print.
I wonder how much it helped you that you had already read the book twice by the time you listened? I found the romantic connection much more apparent in print so I expect had I read the whole thing first I’d have been more inclined to hear it?
I know that Robin and Hart have a very strong romantic connection from my reading of the book, so I will have just heard it in the narration I think.
I’m a visual learner, so I often get more from books than audio. In the past I’ve only listened to books that I’ve already read and have only recently started listening to new-to-me books. I’ve found that some work and some don’t!
I listened to it without having read the book and while I agree that Hart’s aggression was overdone, I loved the book/delivery on the whole. Quite a feat as I dislike con artists and usually wouldn’t touch those kind of story lines with a ten foot pole (was a book club selection). I felt the connection between Hart and Robin and quite enjoyed the slow realisation. Wonder what it would have felt like in e-.
I’m glad you enjoyed it Growly. It’s one that definitely worked better for me in print than audio.
I confess I haven’t listened to this yet, but I also gave it an A in print. CC’s narrations normally work quite well for me, although I’ve been less fond of his work in the WIll Darling books. It’s still good (I’m writing a review of book 3 now), but not as stellar as his work on some of KJC’s other books. I definitely plan to listen to this at some point though!