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3.0 out of 5 stars
The Perfect Husband, Jun 5 2001
When Lady Lillian Temple discovers that her father has foolishly speculated away all his wealth, she decides that a life of genteel poverty is not for her or her young brother, and so decides to entrap an eligible bachelor into marriage. She carefully selects the dashing Lord Melwin, a man of wealth and some political standing -- Lady Lillian has decided that she would rather like leading the life of a political hostess. Unfortunately for Lady Lillian, Lord Melwin leaves the house party on the very night she has decided to brazenly carry out her plan, and gives his room to his best friend, Lord Anthony Wendover. Wendover is also a man of some wealth but is more a fashion arbiter than a political animal. Poor Lady Lillian finds herself compromising the wrong man, and walking down the aisle with someone who seems to dislike her a great deal!Lord Anthony Wendover had always believed he would marry for love. His parents' wonderful marriage have been an example of what he would like his own marriage to have been. And now he finds himself married to a conniving young woman, who on top of it all has a tendre for his best friend! However his friends and his parents urge him to try and get to know his wife, and to make his marriage work. The burning question then is if Wendover can look past his anger and disappointment in order to make this hasty marriage work. "The Perfect Husband" is a rather goodish read. I felt quite sorry for Lady Lillian, who had no one to turn to for help, as well as for Lord Anthony who saw his dream of marrying for love go up in smoke. Both characters are somewhat well developed, and I quite liked the manner in which Jeanne Savery built on this theme of a married couple getting to know each other from the very beginning and attempting to make their marriage work. I only had two caveats: Lady Lillian's real character and motivations only seemed to come to the fore when she was with her best friend, Elizabeth Browne. Unfortunately, Miss Browne does not figure into this novel very much. Wendover's friends figure a lot more but they do not throw as much light onto his character and motivations as Miss Browne did for Lady Lillian. The second caveat I had dealt with the entire Sahib motif. Sahib is a tiger who seems to enjoy the role of cupid. I found the whole last bit of the novel where the tiger more or less forced the couple to spend time alone with each other too contrived. Anthony and Lillian were already beginning to like, respect, and feel the beginnings of love for each other. There really was no need for Sahib to have interfered. All in all "The Perfect Husband" is quite a good read, especially because of it's warm hearted and gallant heroine.
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