The Duchess

Danielle Steel’s latest novel, The Duchess, begins like so many others of its kind: a young woman, innocent to the ways of the world, is forced out of the family estate by her older brother, who inherits her father’s fortune. As a female living in 19th-century England, Angélique has no claim to her father’s title and lands. And despite her noble birth and lavish upbringing, she finds, for the first time in her life, that she must fend for herself. Alone, destitute and still mourning the loss of her beloved father, Angélique begins working in service, armed with nothing more than her determination and a small envelope containing a sizeable fortune. The novel does offer a welcome critique of the treatment of women at the hands of a callous patriarchy, but it is a disappointing read that fails in so many ways. The characters are based on hackneyed templates that the author attempts to enliven by means of clumsy prose. Angélique is beautiful, intelligent and apparently faultless, which made it difficult for me to sympathise with her struggle. She could very easily play the part of Cinderella, with a cruel sister-in-law and greedy nieces in place of the fairytale’s evil stepmother and stepsisters. An exciting plot would normally compensate for such a dispiriting lack of character depth but, unfortunately, that also couldn’t be found. The plot becomes interesting only after the first 200 or so pages. Until then, the narrative events centre on a tiresome cycle of babysitting, dirty laundry and repetitive recounts of the event that occurred within the first few pages. One redeeming feature is the faithful representation of this historical period, which can be found in even the smallest details. But, sadly, that isn’t enough to save it. Reviewed by Jasmine Aird