The Scandal of the Season is concerned initially with the hopes and aspirations of two young Catholic sisters attempting to find a place – and possibly a husband – in Protestant London, during the reign of Queen Anne.

The opportunity arises as the result of their improved acquaintance with the milieu of their socially superior cousin, Arabella - the story’s central female protagonist, who also grants their access to a more privileged inner circle of friends. At the same time, we are introduced to the celebrated literary figure Alexander Pope, a close family friend to the sisters and a struggling new poet seeking to make his fortune.

It is in fact through Pope’s literary work, which becomes increasingly notorious, that we learn to appreciate Arabella’s world and the precarious nature of her involvement in a secret love affair with the Catholic aristocrat Lord Petre. Petre’s apparent dabbling in illegal religious pursuits with possible Jacobites threatens to bring about the downfall of Arabella’s good reputation and cast doubt over the high moral standing of a well-respected Catholic family. But when he attempts to tell Arabella the truth over his clandestine activities, she is somewhat naive in her understanding of the danger that comes with such a liaison:

Lord Petre: ‘I am engaged in – have been for many months engaged in – an affair that is good for…for the good of our country’… Arabella said nothing. He was speaking sincerely, but she did not understand him at all…

‘It is a plan which involves our Queen,’ he said. ‘If we are successful we will make England the strongest nation on earth’…She still did not grasp what he was saying, but she listened with more interest than she had expected to feel. (p154)

This response emphasises the typically submissive response of the long suffering female figure striving to secure a male suitor, and unaware of being exploited by the object of her affections. It also highlights the stereotypically simplistic attitudes with which females of this period have often been portrayed. Pope seizes the opportunity to write a poem about the two lovers in order to secure his literary career as a highly regarded poet, though not with any sense of malice.

Gee’s novel certainly recreates the atmospheric conditions of the historical period, including the insecurity of women and their dependence on the male instigated moral constraints brought about by marriage. Their very respectability, in fact, rests on the acquisition of an eligible bachelor to secure their status as respectable individuals in a male dominated society. While the writer has written a PhD thesis on the history of the period, however, she has not burdened the novel with historical details at the expense of telling a good story.

Gee’s writing is clear and concise and therefore not too self consciously involved in presuming to educate her reader about late Stuart England. Of course, historical accuracy is important to the story’s narrative, but rather than being a serious academic exercise it actually comes across as a fairly light-hearted, un-snobbish and straightforward read with a warm familiarity not dis-similar to a good Jane Austen novel, possibly as the result of the author’s similar use of free indirect speech. But the novel is reminiscent of Austen’s work not only because it highlights women’s obvious dependence on men through the respected institution of marriage, but also because Gee’s novel shares Austen’s noted emphasis on maintaining a good public image and upholding reputations at all costs.