V is for Vivacious Voigt and a Vital Romantic Hero

Cynthia Voigt's paperbacks are usually teen novels. However, she wrote an adult novel Glass Mountain which is a modern (for the time, 1990s) screwball comedy in the Cary Grant and Clark Gable (It Happened One Night) tradition. 

In fact, the protagonist, Gregor, is, as Castle would say, "ruggedly handsome" rather than strictly good-looking. 

The book is delightful! It is the story of a butler/valet who is trying to land himself a rich wife. He is a romantic who falls in love but thinks he is trying to work the system. 

Voigt relies almost entirely on show-not-tell to make clear to us that whatever Gregor may believe about himself, or say about himself, he is a good guy and worth investing in:

1. Like Darcy with Elizabeth, he is attracted to Alexis from the beginning. 

He doesn't believe she is beautiful. He does acknowledge that she dresses wrongly for her "Renaissance" look. But he is aware of her and not entirely indifferent from Day 1. His attraction grows. 

2. He is bowled over by her intelligence, understated wit, and interests from Day 1. 

3. His "plan" does not involve him inviting women to outings he doesn't enjoy himself. 

He and Alexis share interests if not taste. 

4. He is old enough, 33, to not mistake titillation for actually interesting things.

His boss, Theo, is another great writing example of show-not-tell. He isn't horrible or bad (and the book ends quite nicely with him back in the arms of a woman who possibly truly cares for him); he is, however, as shallow as ditch-water. 

Gregor's exact motivations for his deliberate plan (to marry any rich woman) are never entirely defined (other than that he is more romantic than he realizes): revenge at a particular class, disillusionment, cynicism, despair? 

He does see some of himself in Theo. But he is being unfair to himself. Theo quite definitely mistakes titillation for "coolness," like a boy who, maturity-wise, has never grown beyond high school. (As one point, Gregor marvels at the women Theo is able to attract, but Theo has a kind of random generosity that makes him whatever the women want him to be: Gregor is more complicated, and Alexis will more than be able to handle him!) 

5. He honestly respects women. 

He is kind to Theo's mother, waiting for her to finish her sentences. He is careful, almost from the beginning, with Alexis because he quickly surmises that she can run rings around him and only doesn't because she is diffident and doubtful of her own powers. He doesn't use her weaknesses--such her apologies--against her. 

Whatever Gregor believes about himself, the reader finds him worth investing in--and Alexis is delightful. 

For a reformed bad boy...or maybe a reformed Darcy...or maybe a reformed Rochester...Gregor is a more than decent addition!