Miss Butterworth and the mad baron A graphic novel

Fans of Quinn's Bridgerton series will be amused to find the infamous Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron--a fictional, deliberately absurd novel read by characters in several of Quinn's books, beginning with the seventh Bridgerton installment--has been adapted into a graphic novel, with Quinn's sister, Violet Charles, providing the illustrations. The choice of format was a wise one--Charles' expressive, cartoonish art is well suited to the outlandish plot--and readers will be entertained by the increasingly melodramatic antics of Miss Butterworth who, after a tragic childhood, is hired as a companion to the grandmother of the titular mad baron, who turns out to be not so mad after all. Together they must overcome the scheming of a dastardly cousin attempting to have the baron institutionalized so that he might claim the title instead--and, of course, they find love along the way. Newcomers might roll their eyes at the silliness on offer, but this is a reasonably amusing, if somewhat forgettable romp that is likely to please Quinn's fans and will undoubtedly circulate well among her large readership.

Based on a novel-within-a-novel from Quinn's blockbuster Bridgerton series, this tongue-in-cheek send-up of Gothic melodrama aims for high comedy but fails to take off. Tragic heroine Priscilla Butterworth wanders through outlandish misadventures before landing at the manor of the reputedly mad Lord Savagewood. Fibbing her way into a position as lady's companion to Savagewood's grandmother, Miss Butterworth piques the brooding lord's interest and uncovers a plot against his life. The characters' outlandish travails include rampaging wild boars, lightning strikes, cannibalism, drug-addled pigeons, and murder attempts straight out of a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. All of which ought to be funny, but the characters are caricatures, the plot jumps around too wildly to follow, and the manic artwork doesn't fit the period. The characters are inconsistently drawn big-eyed lumps, a choice likely to disappoint Bridgerton fans who expect well-lit beauty and elegance along with humor, and the barely sketched-in backgrounds don't give much impression of the era, either. There's plenty of fodder for graphic novel adaptations in the Bridgerton universe, but this feels rushed and lacks a firm grasp on the dynamics of visual storytelling. Agent: Steve Axelrod, the Axelrod Agency. (Jan.)