When Lionel Savage, a popular poet in Victorian London, learns that he’s broke, he marries the beautiful Vivien Lancaster for her money, only to find that his muse has abandoned him. Distraught, Savage accidentally conjures the Devil --- the polite “Gentleman” of the title --- who appears at one of the society parties Savage abhors. The two hit it off: the Devil talks about his home, where he employs Dante as a gardener; Savage lends him a volume of Tennyson. But when the party’s over and Vivien has disappeared, the poet concludes in horror that he must have inadvertently sold his wife to the dark lord. Newly in love with Vivian, Savage plans a rescue mission to Hell. Lionel and his friends encounter trapdoors, duels, the social pressure of not knowing enough about art history and the poisonous wit of his poetical archenemy. Fresh, action-packed and very, very funny.