School of Gallantry Books in Order

The School of Gallantry is a connected historical romance series set largely in early nineteenth-century London. At its center is Madame Thérèse de Maitenon, a former French courtesan who runs a private school where gentlemen can learn about seduction, intimacy, and how to treat women better.

It is not a finishing school in the usual sense.

The school gives the series its playful premise, but each book is really about a different couple facing a personal problem that money, rank, or good manners cannot fix. The men who come through Madame Thérèse’s doors may be dukes, earls, or men with no secure place in society. The women are just as varied, and they tend to be clear about what they will and will not accept.

Mistress of Pleasure starts with Maybelle Maitenon, Madame Thérèse’s granddaughter, and Edmund Worthington, the Duke of Rutherford. Maybelle wants independence, not marriage, while Edmund finds himself determined to win the woman who refuses to be managed. Lord of Pleasure follows the struggling widow Lady Charlotte Chartwell and Alexander Baxendale, the Earl of Hawksford, whose reputation has left him unprepared for genuine compassion.

The middle books widen the school’s world. Lady of Pleasure pairs Caroline with the guarded Ronan, while Night of Pleasure looks at an arranged match between Clementine and Derek that becomes far more complicated once they meet again as adults. In Master of Pleasure, Leona Webster and Malcolm Thayer, Earl of Brayton, must deal with poverty, shame, and Malcolm’s fear of his own desires. Romancing Lady Stone takes the action to Russia, where the widowed Cecilia Stone meets Konstantin Levin while trying to reach her son.

The final book, The Duke of Andelot, turns back to Madame Thérèse’s early life. Set against the growing upheaval of the French Revolution, it tells the story of Thérèse as a young aspiring actress and Gérard Tolbert, the man who becomes Duke of Andelot. It works as a bridge to the woman readers have come to know in London.

These are frank, sensual romances with humor, emotional messiness, and adult characters trying to make choices outside the rules of polite society. The books can be enjoyed as individual love stories, but reading in publication order gives the best sense of Madame Thérèse’s circle and the connections that run through the series.