'The Indiscretion of the Duchess' is an adventure-romance novel by Anthony Hope. Written in first-person, it follows the adventures of a man in Paris, who one morning, as he sat smoking his after-breakfast cigar in his rooms in St. James' Street, was suddenly visited by his friend Gustave de Berensac, who told him that the Duchess of Saint-Maclou is currently in residence—which piqued our protagonist interest, for he has always wanted to meet this woman.

"The Indiscretion of the Duchess" from Anthony Hope. English novelist and playwright (1863-1933).

In accordance with many most excellent precedents, I might begin by claiming the sympathy due to an orphan alone in the world. I might even summon my unguided childhood and the absence of parental training to excuse my faults and extenuate my indiscretion

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, better known as Anthony Hope (9 February 1863 - 8 July 1933), was an English novelist and playwright. He was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels but he is remembered predominantly for only two books: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau (1898). These works, "minor classics" of English literature, are set in the contemporaneous fictional country of Ruritania and spawned the genre known as Ruritanian romance, works set in fictional European locales similar to the novels. Zenda has inspired many adaptations, most notably the 1937 Hollywood movie of the same name. Hope wrote 32 volumes of fiction over the course of his lifetime and he had a large popular following.

"The Indiscretion of the Duchess" may be classed with "The Prisoner of Zenda," and shares with that story the unabated interest from first page to last, and the superb handling of the romantic and adventurous. Even if this book had been published anonymously, a mistake as to its author's identity would have been impossible: Mr. Hope's touch as we have learned to know it is here on every page, almost in every line, and a successful touch it is, indeed. The book furnishes pleasant reading; it is one of those rare boons—a story that will rest and refresh the brain of any person whose occupation involves continuous and serious mental work.