Synopsis
During the California Gold Rush, Eliza Sommers, raised as an adopted daughter in a wealthy Chilean family, follows her flamboyant lover to California--partly as a way of beginning her life over again. Allende's historical adventure novel touches on feminist themes such as the repressed upbringing of girls in Chile, the disgraceful treatment of Chinese prostitutes in America, and the rough life of frontier women.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1999-10-01 | | Edition Description: | Illustrated |
| Size | | Length: | 399 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 28.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the British colony of Valpara?so, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose and her more rigid brother Jeremy. Just as she meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaqu?n Andieta, a lowly clerk who works for Jeremy, gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. By 1849, Chileans of every stripe have fallen prey to feverish dreams of wealth. Joaqu?n takes off for San Francisco to seek his fortune, and Eliza, pregnant with his child, decides to follow him. So begins Isabel Allende's enchanting new novel, Daughter of Fortune, her most ambitious work of fiction yet. As we follow her spirited heroine on a perilous journey north in the hold of a ship to the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco and northern California, we enter a world whose newly arrived inhabitants are driven mad by gold fever. A society of single men and prostitutes among whom Eliza moves--with the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chien--California opens the door to a new life of freedom and independence for the young Chilean. Her search for the elusive Joaqu?n gradually turns into another kind of journey that transforms her over time, and what began as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom. By the time she finally hears news of him, Eliza must decide who her true love really is. Daughter of Fortune is a sweeping portrait of an era, a story rich in character, history, violence, and compassion. In Eliza, Allende has created one of her most appealing heroines, an adventurous, independent-minded, and highly unconventional young woman who has the courage to reinvent herself and to create her own destiny in a new country. A marvel of storytelling, Daughter of Fortune confirms once again Isabel Allende's extraordinary gift for fiction and her place as one of the world's leading writers.
Spirited Eliza leaves her home in Chile in search of her lover, who has set out for the California Gold Rush. What she finds instead is adversity and adventure and, through her own resourcefulness, an even more momentous journey to independence and freedom.
Industry Reviews
"[A]n extravagant tale by a gifted storyteller whose spell brings to life the 19th century world....DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE, while entertaining and well paced, is frustratingly one-dimensional....Though Allende offers pictures of this darker world, they come across as mere snapshots, dwarfed by the sweeping historical panorama she's trying to paint...."
Curwen
""[B]ecause Allende details her plot and settings more richly than her characters' inner lives, this derring-do saga feels somewhat spiritless."
Harlan
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