Daughter Of Fortune: A Novel By Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende is a strong and beautiful woman. She would be extremely interesting to many even if she could not write. But she can write. Allende tells a story well. It is no wonder that her books have a wide audience throughout the world. She is not, however, comparable in style or technique to either Jorge Luis Borges or Gabriel Garcia Marquez as some might suggest.
DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE takes the form of a historical novel in the romantic tradition/genre. It is a straightforward narrative presented essentially chronologically from 1843 to 1853. The book’s heroine is one Eliza Sommers, born of uncertain parentage and raised by English expatriates in Chile. Eliza’s “formal” guardian is Rose Sommers – a handsome, proper, animated, and wealthy single woman with a “past.” But equally influential in Eliza’s upbringing is “Mama” Fresia – a Chilean peasant serving the Rose and her brother as cook and housekeeper.
Love is the combustible fuel that propels Eliza’s story forward and that serves to generate sub-plots and character development for all of the women in this book. And there are other dominating female presences here. There’s Paulina, Lin, and “Joe Bonecrusher,” There are men in this work, but they come across in varying degrees as unremarkable, weak, insentive, unethical, or immoral. This book is about admirable woman, plain and simple. And these women make for a good narrative.
Strength and desire take Eliza from from Valparaiso, Chile to San Francisco, California; from Victorian privilege to New World adventure; from security to danger; from merchant commerce to Gold Rush. This is highly readable historical fiction.

Una de mis novelas favoritas.

I read this book years ago and actually just gave the book to good will a month, From my recollections I had not really enjoyed the book that much so I was not really looking forward to buying it twice, but I had to as it was a book group choice.
To my surprise the book was a totally different experience this time. Amazing how ten years can alter ones reading preferences. I could not put the book down and I have to say that it was the story that grabbed me the most, not the Characters, although I found no fault in the character development but never got too interested in anyone of them. I loved the story best. Particularly I suppose because it was a book about women.

We have Rose Sommers, who appears to be a proper young women but we find out she has a past. I found it intriguing that Rose wanted to keep this baby and dedicate her life to bringing up this child as a lady, and created all these weird untruths about how she arrived on the door step. I think both characters Rose and Eliza, show the issues that young women dealt with if they have an adventurous spirit. I got caught up in the life’s lessons that these two head strong girls were being taught their passions and compulsive behaviour not allowed in their time took away any other life choices they may eventually have wanted, one slip up at sixteen and they were tainted for life. That is what separated them from who they could have been and the reality of what they are. Rose became her brothers house keeper and Eliza chose flight. Their story also shows that there is a positive out come to the choices they make, I really enjoyed reading both their stories.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tangle that was created in this story. I loved the adventure of Eliza escaping and how her journey develop. What sort of young woman would she be? would she find the lover would she return home. We read that Rose suffers at loosing Elisa and wishes she had behaved differently and at the end of the Novel we read that Eliza will write to Rose, and we see that their relationship was one of love and they will be able to reunite, I really enjoyed the appreciation they had for each other even though they were apart. I felt for Joaquine’s mother left at home to die and never to know if her son was alive or not. I was left wondering if he had died early on as only one letter was ever delivered. Or was he a man that talked the talk but really once out of sight both his mother and Eliza were quickly forgotten.

Tao, was an interesting character and was a wonderful person for Eliza to grow up through and see her self and her love for Joaquine, in comparison to Lin, who was the perfect bride with her deformed feet and ill health, but was sweet and gentle and his guide through out the story. Mama Fresia, leaves after eighteen years and no one knows her name or where she lives, I thought this was extremely sad and very telling of how Rose and Jeremy lived and viewed servants even though they really were so important to them. We have read this so often in other books.

The ending leaves you up in the air, but it was in someways satisfying to be left to imagine what happens.
There were so many issues for women in this book, choices they could make, Rose on one hand never married but used her passion for her lost lover to write risqué novels. John appreciates his sister taking Elisa in and together they keep a secret from their brother Jeremy, I thought that was particularly sad for him when he found this out. So this sixteen year old secret twists the dynamics of their relationship like all secrets do.
Rose marched Elisa down to the orphanage pointing out that if she misbehaves she will end up back there. In retrospect Rose realises what a horrible thing she did, but as a young woman that took a chance at eighteen she reverted back to a less understanding form of child raring, which I thought was enlightening. Rose obviously regretted the choice she made and hoped to be able to keep control of Elisa.

This is one of my favourite books! I’ve read well over a dozen times and I plan on reading it even more. I pick it up every year and half to two years. It’s just a great story. The writer just has a way with words. You can see everything your reading. In all her books the woman is strong. Anyway it’s an amazing book.

後記(PS)のついた 「天使の運命 英語版」再発本 (Harper, Modern Classics)です。PSの中味ですがそれは作者へのインタビュやらです。
（書棚でひとめを引くことも必要な）新刊ではなく「古典級」として買って読もうというひとへの本なわけですが、本の裁断（本文ページの縁）に効果を狙ったジャギーとういうか「製品」らしくない不揃いさがあって、表紙の草むら柄とあわせて（何年か前にでた「日本語訳版」と同じ小説とはとても思えない）デセントで独特な風情があります。
これまでが「実写ヒロインの肖像」の表紙だったわけですが、地味だけどこちらの装丁にずっと好感です。

“Daughter of Fortune” by Isabel Allende is the epic story of a woman named Eliza Sommers. She is born a bastard and left on the doorstep of a rich British family’s home in Chile. She is not adopted by the brother and sister, Jeremy and Rose Summers, but is still raised like she was one of their own. Neither sibling has children of their own.
Eliza is never treated completely as if she were their daughter, but she is given a good home and education to allow her to marry into the best of families. However, along the way Eliza falls in love with a lowly clerk and follows him to California, a land where gold has just been discovered and many were rushing to this place in search of wealth.
Eliza goes to California with the help of a chinese doctor named Tao Chi’en, who also happened to be a friend of her “uncle” Captain John, who happened to be Rose and Jeremy’s brother. She is stowed upon a ship and she and Tao Chi’en sail to California. From this point, the story diverges to tell the story of Tao Chi’en and his humble beginnings. His story is epic in nature as well.
The story of Eliza is a story of a woman’s journey towards self-discovery and love. I found “Daughter of Fortune” to be wonderfully written, an epic full of adventure and romance. I found myself glued to this book as I read it from cover to cover. I highly recommend it.