Reader's Digest Condensed Books, 1994 #3, Volume #213

by Reader's Digest Association, F. Paul Wilson, Janet Edmonds

By the 1860s, the Pilasters are one of the world's greatest banking families, with connections that reach from the City of London to far-afield colonies. However, as the family grow ever richer in the shadow of oppression and tragedy, their very future is threatened - by the self-same ambition and greed that first earned them their fortune.

'A full-blooded melodrama, complete with moustache-twirling villains, saintly heroes, wronged women, and a lot of plot' Irish Times

'Banks, brothels, and a high body count . . . it's all there' Financial Times

'A compulsively readable, enjoyable thriller-cum-saga' Sunday Times

Genres: Fiction

574 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1994

About the author

The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. is a global media and direct marketing company based in Chappaqua, New York, best known for its flagship publication founded in 1922, Reader's Digest. The company's headquarters are in New York City, where it moved from Pleasantville, New York.

The company was founded by DeWitt and Lila Wallace in 1922 with the first publication of Reader's Digest magazine, but has grown to include a diverse range of magazines, books, music, DVDs and online content.

Reviews

[Thom Swennes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb, Enchanting and Highly Memorable are just a few words or phrases that would rightly describe A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett. I have recently read a couple of novels by Rafael Sabatini and couldn’t help but compare the form and content with this one. The older novels were much wordier so they hovered around a subject, like bees around a spring blossom, without actually touching the subject intended. Follett paints a picture with bright colors and well defined lines and avoids the haze of Sabatini. Love is the main catalyst in the development of most novels by both authors but where the actual acts of that love is totally missing in one, is honest and open in the other. A trait of Sabatini is to keep the reader hanging for twenty-score pages before love is finally declared by the story’s male and female protagonists. Follett weaves a tale where this love ingrains itself in the basic fiber of the story.
A Dangerous Fortune is about the London banking world in the 1870’s. Class and acquired fortunes play a big part in this tale of love and social turmoil, exposing the flaws in both. Society behaves at this time with an equanimity that would be very strange today. Ken Follett paints his characters in the mind of the reader as adeptly as any old master applied them to canvas. These characters come to life and don’t walk in the fog of confusion that often occurs by other writers. The discombobulating array of characters remains clear and vivid throughout this tale of upper-class backstabbing and stratagem. I found myself intrigued equally by both protagonist and villain. While reading I would suddenly stop with reading in futile search of a diversion as I knew something was about to happen and this act could somehow postpone the event or allow someone a few precious more moments of life.

(P.S. The edition showed above isn't the copy I read. I read a 2008 paperback edition but it isn't listed by Goodreads.)

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follett set out to write an interesting plot line with (honestly) many dastardly characters and tragic situations. Yet what made the book engaging is how the better characters progressed and weathered the storms and came out better for it. Yet the character's actions were believable, not trite, moral-bearing stories.
I always wonder with condensed books what I'm missing, but this book felt complete the way it was. Also, some of the actions were so horrible, I'm glad it was over in 180 pages.