Phantom Fortune

by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, British Literature

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1883

About the author

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She was an extremely prolific writer, producing some 75 novels with very inventive plots. The most famous one is her first novel, Lady Audley's Secret (1862), which won her recognition and fortune as well. The novel has been in print ever since, and has been dramatised and filmed several times.

Braddon also founded Belgravia Magazine (1866), which presented readers with serialized sensation novels, poems, travel narratives, and biographies, as well as essays on fashion, history, science. She also edited Temple Bar Magazine. Braddon's legacy is tied to the Sensation Fiction of the 1860s.

She is also the mother of novelist W.B. Maxwell.

Reviews

[Mbuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whether you like or despise Mary Elizabeth Braddon's work, her great success lay in the telling of a story. Her work may be derivative (Wilkie Collins leaps to mind) melodramatic, character driven, cliché-ridden, but however weak the plot, however many coincidences are introduced as an alternative to a rational resolution, the writing, so commonplace, is absolutely rivetting. Her natural heir in the twentieth century is possibly Daphne du Maurier, though the later writer is superior in style and language as well as in sheer creativity.

In 'Phantom Fortune' – an absurd mix of Wilkie Collins's 'Moonstone' and Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair', both with a hint of an Indian background, with a dash of Dickens for flavour – Braddon ratchets up the tension with increasing ferocity, but the story falls to pieces when the legitimate heir to an Indian kingdom dies in an accident. After that, the plot turns in a different direction altogether, and becomes a morality play. The only real villain of the piece is eliminated in the first chapter, so the rest is a study of vanity, pride and hubris. The attraction in this novel is the characterisation, with four very strong women, three of whom are driven by pride, ambition or greed. The male characters are all of them but one thoroughly unpleasant. The apparently weakest among them turns out the strongest. And of course, the Hero is godlike.

What is fascinating is the description of the Lake District, the setting for the first part of the story. While it does not form an intrinsic element of the plot, the moods and views of the lakes and becks and hills are all that a neo-Romanticist could wish for. Also entertaining are Braddon's throwaway lines on Wordsworth, Mrs Oliphant, Zola and the Impressionists.

Altogether, 'Phantom Fortune' grips your attention from its first page and explains Braddon's popularity in her time and today, when her style of silver spoon fiction is utterly out of fashion.

[Liz M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Braddon is my current fixation based on how varied and outright weird her novels are, and what they say about the anxieties of late Victorian gentry. An amazing set up that like most of Braddon's novels, grows weaker toward the end. Some nice characterization in the proud, ambitious, and self defeating Lady Maulevrier and her vacillating favorite granddaughter, Lesbia. A great disdain for stockbrokers that somehow is never shown for bankers at a time when banks were not secure. Braddon appears to get caught up in the sentimental and edifying towards the end of the novel to the detriment of the sensational, dropping an enticing subplot about the son of a murdered Raja along the way.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the love stories of two sisters and their grandmother, and how all three stories are intertwined. Two aspects I love about Braddon’s writing: we get to follow her characters through several different phases of their lives, and she lets us guess many of the story’s secrets early on, but always delights us with how those secrets slowly become unveiled to the characters. The younger sister, Mary or Molly, is one of my favorite characters in all her works that I have read so far. She loves to be active outdoors, is respectfully independent, forgiving, sweet, and loyal. First published in 1883. I listened to this novel as a free audio download from LibriVox.org.

[Mike Thelwall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a well-written story with multiple overlapping plots, keeping my attention to the end. The shocking decadence of "the season" in London (is that what they got up to???) and double standards of the upper classes seem to be a deliberate theme through the book. It is a bit let down by one-dimensional characters, although Lesbia evolves. There are shocking uses of the j-word (as a racist insult) an n-word and racism in the book, although it also has a positive brief Indian character.

[Genie Cram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not her best but pretty fun

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprise I never saw coming and captivating characters! I absolutely loved this one of Braddon's.

[Geicodave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engrossing Victorian novel

This is a novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, a popular novelist in the mid to late nineteenth century. It was first published in 1883. She was known for her "sensation novels," the most famous of which, "Lady Audley's Secret," is still read today. Most of her other novels (there are dozens of them) have been forgotten today, although several are still in print. This is not one of her better efforts, but I found it engrossing and would recommend it to those who enjoy Victorian fiction. The novel has " sensational" elements in it but I don't believe it is a true "sensation novel."

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly entertaining Victorian pulp novel. Not as well crafted as some of ME Braddon's other works but enjoyable nonetheless.