Book Information:Goodwin, D. (2014). The Fortune Hunter. New York, NY. St. Martin's Press.
ISBN: 978-1-250-04389-4
Summary: The Fortune Hunter is the story of a Victorian love triangle in 1875. Elizabeth or "Sisi" is the illustrious Empress of Austria who is famed for her mystery and goddess-like looks. She is bored and in an unhappy marriage with Emperor Franz Joseph and seeks to lift her spirits by visiting England for hunting season. Enter Captain Bay Middleton, one of England's finest horsemen, although he bears the reputation of being a penniless ladies' man, a "Fortune hunter". Bay finds himself falling for the lovely and quirky heiress, Charlotte Baird and they soon become engaged. Sisi enlists Bay to be her pilot and guide her during the hunting season and he becomes absolutely enthralled by her beauty and their shared passion for riding and horses. Will Bay pursue a woman who is leagues beyond his reach and jeopardize his engagement?
Characteristics of Historical Fiction:
- Plenty of accurate historical detail relating to the setting, characters and/or events.
The Fortune Hunter should not be looked to as a source for history in chronological order, however Goodwin based her story on the life of many real people. Nearly all of the characters in this book were real and what was unknown about some of those characters, Goodwin supplied her own twist to their personalities to suit the story. Historical events that happened to Sisi in particular did happen, but not in the order that's described in the book. - Storyline focuses on a particular historical event or time period, or follow the life of a character (real or fictional).
This book follows the life of many real people during the Victorian Era, although their personalities may not follow the behaviors of who that person actually was - the most the author knew about was the life of Sisi. - Characters, regardless of real or fiction are depicted to fit the times, and their actions are shaped by the time period.
Since Goodwin didn't know much about many of the other characters outside of Sisi and Bay Middleton, she had to give some other key characters in their life, such as Bay's fiance, Charlotte Baird, traits and hobbies to fit the time period. Photography was becoming a new hobby, and so Charlotte is very passionate about photography and art. - Thick book, leisure pace. These take time to read.
This book is 475 pages and the pace was pretty slow. It wasn't a completely bad read, but if I'm honest, I preferred other historical fictions over this one. The plot is purely character driven and some of the characters weren't strong enough to hold everything together. - Language, dialect, and style may take favor over grammatically correct for a more 'authentic' style.
Since this is Victorian England the dialog and writing style is definitely more refined and fitting for the time period and shouldn't bother most readers. There are some books that I've read before where the dialect and misspelling of words for authenticity got in the way of enjoying the read for me.
Read-A-Likes
Twain's End by Lynn Cullen
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
A Triple Knot by Emma Campion
The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn
Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb
Saricks, J. G. (2009). The Reader's Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL. American Library Association.
Your plot summary was so convincing and intriguing that I'm glad you also included your honest thoughts on the novel--the caveat of the weak characterization. Going on your summary alone I think I'd have sought this book out right away!
ReplyDeleteAvery,
DeleteI know. What really threw me off is that Sisi isn't even introduced in the book until almost a third of the way through. So I ended up forgetting she was supposed to be the main character because the book focuses so much on Charlotte Baird and then Bay Middleton. It switches POV between those three characters once Sisi is eventually brought into the story.
Fantastic job on your annotation. This is one that I've been meaning to read for ages. You did a great job with your summary and appeals. Full points!
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