Character of fine upbringing goes wrong

by HOLLY SCHREIBER
For The Post

A dry, purely factually-based history text will never excite readers when there are historically-based novels complete with suspense and rich character journeys. So let fortune be the guide - especially in the form of Isabel Allende's 1999 bestseller Daughter of Fortune.

Based on the tale of a young girl who deserts her home full of riches and prosperity for a foreign land mad with "gold fever," Allende's novel has the perfect combination of romance, sacrifices, adversaries and self-realization.

Set in Valparaiso, Chile, Rose Sommers and her two brothers, John and Jeremy, discover a basket holding a baby girl on their doorstep the morning of March 15, 1832. Rose, who has vowed never to marry (and therefore never have children of her own), insists that she and her brothers adopt the child as their own. And so they do, naming her Eliza. Eliza, who is noticeably Chilean, and the Sommers, who are English, have distinct feature differences.

But the Sommers good name within Valparaiso diminishes any unusual queries about Eliza's existence, and the community members accept her as the Sommers' adopted daughter.

Now 16, Eliza has grown under the influence of Rose. She has received the best education, wears the finest clothes, plays superb piano and has all the other traits of a respectable Chilean lady. The one thing left is to find her a well-to-do suitor, but Eliza has her eyes on a Chilean delivery boy, Joaquin Andieta.

Eliza and Joaquin begin a love affair that surfaces every evening in the sewing room, until he informs her that he is leaving for a place called California in search of gold and wealth. Eliza says her farewells and within only a few weeks after his departure she discovers he has left something behind - a child growing in her belly.

Young, pregnant and owning only a few jewels for money, Eliza finds her way onto a ship headed for California. Allende's prose is delicate yet sharp, never deviating from the powerful linguistic images that surrounded the confusion, loneliness and often brutal and heartless greediness of the Gold Rush.

Daughter of Fortune will not only leave readers more knowledgeable about events surrounding the Gold Rush, but will add a new dimension of emotions to their souls. And just like any fortune, this novel pays off in numerous ways.