Plot summary
The eponymous heroine, Isabel Thorne, is a young woman, half British, half Italian, who works for the Italian Secret Service. She has been commissioned to bring about the signing of a secret contract, in the capital of the enemy, by representatives of all countries involved, both European and American. Her brother, an inventor, has devised a secret weapon by which missiles can be fired from submarines (see also depth charge) which will, it is hoped, secure military domination over the rest of the world.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service, who have been alerted, are assigned to prevent the signing of this "Latin compact" and bring to justice those involved who have no diplomatic immunity. One young representative named Grimm, however, although absolutely loyal to his government, falls in love with the beautiful foreign agent, Thorne.
In the end Thorne, who reciprocates her admirer's love, becomes estranged from her employer, the Italian government, because she does not want Grimm, who has been captured by the conspirators and knows all their secrets, to be murdered. Stripped of all her power and possessions, she unites with him at the end of the novel, no longer elusive.
Elusive Isabel is now in the public domain.
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts, which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author." In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize. President Barack Obama awarded her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"Sleeping Beauty", or "Little Briar Rose", also titled in English as "The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods", is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed to sleep for a hundred years by an evil fairy, to be awakened by a handsome prince at the end of them. The good fairy, realizing that the princess would be frightened if alone when she awakens, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace asleep, to awaken when the princess does.
Democracy: An American Novel is a political novel written by Henry Brooks Adams and published anonymously in 1880. Only after the writer's death in 1918 did his publisher reveal Adams's authorship although, upon publication, the novel had immediately become popular. Contemporaneous conjecture placed the book under the joint authorship of Clarence King, John Hay and Henry Adams and their spouses who lived side by side on H street in Washington, D.C. and were collectively sometimes called "the Five of Hearts."
"Bluebeard" is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors. "The White Dove", "The Robber Bridegroom" and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard". The notoriety of the tale is such that Merriam-Webster gives the word "Bluebeard" the definition of "a man who marries and kills one wife after another". The verb "bluebearding" has even appeared as a way to describe the crime of either killing a series of women, or seducing and abandoning a series of women.
"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. The Brothers Grimm's story developed from the French literary fairy tale of Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force (1698).
Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard is a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana". It was originally published serially in monthly instalments of T.P.'s Weekly.
Stravaganza is a series of novels written by children's author Mary Hoffman. The books are set alternatively between Islington, an area of London, England, and various cities in Talia, an alternate version of Renaissance Italy.
The House of the Spirits is the debut novel of Isabel Allende. The novel was rejected by several Spanish-language publishers before being published in Buenos Aires in 1982. It became an instant best-seller, was critically acclaimed, and catapulted Allende to literary stardom. The novel was named Best Novel of the Year in Chile in 1982, and Allende received the country's Panorama Literario award. The House of the Spirits has been translated into over 20 languages.
Blood and Gold (2001) is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the eighth book in her Vampire Chronicles series.
The Italian Girl is a 1964 novel by Iris Murdoch.
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope is the third novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, between Barchester Towers and Framley Parsonage. The idea of the plot was suggested to Trollope by his brother Thomas. Though set in Barsetshire, Barchester and its familiar residents have little part in the narrative. Most of the narrative is based in the village of Greshamsbury, the seat of squire John Newbold Gresham, of an old and respected family, and his wife Lady Arabella, sister of the Earl de Courcy. They have a son and several daughters.
Zorro is a 2005 novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende. Its subject is the American pulp hero Diego de la Vega, better known as El Zorro. He first appeared as a character in Johnston McCulley's novella The Curse of Capistrano (1919). His character and adventures have also been adapted for an American TV series, other books, and cartoon series.
Daughter of Fortune is a novel by Isabel Allende, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in February 2000. It was published first in Spanish by Plaza & Janés in 1998. Isabel Allende says "of her female protagonist in Daughter of Fortune, Eliza, that she might well represent who the author might have been in another life." "Allende spent seven years of research on this, her fifth novel, which she says is a story of a young woman's search for self-knowledge." "Allende also believes that the novel reflects her own struggle to define the role of feminism in her life." Allende also wrote a sequel to Daughter of Fortune entitled Portrait in Sepia which follows Eliza Sommers' granddaughter.
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Macy Alexander is a fictional character in the American soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. Bobbie Eakes played the role from April 1989 to July 2000, briefly in August 2001, and again from December 2002 to October 2003. Macy was introduced as the daughter of Sally Spectra, with many of her storylines revolving around her relationship with Thorne Forrester, whom she has been married to three times. Other storylines have revolved around her relationships with both her paternal and maternal family, and various other men, including Grant Chambers, Lorenzo Barelli and Deacon Sharpe.
Annabella Avery Thorne is an American actress, model, singer, and writer. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Imagen Award, a Shorty Award, a Teen Choice Award and three Young Artist Awards.
Por Amor is a Brazilian telenovela created by Manoel Carlos, starring Regina Duarte and Gabriela Duarte in the main roles. It replaced A Indomada and preceded Torre de Babel, and was the 55th telenovela to be aired by TV Globo.
Chains, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the first novel in the Seeds of America trilogy, a series of historical fiction novels, and was first published in the United States on October 21, 2008. The trilogy follows the story of thirteen-year-old Isabel, an African-American slave fighting for her and her younger sister's freedom during the American Revolutionary War. Chains takes place mainly in New York City in 1776 into 1777, at a time when slavery was legal and common in the colonies. The book is followed by sequels Forge (2010) and Ashes (2016).
Rich People Problems is a satirical 2017 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. It is the third and final novel in Kwan's "Crazy Rich..." trilogy that looks at the rich and powerful families of Singapore. It was preceded by the bestsellers of Crazy Rich Asians in 2013 and China Rich Girlfriend in 2015.
