The Fate of Fenella was an experiment in consecutive novel writing inspired by J. S. Wood and published in his magazine The Gentlewoman in twenty-four parts between 1891 and 1892. When first published in book form its title was The Fate of Fenella: by Twenty-four Authors.
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The novel first appeared as a twenty-four part serial in J. S. Wood's weekly magazine, The Gentlewoman , in 1891 and 1892. Each of the authors wrote one chapter and passed the novel on to the next person in line. The odd-numbered chapters were written by women, and the even-numbered chapters by men, thus alternating in developing the narrative [1] – although one of the men in the list, "Frank Danby", was in fact a woman. Authors included Bram Stoker, Mrs. Trollope and Arthur Conan Doyle. The completed work was republished as a three-volume novel by Hutchinson & Co. of London in May 1892, [2] with a review noting the absence of a controlling mind. [1]
The following appeared in The Spectator in May 1892. [1]
The result has been a fairly readable novel, that tells an extremely silly story. The plot is ridiculous; the characters waver and change from chapter to chapter; but there are occasionally strong situations, and scraps of fairly good dialogue. On the whole, however, the book is an amusing one; more amusing still when the reader remembers the conditions under which it has been written, and the difficulties with which the separate authors had to contend. [1]
The quotation marks in some chapter titles are as shown in the book (from the "cheap" edition of August 1892 by J. S. Wood)
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1892.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1890.
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