Jezebel’s Daughter

Description

Social history and social criticism mix with an eventful, action-packed story in Jezebel’s Daughter by Wilkie Collins.

The novel starts with the death of a man, a successful entrepreneur called Mr. Wagner whose business in England and Germany is inherited by his wife. The lady has strong and unusual ideas about how to conduct business and how to handle certain aspects of life – she, first of all, wants to give the women who work in her company the same rights and the same tasks as men’s and she is also convinced that kindness can cure madness. Therefore, she brings a dangerous man previously treated in an asylum to live in her house.

The reader is introduced to some German characters as well, the English lady’s business partners and their families. One of them is faced with serious family problems when he refuses to allow his son to marry a woman whose mother is considered by many to be evil and is suspected to have stolen poisons from his former husband after the man died.

The girl’s mother has debts to pay, so she wants the marriage between her daughter and the rich businessman’s son to take place as soon as possible. When the wedding is cancelled, she decides to start using the poisons she retrieved from her dead husband’s drawer. She eventually poisons Mrs. Wagner, but the madman saved by the businesswoman gets the antidote to the poison and she comes back to life. All’s well that ends well and the novel ends happily – the two young lovers get married and the lunatic stays with Mrs. Wagner.

Though the story takes some melodramatic turns, it doesn’t stop to engage the reader’s attention for a second. The novel is populated by extraordinary characters, from the progressive Mrs. Wagner to the young lovers, from the madman with a mysterious past to the evil mother – an excellent read for anyone looking for a suspenseful and well-written novel.
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