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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.
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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