The Wandering Jew's Daughter

by Paul Féval père, Brian M. Stableford (Adapter)

"The rays of sunlight passing over Lotte's diaphanous beauty lacked the power to color her whiteness. 'May God have pity on us!' stammered the nurse. 'She was like that when I saw her for the first time.' In a voice as sweet as a lullaby, Lotte 'My Father is coming.' " "The Wandering Jew's Daughter anticipates later developments in popular fiction, featuring an invulnerable but flawed hero who stops bullets and blades with his body and gives succor to the wounded. The book adds another item to an already-extensive catalogue of Féval's anticipations of modern mythology."-Brian Stableford. Paul Féval (1816-1887) was the author of numerous popular fantastic and crime novels such as Vampire City, The Vampire Countess, Knightshade and John Devil. This edition includes an authoritative introduction and historical notes by renowned science fiction author Brian Stableford.

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2005

About the author

For works by this author's son, please see: Paul Féval fils.

Paul Henri Corentin Féval, père, (1816-1887) was the author of popular swashbucklers, such as Le Loup Blanc (1843) and the perennial best seller Le Bossu (1857). He also penned the seminal Knightshade, The Vampire Countess and Vampire City. His greatest claim to fame was as one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern detective novel. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs (1863-75), a criminal saga written over a twelve year period comprised of seven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Féval became a born again Christian, stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, sadly leaving the tale of the Black Coats uncompleted.

Reviews

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young child is saved from a burning building by the Wandering Jew ( who just happens to be passing by) and he and his family's fate is then linked with the famous immortal.
Especially after the Jew's daughter falls in love with the man the child grows up to be.

A great character in a really uneven book. So many amazing ideas come together to create a good, but not great book.

Feval's version of the Wandering Jew is a fascinating character, worthy of a series. Better than so many of the other, better known, melancholy immortals in fiction.
So many great story elements are introduced and then barely touched upon and then the story is over.
Fascinating and frustrating.

Very dry and the old school writing style takes some getting used to, but the great fantasy ideas Feval puts forth will keep your attention.

This book should be better known and it should have been a series.