What do you think?
Rate this book
Doctor Nikola #1
A Bid for Fortune or Dr Nikola's Vendetta
First and foremost, my name, age, description, and occupation, as they say in the Police Gazette . Richard Hatteras, at your service, commonly called Dick, of Thursday Island, North Queensland, pearler, copra merchant, bêche-de-mer and tortoiseshell dealer, and South Sea trader generally. Eight-and-twenty years of age, neither particularly good-looking nor, if some people are to be believed, particularly amiable, six feet two in my stockings, and forty-six inches round the chest; strong as a Hakodate wrestler, and perfectly willing at any moment to pay ten pounds sterling to the man who can put me on my back.
292 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1895
5 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Guy Newell Boothby
214 books13 followersGuy Newell Boothby was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Thomas Wilde Boothby, a Member of the South Australian House of Assembly. At six years of age he travelled with his mother to England and was educated at Lord Weymouth's Grammar School, Salisbury and at Christ's Hospital, London between 1874 and 1883.
When his education was over he returned to Australia where he eventually became secretary to the Mayor of Adelaide, Lewis Cohen. He was dissatisfied with his prospects in Adelaide and consequently he moved to Brisbane where he hoped his prospects would be better.
In the meantime he wrote a series of comic operas and plays, all of which were relatively unsuccessful.
He was of a roving disposition and at age 24 he travelled across Australia from north to south and later he travelled extensively in the East.
By 1894 he had married Rose Alice Bristowe and he and his wife moved to England in that year, which was notable for the publication of his first book, 'On the Wallaby, or, Through the East and Across Australia', an account of his and his brother's travels in Australia.
He was given advice and encouragement in his writing by none other than Rudyard Kipling and the year 1895 saw the publication of three novels, the most significant of which was 'A Bid for Fortune: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta'. This introduced probably his best known character, Dr Nikola, a ruthless, unscrupulous figure, with his ubiquitous large cat, who was to feature in five of his novels over the ensuing years. The book was an instant success and brought him a certain amount of fame. Dr Nikola had first appeared in serial form in the Windosr Magazine.
Over the next 10 years he was to write another 50 books and a further five were published posthumously, the last of which was 'In the Power of the Sultan' (1908). He was so prodigious that the story circulated that he spoke his tales into a phonograph, from which they were later transcribed by secretaries.
He is perhaps remembered also for introducing one of the early gentlemen crooks of literature when he featured Simon Carne in 'A Prince of Swindlers' in 1897. Carne had originally appeared in Pearson's Magazine and as a gentleman crook he pre-dated another of his kind in A J Raffles by two years.
Boothby's novels were often set in Australia (not surprisingly) and were classed as 'fast-paced thrillers' although some felt that although exciting in plot they were 'hastily and carelessly written'. In addition they were said to have been enjoyed by those who 'care for frank sensationalism carried to its furtherest limits'. Despite these comments his books were extremely popular and made him one of the most successful novelists of his day.
Boothby, who was also a successful breeder of prize dogs, died suddenly of pneumonia at his home, Winsley Lodge, Watkin Road, Bournemouth in 1905. He left a widow and three children.
Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2012
When his education was over he returned to Australia where he eventually became secretary to the Mayor of Adelaide, Lewis Cohen. He was dissatisfied with his prospects in Adelaide and consequently he moved to Brisbane where he hoped his prospects would be better.
In the meantime he wrote a series of comic operas and plays, all of which were relatively unsuccessful.
He was of a roving disposition and at age 24 he travelled across Australia from north to south and later he travelled extensively in the East.
By 1894 he had married Rose Alice Bristowe and he and his wife moved to England in that year, which was notable for the publication of his first book, 'On the Wallaby, or, Through the East and Across Australia', an account of his and his brother's travels in Australia.
He was given advice and encouragement in his writing by none other than Rudyard Kipling and the year 1895 saw the publication of three novels, the most significant of which was 'A Bid for Fortune: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta'. This introduced probably his best known character, Dr Nikola, a ruthless, unscrupulous figure, with his ubiquitous large cat, who was to feature in five of his novels over the ensuing years. The book was an instant success and brought him a certain amount of fame. Dr Nikola had first appeared in serial form in the Windosr Magazine.
Over the next 10 years he was to write another 50 books and a further five were published posthumously, the last of which was 'In the Power of the Sultan' (1908). He was so prodigious that the story circulated that he spoke his tales into a phonograph, from which they were later transcribed by secretaries.
He is perhaps remembered also for introducing one of the early gentlemen crooks of literature when he featured Simon Carne in 'A Prince of Swindlers' in 1897. Carne had originally appeared in Pearson's Magazine and as a gentleman crook he pre-dated another of his kind in A J Raffles by two years.
Boothby's novels were often set in Australia (not surprisingly) and were classed as 'fast-paced thrillers' although some felt that although exciting in plot they were 'hastily and carelessly written'. In addition they were said to have been enjoyed by those who 'care for frank sensationalism carried to its furtherest limits'. Despite these comments his books were extremely popular and made him one of the most successful novelists of his day.
Boothby, who was also a successful breeder of prize dogs, died suddenly of pneumonia at his home, Winsley Lodge, Watkin Road, Bournemouth in 1905. He left a widow and three children.
Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 20, 2016
Six days.
Six days to read 213 pages.
This should give you some inkling of what kind of book A Bid for Fortune is. There are essentially two main characters in this: Dr Nikola, a Napoleon of crime and very interesting character, and the protagonist, who was so mind-numbingly boring that I can't even remember his name.
Who do you think was in 95% of the book? And who do you think appeared in roughly 3 scenes?
My hope (as there are four more books in this series) is that this opening salvo is like the first Pink Panther movie--that's the movie made before Blake Edwards realized that Clouseau was the more interesting character and instead focused largely on David Niven for the majority of the film. Overall, though, this book was not worth reading.
Six days to read 213 pages.
This should give you some inkling of what kind of book A Bid for Fortune is. There are essentially two main characters in this: Dr Nikola, a Napoleon of crime and very interesting character, and the protagonist, who was so mind-numbingly boring that I can't even remember his name.
Who do you think was in 95% of the book? And who do you think appeared in roughly 3 scenes?
My hope (as there are four more books in this series) is that this opening salvo is like the first Pink Panther movie--that's the movie made before Blake Edwards realized that Clouseau was the more interesting character and instead focused largely on David Niven for the majority of the film. Overall, though, this book was not worth reading.
April 29, 2016
A romance/thriller/crime/adventure story. Our hero is a down to earth everyman australian who inexplicably switches to a Holmes level detective whenever the plot calls for it, and gets involved in the nefarious plans of Dr. Nikola through a sequence of badly plotted coincidences.
Our villain Dr. Nikola is a proto-bond villain complete with cat and suffering the usual personality defects. Absurdly convoluted plan, check! Inability to dispatch enemies, check!
Don't get me wrong there are things to like here. Theres some humour here and there, also the writing overall is pretty good in the technical sense. However while you as a reader can never tell what will happen next it doesn't feel like the author knew either.
The plot just wanders around aimlessly before the writer just seems to give up and retreat with the remains of his dignity.
An interesting historical piece for Bond or mesmerist villain fans.
Our villain Dr. Nikola is a proto-bond villain complete with cat and suffering the usual personality defects. Absurdly convoluted plan, check! Inability to dispatch enemies, check!
Don't get me wrong there are things to like here. Theres some humour here and there, also the writing overall is pretty good in the technical sense. However while you as a reader can never tell what will happen next it doesn't feel like the author knew either.
The plot just wanders around aimlessly before the writer just seems to give up and retreat with the remains of his dignity.
An interesting historical piece for Bond or mesmerist villain fans.
April 27, 2018
I quote Crow T. Robot “Is it just me, or did nothing happen?”
This book has been described as a “Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu” and to me that in itself was a recommendation. Say what you will, think what you like, but I think Sax Rohmer's stuff is a ton of fun. I had high hopes for Dr. Nikola to be a compelling supervillain with a big bag of tricks and an endless supply of goons and for the doctor to be especially devilish and use unwitting pawns in muder plots, etc. Maybe this stuff comes to pass in the sequels, but it's all pretty lacking in this first book!
The reader is first treated to a 3rd person prologue in which 3 men meet with Dr. Nikola in a private dining room at a restaurant and we get the idea that a big scheme is afoot. Chapter 1 starts and we get whiplash in a 180 in tone as our 1st person narrator and hero, Richard Hataras, introduces himself as a rough-and-tumble Australian sailor dude. He dumps out an origin story and some business about having a lot of money and being on vacation.
Dr. Nikola and his scheme is a long time in coming and when we finally reach it we can't help but feel that things are balanced as they should be. Dr. Nikola is a bigtime villain in his way, being cunning and continental and mysterious... although most of this comes down to looks since the guy really doesn't do a lot, beyond the odd mesmerism. Our narrator, however, is tough and outwits a lot of what is thrown at him too easily.
Basically, the problem is that the hero is too developed and successful and our villain is too vague and his plot doesn't result in a lot of real villainy. No death-traps, no hypnotic switchbacks, no weird animals, no Burmese stranglers, etc.
“A Bid for Fortune” is an influential book, and as such it is still interesting. Like many influential books, it has parts of what would become a successful recipe and it has mounds of potential. Now, that recipe is very incomplete and the potential is unfulfilled.
Much of the book is our hero rescuing people who Nikola's people have abducted and those people relating how they came to be abducted. All the actual detective work seems to be crammed into a single chapter, which rolls on like a bad joke.
Fu Manchu stayed largely in the shadows in his adventures too, but his influence was felt all over and when he acted people died, loot got stolen, and those who lived to tell were somehow marked. Oh, and Hataras is a muscly sailor man... but all the fighting he does (and there is not much) is glossed over. If our hero had had to work for it a little harder this might have been something like an Edgar Rice Burroughs book, but “A Bid for Fortune” is doomed to a kind of limbo between genres, never getting near enough to either to entertain.
I might try the second book, but only if it delivered more of the goods than this one did.
This book has been described as a “Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu” and to me that in itself was a recommendation. Say what you will, think what you like, but I think Sax Rohmer's stuff is a ton of fun. I had high hopes for Dr. Nikola to be a compelling supervillain with a big bag of tricks and an endless supply of goons and for the doctor to be especially devilish and use unwitting pawns in muder plots, etc. Maybe this stuff comes to pass in the sequels, but it's all pretty lacking in this first book!
The reader is first treated to a 3rd person prologue in which 3 men meet with Dr. Nikola in a private dining room at a restaurant and we get the idea that a big scheme is afoot. Chapter 1 starts and we get whiplash in a 180 in tone as our 1st person narrator and hero, Richard Hataras, introduces himself as a rough-and-tumble Australian sailor dude. He dumps out an origin story and some business about having a lot of money and being on vacation.
Dr. Nikola and his scheme is a long time in coming and when we finally reach it we can't help but feel that things are balanced as they should be. Dr. Nikola is a bigtime villain in his way, being cunning and continental and mysterious... although most of this comes down to looks since the guy really doesn't do a lot, beyond the odd mesmerism. Our narrator, however, is tough and outwits a lot of what is thrown at him too easily.
Basically, the problem is that the hero is too developed and successful and our villain is too vague and his plot doesn't result in a lot of real villainy. No death-traps, no hypnotic switchbacks, no weird animals, no Burmese stranglers, etc.
“A Bid for Fortune” is an influential book, and as such it is still interesting. Like many influential books, it has parts of what would become a successful recipe and it has mounds of potential. Now, that recipe is very incomplete and the potential is unfulfilled.
Much of the book is our hero rescuing people who Nikola's people have abducted and those people relating how they came to be abducted. All the actual detective work seems to be crammed into a single chapter, which rolls on like a bad joke.
Fu Manchu stayed largely in the shadows in his adventures too, but his influence was felt all over and when he acted people died, loot got stolen, and those who lived to tell were somehow marked. Oh, and Hataras is a muscly sailor man... but all the fighting he does (and there is not much) is glossed over. If our hero had had to work for it a little harder this might have been something like an Edgar Rice Burroughs book, but “A Bid for Fortune” is doomed to a kind of limbo between genres, never getting near enough to either to entertain.
I might try the second book, but only if it delivered more of the goods than this one did.
August 5, 2012
I never heard of Guy Boothby until randomly finding him on my Kindle (I liked the cover), but now consider me a fan. This is the first of five books concerning Dr. Nikola, evil mastermind. It was written shortly after Doyle's "Study in Scarlet" and you can see the influences. But this book is not a copycat or rip off of Sherlock Holmes. The main character, a Australian who travels to England, is witty, funny, interesting, alive, full of vigor and vim, and moral upstandingness. He, unwittingly (they are all unwitting participants, aren't they) gets involved in a complex mystery surrounding his fiancee's family, a Marquis, and a chinese stick about three inches long (it's true). The plot is fast paced and those spots that seem unimportant become so later on. This book would have been considered pulp, and may not have been has famous as others, but I loved it from front to back and can't wait to read the other 4 ones.
June 7, 2020
In the style of a Boy’s Own Magazine story of colonial derring-do, this novel is replete with late-nineteenth century assumptions about race and gender. The novel is driven by the narrative rather than by character or social or political thought. Hatteras, the Australian pearler turned sleuth, is more developed than Phyllis, his betrothed, a more conventional young Victorian gentlewoman. Between the two, however, we have a hero represented as a fine specimen of Victorian manliness, and a heroine most respectable and feminine. The most interesting character is the courtly but dangerous Dr Nikola, and his black cat, who has set his sights on retrieving a Chinese totem of inestimable value. While the novel is not elegantly written and offers no critique of colonial or imperial culture, it does provide, through its casual assertion of commonplace attitudes, a useful window into the period.
February 21, 2021
Boothby is no Edgar Wallace or Sax Rohmer but this story has enough resonance with them that I enjoyed it a lot. I'm looking forward to trying more of his books.
September 10, 2009
With a nod towards Conan-Doyle’s Moriarty, Boothby’s book presents Dr Nikola, a master villain with grand plans and the world in the palm of his hand. A mysterious and supernatural figure whose control over other men’s lives is spectacular.
The Preface seems to promise a book which places the villain right at the centre of the action, making him the character we follow – something that would be very interesting and fairly unique to read. However, we are soon introduced to young adventurer Richard Hatteras who is the hero of the piece – a bog-standard fist-flying character, who always clings on one step behind the antagonist. Nikola never truly disappears out of sight though, with all action a consequence of his plans.
Appearing only eight years after ‘A Study in Scarlet’, it seems more modern than Holmes – indeed Buchan and Wheatley are the writers it brought to mind. It’s a fun read though, and since this is the first of a series I imagine I will track down the others.
The Preface seems to promise a book which places the villain right at the centre of the action, making him the character we follow – something that would be very interesting and fairly unique to read. However, we are soon introduced to young adventurer Richard Hatteras who is the hero of the piece – a bog-standard fist-flying character, who always clings on one step behind the antagonist. Nikola never truly disappears out of sight though, with all action a consequence of his plans.
Appearing only eight years after ‘A Study in Scarlet’, it seems more modern than Holmes – indeed Buchan and Wheatley are the writers it brought to mind. It’s a fun read though, and since this is the first of a series I imagine I will track down the others.
August 10, 2017
About what I should have expected from 19th century Australian pulp fiction but, the idea of an erudite, cosmopolitan, amoral, criminal mastermind, who is never without his beloved cat, was hard to resist. I suppose, the narrator's continual casual racism shouldn't be surprising in a work of this period but, it was really grating and made it hard to finish the story. Would have liked much more of Dr. Nikola himself (and cat) and much less of everyone else.
June 30, 2018
Published in 1895, A Bid for Fortune (aka Dr Nikola's Vendetta) is a thriller featuring the first of many appearances by evil genius Dr Nikola. The convoluted plot is daft as a brush, with way too many coincidences in order to give the good guy some chance of winning I can't decide whether the good guy is just lucky, or whether Dr Nikola lets him win small victories just to play with him, but hey, it all jogs along with style and is great fun.
January 19, 2017
Awful pacing, awful resolution. I expected a conflict between the burly manly hero and the manipulative mesmerist, but all I got was a bunch of scenes where characters recap off-screen action to each other.
November 28, 2021
A Bid for Fortune centres around the mysterious Dr. Nikola who has psychical powers as he plots and searches for an object that we only come to learn about at the end of the book. The story is written from the perspective of Mr. Hatteras, an Australian who innocently becomes embroiled in a dangerous plot involving the conniving Dr. Nikola in which their paths always seem to cross under the most unusual circumstances. Part crime novel (reminds me of Sherlock Holmes), part action adventure, with a touch of occult fiction- this is a slow burn wild goose chase that is written with elegance and suspense. Sure, the story feels a bit slow paced at times, but I was invested in the story from the beginning chapter where Dr. Nikola hosts a mysterious meeting at a hotel, assigning tasks to a group of unassuming individuals that sets the stage for the dangerous plot about to begin.
It was not the most thrilling Victorian novel I've read, but every character seemed suspicious and it felt as though a dark sinister subplot was trying to breakthrough the surface of this crime novel.
It was not the most thrilling Victorian novel I've read, but every character seemed suspicious and it felt as though a dark sinister subplot was trying to breakthrough the surface of this crime novel.
September 29, 2020
(Read in the Gutenberg Australia transcription, which has few typos.)
Very fast read, because you can skip half a page at a time and still follow the plot. Narrator is surprisingly generic, given his background; and the book gives rich descriptions of people and places and things. (A little too rich: conversations go on forever, and I quickly found myself skipping the interminable descriptions of places. Sorry, Boothby.) Plot, however, goes all over the place; there's no real sense that Boothby had any idea where he was going here. And, try as Boothby might, Dr. Nikola is no Moriarty. There are more in the series, but the tropes have been so overused, Nikola comes off as a bit ridiculous, rather than chilling. I'm probably going to toddle off and find something more engaging to read.
Very fast read, because you can skip half a page at a time and still follow the plot. Narrator is surprisingly generic, given his background; and the book gives rich descriptions of people and places and things. (A little too rich: conversations go on forever, and I quickly found myself skipping the interminable descriptions of places. Sorry, Boothby.) Plot, however, goes all over the place; there's no real sense that Boothby had any idea where he was going here. And, try as Boothby might, Dr. Nikola is no Moriarty. There are more in the series, but the tropes have been so overused, Nikola comes off as a bit ridiculous, rather than chilling. I'm probably going to toddle off and find something more engaging to read.
July 24, 2024
I'll start by saying I don't recommend this book. Why?
It's dull. There's plenty of casual racism, though not as much as in "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu". It should have taken perhaps a day to read and instead took me two weeks. It also makes an obnoxious habit of having the narrator and protagonist, Richard Hatteras, narrate other character's exact recollections of things that happened offscreen. It's very easy to tell this originated as a serial novel in some magazine and a good editor would have cut a lot of it out and made it even shorter.
The book others minorities left and right, and it's clearly written from a colonial mindset. The only interesting character in the novel, Dr. Nikola himself, appears in it far too infrequently to carry the book. His seemingly magical abilities go unexplained, but I was too bored by this to be actively willing to start reading the remaining five or so books to find out more.
It's dull. There's plenty of casual racism, though not as much as in "The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu". It should have taken perhaps a day to read and instead took me two weeks. It also makes an obnoxious habit of having the narrator and protagonist, Richard Hatteras, narrate other character's exact recollections of things that happened offscreen. It's very easy to tell this originated as a serial novel in some magazine and a good editor would have cut a lot of it out and made it even shorter.
The book others minorities left and right, and it's clearly written from a colonial mindset. The only interesting character in the novel, Dr. Nikola himself, appears in it far too infrequently to carry the book. His seemingly magical abilities go unexplained, but I was too bored by this to be actively willing to start reading the remaining five or so books to find out more.
July 20, 2020
I recently finished the Phryne Fisher historical mystery series, which had repeated references to the Dr. Nikola books by Guy Boothby. I was intrigued since I had never heard of the Australian author. This is the first of five novels about criminal mastermind Nikola and I enjoyed it tremendously. At times it lapses into typical Victorian pedantry, and relies too much on foreshadowing, but I found it remarkably accessible. I am curious if Boothby was an influence on Sax Rohmer’s creation of Fu Manchu. I look forward to the further machinations of the evil Dr. Nikola. Recommended!
September 20, 2021
Taken on its own terms, this is an enjoyable enough piece of lightweight entertainment, an example of airplane reading from the days before airplanes. Others have already noted the evil mastermind Dr. Nikola's reseemblance to Rohmer's Fu Manchu, though thankfully without the racist stereotyping or thirst for unnecessary bloodshed. The book's big drawback is the string of unlikely coincidences that even in a work of this sort is simply too much to accept.
May 2, 2022
2.5 stars rounded up. Some absolutely awful anti-asian racism towards the end of this book. Also, for a criminal mastermind, I don't know why Dr Nicola didn't insist that false names and addresses would be supplied by his henchmen to better obscure their trail. Mr Boothby loses track of his own twists and turns a little bit. Anyway, all's well that ends well - as several characters say - but that's quite enough of Dr Nicola & Mr Boothby for me.
March 1, 2021
A great adventure novel. Lots of fun and action. I'd give it 5 stars if not for the hero that is "James Bond" perfect. But the villain (Dr. Nikola) is captivating, getting even better in the books that follow.
December 11, 2018
It aged, but it's nice to read an Australian "classic".
Light and fast paced
Light and fast paced
Want to read
March 12, 2022An evil mastermind gathers people to assist him, whilst stroking his car on his lap....Blofeld? No, this is the prologue to this 1895 novel.
June 27, 2012
Pulpus britannicus ssp. latevictoriana. Pompous and preposterous, with stiff, flat characters who get ready to dash off to save the day/girl/fortune but then sit down to a posh meal and speak stiffly at each other for a bit... and ludicrous coincidences, sudden turns of fortune, a plodding, schoolboyish morality, and generally lots of tedious flaws. I suppose really what I'm saying is that this kind of adventure pulp hadn't found its stride yet, in 1895 or whatever it was. There is potential in Dr Nikola as an evil genius (?) with global influence and enormous plans, so I shall give the second in the series a go sometime when my critical faculties aren't very sharp.
July 28, 2014
A Bid For Fortune is quite a novel. It is unnecessarily complicated, filled with villainous people chasing objects that the reader never really has explained, and, in the last stretch, wildly politically incorrect. However, it is also a little dry, making for a bad combination. I wasn't really bored by this, and I appreciated how tidily Boothby tied everything up in the end, especially considering how loopy it all is before that point. Still, it dragged more than it should have, and as outlandish as the story was, the characters, or at least the good guys, were fairly boring. I don't feel like it was a waste to read this, but I don't think I'll read.the rest of the series.
August 7, 2009
Excellent nostalgia read. Dr. Nikola is arguably the predecessor of Sax Rohmer's Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu. Under no circumstances to be confused with the lederhosen-clad Dr. Ricola®, famous for gallivanting about the Swiss Alps soothing sore throats.
March 2, 2013
Wanders a bit at the beginning, but once it gets to the point the story unwraps in a fast and furious manner. Even the evil ner-do-wells are complete gentlemen it seems. Thoroughly enjoyable. I'll have to read more.
April 25, 2012
Great book!! First in the Dr. Nikola series. Great villain!
December 7, 2013
A wonderful old fashioned mystery story.
January 1, 2014
A swashbuckling adventure story written with a definite Australian narrator! Entertaining novel. A sinister nineteenth century villain in Dr Nikola with cat!
January 14, 2016
A short, fun mystery set between Australia and England. The main character is a seafarer, so marine experiences and metaphors abound.
December 30, 2022
eye read about 2021
Want to read
October 6, 2018Synopsis: Nikola may be the first modern super villain: hypnotism, mind control, telepathy, and more.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews