Daughter of Fortune (Spanish: Hija de la fortuna) is a novel by Isabel Allende. The original version in Spanish was published in 1998; an English translation was issued in 1999.
A newborn baby girl is found by the doorstep of the home of Jeremy Sommers and his spinster sister. Miss Rose Sommers names the baby Eliza and raises her as a proper young lady in the British colony in Valparaiso, Chile. Her culture lessons are complemented by cooking lessons from Mama Fresia, an indigenous Mapuche woman who works for the Sommers. When she reaches her teens, she falls in love with the dirt-poor Joaquin Andieta. But it is 1849, and like many other Chileans, Joaquin has heard about the gold in California and he leaves to seek his fortune in San Francisco. Eliza is determined to follow him, no matter what. With the help of an unlikely companion, Eliza is determined to go to San Francisco and find him.
A sequel, Portrait in Sepia, was published in 2002. It follows the life of Eliza's granddaughter Aurora del Valle, and provides the link between Daughter Of Fortune and Allende's first novel, The House of the Spirits
Tropes present in this work
- Action Girls: Plenty of women employ themselves as bounty hunters, cowgirls, and many other traditionally male professions. Eliza observes that it's bold women like herself, not dainty ladies, who thrive in San Francisco.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Babalu the Bad is the enforcer for Joe Bonecrusher, the madam of a traveling brothel during the California Gold Rush. He is tough enough to frighten an outlaw who tries to benefit from the brothel's services with just a few words. He is a Big Eater and thinks "Chile Boy" (the company's nickname for Eliza, since she is pulling a Sweet Polly Oliver) needs to toughen up. He even confides in Eliza that he used to be Babalu the Good, but now that he is known as Babalu the Bad, things go better for him. He also acts very protective toward Eliza and Tom, Joe's young ward.
- Delicate and Sickly: Lin, Tao's first wife. She is absolutely beautiful and even has the bound feet that Tao finds beautiful. However, she is sick and has a hard time moving around on her tiny feet. When she eventually dies, Tao hits the Despair Event Horizon.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Subverted. Tao agrees to help Eliza stowaway on his ship, unaware she is pregnant. When he goes down and finds her nearly bleeding out, he is frightened and makes extra efforts to make sure she survives.
- Doorstop Baby: How Eliza is found; wrapped inside a sweater and tucked inside a box left at the Sommers' house.
- Forty-Niner: Like many before him, Joaquin decides to try his luck as a miner in San Francisco, leaving everything behind including his sick mother and Eliza.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Mama Fresia learns about Eliza's pregnancy and makes arrangements for an abortion with a machi (a medicine woman). On the scheduled night, Eliza is on her way to Mama Fresia's hut when she bumps into her uncle John. He thinks she is acting suspiciously and manages to prevent from leaving the house, so the abortion doesn't happen.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being a spinster, Miss Rose writes erotic novels anonymously. Her brother Jeremy is completely ignorant of this, but her brother John helps her get them published.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Manuel Garcia, a.k.a. Three-Fingered Jack, and Joaquin Murrieta, an outlaw leader during the Gold Rush period. Joaquin ends up becoming a mythical figure thanks to Jacob Freemont, who makes up exciting stories and passes them off as true. As for Jack, he becomes Three-Fingered Jack thanks to Eliza's amputating his fingers to save him from dying from gangrene.
- Ah Toy, the very first, and most famous and well-paid, Chinese prostitute in San Francisco, appears as one of Tao's patients and later becomes his enemy.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold:
- Azucena agrees to help Tao with Eliza's care in exchange for jewelry. She ends up becoming fond of Eliza. When Captain Sommers bumps into her and recognizes the brooch, he demands to know what became of Eliza. Azucena lies on her behalf and says Eliza died at sea, figuring Eliza left home for a good reason.
- Out of all the girls who work for Joe, Esther fits this trope best. The town blacksmith, a devout Quaker, is besotted by her and ends up marrying her.
- Lurid Tales of Doom: The news pieces Jacob Todd/Freemont writes about outlaw Joaquín Murieta are utter fabrication. Jacob justifies himself with the notion that every community needs its mythological, larger than life figures.
- Meaningful Rename: Jacob Todd leaves Chile in shame but reinvents himself in San Francisco as a reporter under the name "Jacob Freemont".
- Only Shop in Town: Paulina del Valle's idea to transport fresh produce and other perishable foods packed in ice from Chile to San Francisco makes her the only one capable selling such products in the area. Even with the high markup, there is great demand.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Jacob is visited by "Elias Andieta" and despite the male attire, recognizes Eliza. He brings the news to the Sommers. Jeremy has trouble believing that Jacob (known for being a Con Man) saw Eliza, since the last time he saw her she was a kid, but Miss Rose points out that Eliza's face didn't change all that much.
- Platonic Prostitution:
- Esther, one of the prostitutes Eliza travels with has a client, a Quaker blacksmith who visits her just to talk, because he likes her that much. They end up getting married.
- Tao Chi'en used to visit prostitutes for their services. Later on, he visits one to obtain more information about Ah Toy's "sing song girls."
- Police Are Useless: As concerned as Tao is about the Chinese girls who are forced to work into brothels, he knows he cannot go to the authorities for this, because it is viewed as a "Chinese" people problem only.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Tao Chi'en is attacked in the street and has his queue forcibly cut off. He takes that as a sign to change from his traditional Chinese apparel to a more Westernized look of suit and tie. It shows others that he has access to areas that other Chinese do not. Eliza has trouble recognizing him when he shows up at Joe's establishment looking like this.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Twice. First, Tao Chi'en has Eliza dress in a spare set of his clothes and tells people she is his brother, and mute on top of it. The next time, Eliza decides to go off on her own to look for Joaquin. She cuts off her hair and puts on men's clothes. With some dirt on her face, she passes herself off as "Elias Andieta", a young man searching for "his" brother Joaquin. Her disguise works. She even comes across a muleteer she suspects is doing the same as she is.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The girls at Joe's brothel care for "Jack" after he shows up at their doorstep nearly dead from hypothermia. While under their roof, he tries to avail himself of their favors until Babalu puts a stop to it. One day, he disappears, leaving a bag of coffee full of gold in lieu of thanking them.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Jacob Todd follows Joaquín Andieta home. He is surprised to see the impoverished neighborhood where Joaquín lives (the streets are so filthy that Joaquín changes into a pair of galoshes to keep clean his only pair of good shoes).
