Footsteps of Fate
1890
On a snowy London night, Frank Westhove encounters his childhood friend Bertie - a ruined man living on the streets. Moved by nostalgia and compassion, Frank brings the frail vagabond into his comfortable home, hoping to restore his old friend. But Bertie's presence awakens something dangerous. As Bertie basks in Frank's warmth and wealth, gratitude curdles into envy, and Frank's generous nature becomes his own undoing. When Bertie sets his sights on destroying Frank's engagement to the innocent Eva, the novel reveals its true devastating nature: a psychological excavation of how kindness can breed resentment, how help can become harm, and how fate operates through our most vulnerable impulses. Couperus writes with unsettling precision about the way dependency corrupts, how class divides even the closest souls, and the terrifying ease with which our best intentions lead to ruin.
