The Fate of Fenella: A Novel

In 1892, twenty-four bestselling Victorian authors each wrote a chapter of this novel without reading what came before or after. The result is Fenella: a woman whose story careens from adultery to murder, from a sensational trial to a lunatic asylum, from mesmerism to revenge. Each writer imposed their own vision onto the narrative, creating a protagonist who lurches between moods, circumstances, and even identities with dizzying inconsistency. Some authors made Fenella sympathetic; others made her monstrous. The novel has no unified vision because it was never meant to have one. What emerged instead is a fascinating artifact of Victorian literary culture, a collaborative parlor game that somehow produced a genuinely addictive sensation novel. Arthur Conan Doyle contributes a detective chapter. Bram Stoker brings gothic dread. Others deliver melodrama, comedy, and social satire. The whole thing reads like a fever dream passed between friends, and it is utterly impossible to look away from.