Resumen
Resumen de Satanella
Para quién es
Readers who love horses, hunting and racing scenes, and anyone who enjoys Victorian society comedy with a heart, sharp gossip, a love triangle and a spirited heroine to follow from Mayfair to the Irish hills.
De qué trata este libro
Satanella is a Victorian novel by G. J. Whyte-Melville, who died in 1878. He wrote about the hunting field and the London season because he knew both well, and the book moves between them with a sportsman's eye and a gossip's tongue. It is built around a young black mare, a dashing cavalry officer, a dark-eyed woman who shares the mare's name, and a steeplechase in Ireland that decides several fortunes at once.
You meet John Walters, called Daisy, a light dragoon with perfect nerve and very little money. You meet Blanche Douglas, whom London nicknames Satanella, a rider and a mystery whose past nobody can pin down. You meet General St. Josephs, a veteran of the Crimea and the Mutiny, who loses his head over her. And you meet Mrs. Lushington, a chaperone who treats other people's hearts as a game of skill.
The book gives you horses, racecourses, drawing rooms and country houses, all told with dry humour and real feeling. It asks what a person owes to a friend, to a lover and to honour. Let us begin where the mare begins, in a muddy Irish farmyard, with a broken cart and a man who knows a bargain when he sees one.
En este resumen
- 1A mare nobody can steerFree
- 2A woman called Satanella
- 3Daisy's secret plan and a night at the farce
- 4Bets, trial gallops and a general's hope
- 5Mrs. Lushington plays her game
- 6Across the Channel to Cormac's-town
- 7The great race at Punchestown
- 8Ruin, hiding and a favour asked
- 9What the story is really about
- 10How the story is told
Idea clave 1 de 10
A mare nobody can steer
The story opens in Ireland with a farmer in a frieze coat staring at the wreck of his cart. A young black mare has kicked it to pieces and stands trembling, with a ragged fourteen-year-old boy named Patsy at her head. The farmer, whose name is Denis, is disgusted for a moment, then declares that she will make a chaser anyway. He sees a fortune in her jumping.
Just then a young officer arrives. He is John Walters of the Light Dragoons, known to his regiment as Daisy. He is slim, blue-eyed, neat and cheerful, with a confidence that nothing seems able to shake. He cannot see an empty saddle without wanting to fill it, so he swings up onto the mare while she is still sore from her fight with the cart.
She bolts across the open upland. Daisy has no way to stop her in a plain snaffle, but he has a cool head and a perfect seat. He simply aims her at the highest bank in sight, and she takes it like a goat. Fence after fence follows, and it takes a long Irish mile before she gives in to the bit in a potato field.
By the time they ride home, rider and horse understand each other. She clears a four-and-a-half-foot wall around the stable yard without effort, and Denis promptly adds fifty to her price. He also pours out her grand pedigree, with great ancestors on every side. His one promise is that there is only one thing she will not do for her new owner, which is back a bill.
The chapter sets the tone for the whole book. The mare is fast, bold and hard to steer, a creature that cannot be forced but can be won. Patsy weeps when she is led away, because she has rubbed her nose against him and trusted him. The reader learns that the right hands, not strong ones, are what she needs. That is also a clue to how the book will treat its people.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Satanella
What is Satanella by Whyte-Melville about?
It follows a young cavalry officer, a mysterious horsewoman and an old general, all drawn together by a fast black mare and a steeplechase at Punchestown, with love, rivalry and debt woven through.
Why is the heroine called Satanella?
London society gives Blanche Douglas the nickname after her dark looks, proud manner and unknown past. Daisy later renames his black mare the same thing, so woman and horse share the name.
Is Satanella a true story?
No, it is a novel from the Victorian period by G. J. Whyte-Melville, who died in 1878. It draws on real places, such as London's parks and the Punchestown races in Ireland, and on the author's sporting world.
Do you need to know about horses to enjoy it?
Not at all. The racing and hunting scenes are told clearly and with excitement, and the story rests on people, their loves and their choices, so any reader can follow along easily.
Who are the main characters in Satanella?
They are Daisy Walters, a dashing light dragoon, Blanche Douglas, General St. Josephs, the social schemer Mrs. Lushington, Soldier Bill and the Irish girl Norah Macormac, plus the black mare herself.