8 h 33 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
At Punchestown, the chase draws riders, rivals and lovers onto the same ground.
In Satanella, G. J. Whyte-Melville brings love and rivalry into the sporting world of Victorian society. The setting is Punchestown, the Irish steeplechase meeting where horses, riders and fashionable spectators gather each spring. Here, the excitement of competition shares the stage with romance, manners and gossip.
The chase carries its own risks: banks, ditches and stone walls stand across open country. Away from the course, romance and competition mingle in drawing rooms and at the rails. Whyte-Melville knows this world from the saddle, and his humour, ease and affection for country life shape the telling.
What you’ll discover
- The thrill of Punchestown Enter a sporting gathering where horses, riders and spectators make the racecourse a social stage.
- Love alongside rivalry Follow a romance in which affection and competition occupy the same closely watched world.
- Country sport close up Feel the pull of the chase across banks, ditches and stone walls.
- Manners worth watching Explore Victorian social life through its fashions, gossip and the public setting of courtship.
- A sporting storyteller's humour Enjoy Whyte-Melville's easy voice, warm with humour and a love of country life.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A mare nobody can steer
- A woman called Satanella
- Daisy's secret plan and a night at the farce
- Bets, trial gallops and a general's hope
- Mrs. Lushington plays her game
- Across the Channel to Cormac's-town
- The great race at Punchestown
- Ruin, hiding and a favour asked
- What the story is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Daisy WaltersA cheerful, fearless light dragoon and fine horseman, deep in debt, who stakes everything on one race at Punchestown.
- Blanche DouglasA proud, dark-eyed horsewoman nicknamed Satanella, whose past nobody knows and whose heart is harder to read than her face.
- General St. JosephsA decorated veteran over forty who loves Blanche honestly and patiently, and will give her almost anything.
- Mrs. LushingtonA pretty, clever society matron and chaperone who loves to meddle in other people's romances.
- Soldier BillDaisy's loyal, fearless fellow officer, shy with ladies and happiest on a horse, who helps his friend out of trouble.
- Norah MacormacLively, warm-hearted Irish girl who loves hunting and dreams of a rider with a good seat and a kind heart.
- DenisThe Roscommon farmer who bred the black mare and cheers on her rider with boundless Irish generosity.
- Lady Mary MacormacNorah's rosy, white-haired mother, a hospitable earl's daughter who watches her daughter's heart anxiously.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 33 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Satanella
by G. J. Whyte-Melville · 1872
A black mare no one can steer carries a soldier, a proud woman and an old general toward Punchestown.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
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