12 h 0 minAudiobook7 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
What happens when love pulls one way and dark powers pull the other?
In A Son of Perdition, Fergus Hume brings the pace of a crime writer to an occult romance of temptation and danger. Good and evil stand in conflict, while love faces the pull of darkness. The title points toward a person close to ruin, giving the story a question that keeps its edge: what does a fall from grace involve?
This Gothic tale belongs to an age fascinated by spiritualism, secret societies and forces hidden behind everyday life. Hume carries that curiosity into direct sentences and brisk chapters, keeping questions alive as the supernatural takes hold. The manners belong to their Edwardian setting, but the struggle at the heart of the book is plain: the contest between right and wrong.
What you’ll discover
- Love against darkness Explore a romance where affection and temptation pull in opposing directions.
- The lure of hidden powers Enter an occult world shaped by dark magic and the threat of ruin.
- A crime writer's pace Follow brisk chapters that bring Hume's mystery writing habits into supernatural fiction.
- An Edwardian atmosphere Encounter the manners of a period drawn to spiritualism and secret orders.
- Good and evil contend Consider the struggle between right and wrong through a tale of danger and temptation.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy spiritual mysteries, tales of reincarnation and old Cornish houses, or a love story shaped by questions of good and evil, destiny and free will.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A painter proposes to a girl who sees farther
- Two men at Tremore plan to claim her
- A lost inheritance sets the plot moving
- London brings Alice a stranger who feels familiar
- A doctor shows Douglas a vision of the past
- An engagement brings an invitation to Cornwall
- A host smiles while his house grows darker
- The village stirs with jealousy and warning
- What the story says about love and power
Who’s who
- Alice EnistorA pale, gentle clairvoyant who believes in reincarnation and refuses to marry for money or pity.
- Douglas MontroseA young Scottish poet who inherits a fortune and feels bound to Alice by a love older than this life.
- Korah EnistorAlice's proud, poor father, squire of Polwellin, who craves wealth and power and studies dark magic.
- Don Pablo NarvaezAn ancient, frail Spaniard and master of black magic who wants Alice as his wife and her gifts for himself.
- Dr. EbersteinA kindly physician and teacher of hidden wisdom who guides the lovers and helps the poor.
- Julian HardwickA big, honest, slow-thinking painter who loves Alice, then settles into a brotherly friendship with her.
- Amy BarrastJulian's chattering, fashionable sister who hosts Alice in London and plays matchmaker.
- Job TrevelA strong, hot-tempered fisherman, Alice's foster brother, who loves the beautiful Rose Penwin.
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- Audiobook
- 12 h 0 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- 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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Read and hear A Son of Perdition in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
A Son of Perdition
by Fergus Hume · 1912
A girl who sees fairies must choose between a dark magician and a doctor who heals through love.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What if the people you love today are people you have loved, or wronged, five thousand years ago? A Son of Perdition is an occult romance by Fergus Hume, set in Cornwall and London.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A painter proposes to a girl who sees farther
The story opens on a Cornish hillside at sunset. Julian Hardwick, a large and honest painter, asks Alice Enistor to marry him. She says no, kindly and without a trace of embarrassment.
Alice tells him that love cannot be forced, and that a true marriage joins two souls that sound the same note. She believes in reincarnation and says she has lived many lives before this one. Julian is no deep thinker, and he admits he loved her partly out of pity for her lonely home. She sees through that at once and offers friendship instead.
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What is A Son of Perdition about?
It follows Alice Enistor, a clairvoyant Cornish girl, and Douglas Montrose, a young poet. They are drawn together while a black magician and her father plot against them, and a wise doctor guides them through a trial rooted in an ancient past.
Who is the Son of Perdition in the book?
The phrase is used for a person who cuts himself off from love for the sake of self. Dr. Eberstein applies it to the magician Don Pablo Narvaez, and compares him to Judas Iscariot.
What does karma mean in A Son of Perdition?
It is the law of cause and effect. In the story, actions in earlier lives, especially in ancient Chaldea, shape the choices and debts the main characters face in the present.
The author
Fergus Hume
1859–1932 · English mystery novelist
Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a British novelist born in England. He grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, and moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 1885. He published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab in 1886. He returned to England in 1888 and continued writing crime novels, including The Green Mummy.
More by Fergus Hume
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