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Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
You will love this book if you enjoy horses and racing, witty society comedy, brave heroes, clever women, and a love that goes unspoken.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Courage earns a wild mare's trust
- Two Satanellas share a racing hope
- Friendly matchmaking conceals a private game
- Devotion cannot make affection equal
- A new friendship reveals another rival
- The race tests more than skill
- Secret help creates a new obligation
- Honor and love are different debts
- Kindness and pride pull lives apart
Who’s who
- Blanche DouglasCalled Satanella, a proud, dark horsewoman of London with a hidden past, who loves her black mare and wants to be truly good.
- Daisy WaltersA cool, cheerful Light Dragoon who buys the mare, stakes everything on one race and hardly notices who loves him.
- General St. JosephsA brave, courteous veteran past forty who adores Blanche and will give almost anything to win her trust.
- Mrs. LushingtonA pretty, scheming society wife who plays with other people's affections and wants to win every admirer she can.
- Norah MacormacA warm, high-spirited Irish girl who loves hunting and has her heart set on Daisy.
- Soldier BillDaisy's fearless friend and fellow officer, who rides any horse, keeps a badger and is shy only with ladies.
- DenisThe Roscommon farmer who bred the black mare and stands by her rider with open-handed loyalty.
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Satanella
by G. J. Whyte-Melville · 1872
A black mare no one can steer carries a penniless dragoon and a proud woman toward Punchestown.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Who is Miss Douglas?”
In short
What happens when a mare no one can steer meets a woman no one can read? In Satanella, a young Light Dragoon named Daisy Walters buys a wild black filly in Roscommon, trains her in secret, and enters her for the great handicap at Punchestown.
Satanella at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 55 min3 h 55 min fast, 5 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 70,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1872by G. J. Whyte-Melville
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wild Irish filly changes hands
The book opens in a yard in Roscommon, where a farmer called Denis stands over the wreck of a cart. His young black mare has kicked herself free of it. She will make a chaser, he says, and he means it.
A young officer arrives, John Walters, known in his regiment as Daisy. He is slim, blue-eyed and calm to the point of insolence. He mounts the filly in a poor old bridle and lets her run.
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Details
- First published
- 1872
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Whyte-Melville, G. J. Satanella. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/satanella.
Whyte-Melville, G. J. (2026). Satanella. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/satanella (Original work published 1872)
Whyte-Melville, G. J. Satanella. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/satanella.
@book{whytemelville2026satanella,
author = {Whyte-Melville, G. J.},
title = {Satanella},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/satanella},
note = {First published 1872}
}
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What is Satanella about?
It is about a young cavalry officer who buys and trains a wild black mare for a steeplechase, and about the proud woman, the loyal general and the society wife whose lives become tied to the horse and the race.
Why is the mare called Satanella?
Daisy renames the mare after Blanche Douglas, whom society calls Satanella for her dark looks and wild spirit. The name links the horse and the woman, and the two keep sharing a fate.
Where does the story take place?
It moves between London, with its parks, clubs and drawing rooms, and Ireland, with a farm in Roscommon, the castle at Cormac's-town and the racecourse at Punchestown, plus an English hunting country at the end.
The author
G. J. Whyte-Melville
1821–1878 · Scottish novelist
Scottish writer.
“Who is Miss Douglas?”
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