Books & Reviews Archive

The book charts the emotional and existential journey of a young girl, Jane. An orphan, she lives first with her aunt, who later sends her to a grim, austere school where she navigates adolescence to become a young teacher. On her own initiative, she secures a position as a governess to a young girl in the household of a wealthy landowner. He is a restless figure, constantly traveling, self-absorbed and eccentric. Meanwhile, Jane has grown into an unexceptional-looking, diminutive, and seemingly fragile young woman, yet one possessed of a formidable strength of character. A mutual attraction develops between Jane and the wealthy landowner, who asks for her hand in marriage. At the wedding, however, it is revealed that the man is already married to a madwoman. Jane then refuses any compromise and flees penniless into the countryside. She is taken in at the home of a clergyman and his two sisters, becoming a schoolmistress in a school for the poor. The clergyman, struck by Jane’s resolve and abilities, asks her to become his wife and accompany him on his mission. Jane realizes this is not true love and decides to leave the home, returning to the wealthy landowner's estate to discover what has transpired. The story concludes happily: the landowner’s wife has died, allowing the two to marry and live happily ever after. Another theme that emerges is the critique of men who are ostensibly devout and pious, yet in reality hypocritical and cruel. And then, in the background, lies nature, rich in atmospheric power, alongside the realm of uncanny premonitions and phantoms: the child’s terror, the sense of the unknown, the voice beckoning toward destiny. The author demonstrates great skill in her descriptions and in the psychological examination of her characters, yet the sheer length and banality of the dialogue render the reading experience ponderous and tedious.

The novel is, in a sense, the continuation of *The Black Corsair*. Jolanda, the pirate’s daughter, returns to the Caribbean to reclaim her mother’s inheritance. Here, she is repeatedly abducted by the Count of Medina, her grandfather’s natural son, who seeks to seize Jolanda’s fortune and, above all, avenge the killing of his father—Jolanda’s grandfather—at the hands of the Black Corsair. Morgan, the pirate friend of the Black Corsair, fights to free Jolanda, culminating in the slaying of the Count of Medina and his marriage to Jolanda, who in the meantime has fallen in love with him. The plot provides the occasion for a series of adventures that unfold across the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela, and Central America, through a succession of naval battles, sieges of Spanish cities, and tempests. The style remains characteristically Salgari’s—brisk and fast-paced in depicting martial engagements—though it must be noted that the narrative suffers from a slackening rhythm and a repetitiveness that at times makes for tedious reading. The finest part of the book is the account of Jolanda and Morgan in the Venezuelan jungle. With the pirate gravely wounded, the young woman is swiftly forced to contend with an astonishing and hostile wilderness, the threat of wild beasts, and attacks by savages. This unfolds as a form of initiation open to multiple interpretations: the exaltation of a heroic figure—here embodied by a woman—the portrayal of an exotic natural world (Salgari’s hallmark exoticism), the passage from youth to adulthood, and the confrontation between the resolve of the will and an antagonistic external environment. As with the story of *The Black Corsair*, a psychoanalytic and autobiographical interpretation of the tale is possible, focusing specifically on Jolanda’s trials in the forest.