Paul Ferroll : A Tale

Paul Ferroll (1855) is a novel by Caroline Clive. Published to widespread critical and commercial acclaim, Paul Ferroll gained comparisons to Jane Eyre and predated the rise of popular detective fiction, but has since been largely forgotten. A captivating novel of Victorian social conventions with elements of Gothic horror, Paul Ferroll is an underrecognized work of literature that remains both entertaining and ultimately open ended.

Paul Ferroll, a respected English magistrate, lives with his loving wife and young daughter at their comfortable country estate. When Ferroll’s wife is found murdered in her bed, the family’s idyllic image is disrupted forever. Although a servant is quickly arrested for the crime, a lack of evidence leads to his subsequent acquittal, raising questions about Ferroll’s increasingly reclusive behavior. Despite remarrying, Ferroll clearly harbors a dark secret. He turns away from friends and neighbors, forcing his daughter to raise herself. While an outbreak of cholera devastates the local village, Ferroll, a formerly generous public servant, turns a blind eye to their suffering. As acquaintances speculate, unsure if Ferroll remains in mourning or if his change of heart signals something much darker, his home becomes haunted with ghosts of the living. Building slowly toward its unbearable conclusion, Paul Ferroll investigates the motives that lead to murder, illuminating the condition of the male psyche with expert precision.

This edition of Caroline Clive’s Paul Ferroll is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Caroline Clive (1801-1873) was an English poet and novelist. Born in London, Clive was the daughter of Edmund Meysey-Wigley, Esq., M.P. for Worcester, and Anna Maria Meysey. From the age of three onward, Clive suffered from physical disabilities brought on by a sudden illness. In 1840, she published IX Poems to critical acclaim and popular success, albeit under the pseudonym “V.” That same year, Clive married Reverend Archer Clive, with whom she raised a son and a daughter. Over the next decade, she published four more collections of poetry, including The Queen’s Ball (1847) and Valley of the Rea (1851). In 1853, Clive published a sensational novel, Paul Ferroll (1855), an immediate commercial success. A pioneering work of detective fiction published years before the work of Wilkie Collins, Paul Ferroll marked the apotheosis of Clive’s literary career. A sequel, Why Paul Ferroll Killed his Wife (1860), and another novel, John Grewold (1864), would follow.