Born in Peru in 1942 and raised in Chile, Isabel Allende became one of Latin America’s foremost writers. Allende studied in private schools in Chile and was an avid reader of the works of William Shakespeare. In addition to Daughter of Fortune, she has written many novels, short stories, and memoirs, including La suma de los días (2007; The Sum of Our Days, 2008), Inés del alma mía (2006; Inés of My Soul, 2006), and La casa de los espíritus (1982; The House of the Spirits, 1985).

In Daughter of Fortune, Allende provides panoramic and historical perspectives on the California gold rush, U.S. and Chinese history, and the familial dynamics operating in nineteenth century Chile. The novel offers a broad panorama of violence, death, love, and compassion as depicted through both the major and the minor protagonists of this epic tale. Eliza personalizes the courageous, unconventional, and extraordinarily self-sufficient nineteenth century heroine who independently embarks on an adventure in a foreign country to find her lover.

Although she is true to her original romantic purpose, Eliza soon discovers that her quest is for freedom and personal identity. In the end, she realizes that she is not in love with Joaquin and that she needs to forge her own future in America. These realizations eventually change her outlook, as she begins to see California as a gateway to independence and as a means of freeing herself from the chains of accepted and traditional feminine roles. With painfully detailed paragraphs, Allende portrays Eliza as an authentic figure who, contrary to nineteenth century standards, epitomizes the feminist spirit of independence and freedom. At the end of the novel, through the omniscient narrative style of the writer, Eliza is able to look at herself objectively as she realizes that true freedom comes with being able to make choices, including the choice of whom to love and where to live.

Allende describes every character, including minor ones, in great detail, as through them she explores the major themes of love, exploitation of minorities, the role of women in nineteenth century California, and the searches for identity and freedom. Through the detailed prism of Daughter of Fortune, the author provides a historical view of life in nineteenth century America, China, and Valparaiso, Chile, and examines in compelling and abundant detail the exploitation of women and minorities through accurate portrayals of both the minor and the major protagonists of the novel. Allende achieves this in great part by meticulously demonstrating her characters’ reactions to their observed environment: Eliza becomes more independent as she has to reinvent herself and refocuses her priorities; Tao Chi’en becomes disillusioned by what he sees in America; Mama Fresia scoffs at the wealthy in Chile and disappears after helping Eliza escape; the Sommers family clings to its Victorian upbringing as a means of visibly separating itself from the lower class in Chile; as Joaquin Murieta, Andieta becomes a Robin Hood-type bandit in California until he is captured and killed. Allende sometimes utilizes the magical and the mystical to dramatize the lives of the protagonists and to record, in convincing narrative style, the history of an era. Daughter of Fortune is an elaborate and exhaustive novel that solidly situates Allende as one of the foremost contemporary Latin American writers of fiction.