Paul Ferroll (Oxford Popular Fiction)
by Caroline Clive
Category: Fiction

Paul Ferroll, a scandalous success when it was first published in 1855, shocked contemporary opinion with its moral ambiguity and authorial detachment, and its refusal of traditional fictional values. 'I committed a crime to win you eighteen years ago, and I must die for it ... I have acted over this scene a million times in my imagination, but never in all those times parted from you with a jest as I did in reality just now. Wife, mistress, darling, my joy, my life, you cannot hate me...' Rich and clever, happily married and apparently respectable, Paul Ferroll keeps apart from his country neighbours, who think it may be because his first wife was horribly murdered long ago. They admire his selflessness during a cholera epidemic and his bravery in controlling a violent mob bykilling the ringleader; they admire his beautiful wife and daughter, and his brilliant literary reputation; they don't understand his jokes. But then gossip about the murder circulates, and an old woman is summoned to trial . . . A highly unusual Victorian crime novel, Paul Ferroll has been out of print for more than sixty years. This edition is based on the author's own corrected copy of the novel, and the introduction draws on contemporary reviews and manuscript sources.