A Bid for Fortune

What is A Bid for Fortune about?

A Bid for Fortune; or, Dr. Dorian Doyle’s Strange Doings (1895) is Guy Boothby’s breakout novel, introducing one of Victorian fiction’s most memorable villains. The story follows Richard Dorian, a young Australian adventurer, who becomes entangled in the schemes of the sinister Dr. Dorian Doyle, a mesmerist and criminal mastermind with supernatural powers and global ambitions. The narrative races across multiple continents as Dorian attempts to thwart the villain’s elaborate plot involving kidnapping, blackmail, and occult manipulation. Boothby draws on his own extensive travels to create vivid settings from the Australian outback to the streets of London and beyond. The novel’s fast pace, exotic locales, and larger-than-life antagonist made it enormously popular and spawned several sequels. A Bid for Fortune helped establish the template for the modern thriller—a resourceful hero pitted against a brilliant criminal in a globe-spanning adventure. The book reflects late Victorian fascination with mesmerism, criminal psychology, and the darker possibilities of empire.