Chance
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This novel offers a masterful exploration of human psychology and the unpredictable forces of fate, wrapped in a gripping maritime drama.
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Book Summary
Chance follows the troubled life of Flora de Barral, whose financier father's ruin leaves her isolated and desperate. Captain Anthony's selfless but misunderstood marriage to her, and the mysterious events aboard his ship the Ferndale, reveal how chance and misperception shape human destinies.
The novel opens with young sailor Charles Powell meeting Marlow, and through their conversations, the story of Flora de Barral unfolds. Flora's father, the wealthy financier de Barral, is convicted for fraud, leaving her penniless and at the mercy of a cruel governess and indifferent relatives. After a suicide attempt, she is rescued by Captain Roderick Anthony, who, out of pity and love, marries her despite believing she does not love him. Their marriage is strained by his self-sacrifice and her sense of unworthiness, further complicated by the release of her father from prison, who joins them aboard the Ferndale under a false name. The father's bitterness and suspicion poison the household, while Powell, the second mate, observes the tension and becomes unwittingly involved. A near-fatal accident on board, involving a flare and a loose chain, brings the truth to light and forces a resolution. Through multiple narrators, the novel explores how chance encounters and misread intentions lead to both tragedy and redemption, ultimately allowing Flora and Anthony to find genuine love before his sudden death at sea.
Reading guide
Go deeper in Chance
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Closing
This is the dramatic climax because it marks the psychological and emotional peak of Captain Anthony’s deluded…
Charles Powell
Powell arrives at the Ferndale green and untried, grateful for a berth after the humiliation of job-hunting in London, and eager to prove himself under a captain he barely knows. His youth makes him watchful rather than bold, and the shipboard world of the Anthonys draws him into loyalties and suspicions he never bargained for. Because he shares Marlow's name and later his confidence, Powell becomes the lens through which the story's strangest turns are seen.
Flora de Barral
Flora de Barral is a girl whose father's ruin has made her a burden passed among reluctant relatives, and she reads every kindness as a trap. Her flight from her aunt's household and her refusal to be liked by people she despises reveal a fierce, wounded self-possession. When she meets the Fynes and later Captain Anthony, her suspicion and her hunger for safety pull her toward choices that will shape the whole story.
Fyne
Fyne is a serious little man of the Civil Service who tramps England's footpaths and writes about them, married by pure accident to Miss Anthony. Earnest and grave, he takes Flora's plight more to heart than his wife does, and his loyalty to his brother-in-law complicates his judgment. His quiet decency and his pedestrian's persistence make him the hinge between the Fynes, the Anthonys, and the girl they cannot quite save.
Mrs. Fyne
Mrs. Fyne is a woman of decided views and splendid teeth, presiding over her household with the calm efficiency of a capable governess rather than a warm hostess. She shelters Flora after her flight but treats the girl's distress as a problem to be managed, her kindness hedged by theoretical positions and unspoken judgments. Her coolness toward Flora and her influence over her husband shape how the girl is received, protected, and ultimately pushed toward the Anthonys.
Captain Anthony
Captain Anthony is a sailor of simple, principled character, known to Marlow only through the accident of Fyne's marriage to his sister. He arrives in London from a long voyage and drifts into the Fynes' circle, where his reserve and his father's poetic legacy set him apart. His decision to marry Flora de Barral, made with the same grave directness he brings to command, sets the story's central knot of loyalty, suspicion, and sacrifice.
Marlow
Marlow is a reflective mariner whose acquaintance with the Fynes in the country and later with young Powell gives him the threads of a story he cannot let go. He narrates with a sailor's patience and a philosopher's curiosity, drawing out confessions over pipes and windows. His skepticism about design and his sympathy for the people he describes make him the story's guiding intelligence, turning scattered lives into a meditation on chance.
Chance and Fate
The novel repeatedly emphasizes the role of chance in shaping lives, from the author's note about choosing the story's direction to the accidental meetings and decisions that drive the plot, such as Powell's chance encounter with Marlow and the coincidences that bring Flora and Captain Anthony together.
Isolation and Loneliness
Characters like Flora de Barral, Captain Anthony, and even the retired sailor Powell experience profound emotional isolation, often feeling cut off from others due to social circumstances, personal trauma, or the vastness of the sea, which mirrors their internal solitude.
Social Class and Wealth
The narrative explores the precarious nature of wealth and social standing, particularly through the rise and fall of the financier de Barral, and how Flora's status shifts from heiress to dependent, affecting her treatment by others and her own sense of identity.
Love and Sacrifice
Captain Anthony's decision to marry Flora is portrayed as an act of selfless devotion, even as it leads to misunderstanding and personal suffering. The novel examines how love can be both a redeeming force and a source of deep pain, with characters sacrificing their own happiness for others.