Foul Play was published by Bradbury & Evans in 1869, co-authored with the playwright Dion Boucicault, and it is one of Reade’s most entertaining sensation novels. The plot combines two of Reade’s favorite subjects — criminal fraud and adventure — in a story that moves from the drawing rooms of England to the open sea to a Pacific island.
Robert Penfold, a young clergyman, is falsely convicted of forgery through the machinations of a crooked businessman and transported to Australia. He escapes, takes passage on a merchant ship, and is shipwrecked — along with Helen Rolleston, the woman he loves — on a desert island. The island sections, which occupy the middle third of the novel, are a Victorian Robinson Crusoe: Penfold uses ingenuity, observation, and physical courage to keep them alive, and the enforced intimacy of their situation transforms Helen’s indifference into love.
The “foul play” of the title refers not only to the forgery that convicted Penfold but to the deliberate scuttling of the ship — an insurance fraud arranged by the same businessman who framed him. Reade’s research into the practices of “coffin ships” (unseaworthy vessels overinsured and deliberately sunk for the insurance money) was extensive and persuasive, and the novel contributed to public awareness of the dangers of maritime fraud.
Collecting Foul Play
First edition (Bradbury & Evans, London, 1869): Three volumes, cloth.
Market values:
- First edition, three volumes: $100–$250
- Single-volume editions: $10–$25