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Foul Play

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As a novelist and dramatist, Charles Reade loved to investigate social issues of his day; prison reform, labor unions, and sexual issues all came under Reade's scrutiny. In this novel, published in 1868, his target was the shipping industry and insurance companies that would insure goods aboard ships for loss while placing passengers at great risk. If ships sank, the value of goods would be paid for in full, thus giving little incentive for shipping companies to maintain safe ships. The book is part social reform and part Robinson Crusoe. Robert Penfold is accused of forgery (he's the victim of a practical joke) and serves time in prison. Upon his release, he changes his name to James Seaton and signs on as a seaman aboard the Proserpine, a ship destined to be scuttled by its owners for the insurance money. When she does sink, Seaton and an aristocratic and consumptive woman named Helen Rolleston share a lifeboat. They make it to a deserted island where the Robinson Crusoe likenesses kick in. Seaton is a man who can do no wrong and has a solution for everything; if he felt like building a rocket to the moon, Reade would see that he succeeded. Helen, too, proves very resourceful and miraculously (thanks to all that sunshine and fresh air) recovers from her consumption. After being rescued, Seaton proves his innocence in the forgery he was accused of and goes back to being Robert Penfold, actually Rev. Robert Penfold. In case you couldn't guess, he and Helen marry. Much of what happens on the deserted island is unbelievable, as is Seaton's character, but that is not as important to Reade as the fact that by 1875 Parliament had passed a bill addressing the insurance issues he had brought to the fore in the novel. "The end crowns the work," as they say, though it's a fairly pedestrian novel.