The Master Stroke [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Gage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

Francie Bollinger uses her love for Jack Magnus to seek revenge on his father, Anton--the man who stole her brilliant ideas in order to bring in millions of dollars into his family corporation. Reprint. K.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this predictable and superficial tale of greed, passion, incest and revenge during the early days of computer technology, Gage ( A Glimpse of Stocking ) relies heavily on platitudes and little on believable characters. Soon after naive, beautiful Francie Bollinger begins to work for Magnus International, her first brilliant idea is stolen by her boss. A little wiser, she offers her second one, a plan to link the European divisions under one computer, to Jack Magnus, son of CEO Anton. She and Jack have a torrid affair and he asks her to marry him, but says they must keep their betrothal a secret. After the computer link is operational, however, Jack marries the girl his father has chosen for him and Francie is fired. Francie starts her own company and plots the Magnuses' destruction. Interspersed with Francie's story is that of Jack's sister, Julie, the black sheep of the Magnus family. Told in short sentences, Julie's and Francie's romances and explicitly described bedroom escapades are fare--often overheated--for sexually sophisticated adolescents. Literary Guild and Doub le day Book Club selection.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

The title is appropriate: powerful characters and an utterly captivating plot make this 50's-era business-world romance a true masterstroke by the author of A Glimpse of Stocking (1988) and Pandora's Box (1990). Born in rural Pennsylvania in simple circumstances, Frances Bollinger's startling beauty and genius for mathematics propel her into the world of international business at an unusually young age, though 1950's sexism stands in her way from the start. Determined to work for Magnus Industries, an all-powerful international conglomerate based in New York, 21-year-old Frances circumvents a disapproving personnel officer to snag a job redesigning the basic structure of the corporation's European division--using a recent invention, mainframe computers. Frances's originality and beauty soon attract the attention of handsome, virile Jack Magnus, son of evil industrialist Anton and heir to the Magnus throne. While stationed at the Paris office, Frances is seduced by Jack and eagerly agrees to marry him, only to find herself out on the street days later while Jack goes to the altar with a handpicked high- society debutante instead. Understanding that Anton is behind this humiliation, and that Jack was too weak to withstand his father's Machiavellian maneuverings, Frances responds by founding her own computer consulting firm. A bitter battle to defend her growing business and her personal welfare from Anton's casual attacks follows, while the extent of the paterfamilias' evil intent makes itself felt in the lives of his daughter, Julie, whose romantic life he destroys; his wife, Victoria, whom he reduces to an ineffectual ninny; and even in Jack, who is revealed to resemble his father all too closely. A delicious tale of injustice and revenge, further enhanced by its exciting, nascent-computer-industry backdrop. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 373 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671748157
• ISBN-13: 978-0671748159
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,331,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murphy's Law, July 24, 2010

By 

Doreen Appleton (Scottsdale, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Master Stroke (Paperback)

Simon & Schuster did not want Elizabeth Gage. Joni Evans, then the wife of Dick Snyder (who later ran Little Golden Books into the ground, as was reported by Publishers Weekly many times), rejected the book on behalf of S&S. Bill Grose, the head of Pocket Books, somehow got around her, and S&S exercised its topping privilege to win Jay Garon's auction and acquire A GLIMPSE OF STOCKING for $511,500. Garon's contract was a good one: the author retained all rights except North American. With foreign sales, the earnings reached $1.4 million.

S&S didn't want Gage because they had Jackie Collins, that great talent, and Judith Michael, the nerdy husband-and-wife writing team. They were also offended that this first novelist from Glenview, Illinois, had so much more talent than their own authors.

At a lunch at the Four Seasons Restaurant, Michael Korda and his then special friend Trish Lande tried to get Gage and her husband to change to a writing husband-and-wife team like Judith Michael. Gage and her husband refused. S&S walked out of the Four Seasons while the author was in the ladies' room.

Later Korda tried to get Gage to take a lower royalty than the one specified in the contract. Gage refused.After six weeks of pressure. S&S caved.

The editing, by a faceless group of editors, was finished, the book was ready to go to press, when Korda turned the script over to Lande, saying "See if you can find anything wrong with this."

Lande covered the manuscript with coffee stains and cut out chapters which were crucial to the momentum of the book. In a long-distance conference call to Gage in Hawaii, Korda told her, "You have to make Trish's changes. You have to understand why it is so important that you surrender to us."

Gage lectured Korda and Lande over the phone about Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, which which Fitzgerald stops the action to simply give the names of the people who visited West Egg that summer. "My chapters are far more important to the movement of the story than Fitzgerald's Chapter 4."

Chastened, furious, Korda said "I guess Trish and I should read those chapters again." In the end the chapters stayed. The book became a New York Times bestseller, But S&S did not forgive. They withdrew Gage's second novel, Pandora's Box, from the stores after one week "for lack of interest."

Jay Garon, furious, moved Gage to Pocket Books, where she received big advances but zero promotion.

As a result, Gage never became a brand name novelist, but her five novels for S&S/Pocket and her two books for Mira remain cult classics with avid fans around the world. Her unique combination of violence, sex, and psychological depth set her far above the Krantzes and Collinses and Bradfords of the writing world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars CHECKMATE, January 14, 2005

By 

Martin Boucher "Authorfan" (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Master Stroke (Paperback)

The birth of the computer dominates this classic tale of passion and revenge in Elizabeth Gage's third outing. Her sexy heroine Francie Bollinger may be a genius in electronics but what a looser she is in romance. In fact, all of Gage's characters stink in love. And boy does she make them suffer for it. From incest to rape to murder, the novel screams of clichés, yet with her skillful plot, characterization and prose Gage succeeds in making this a powerful experience. (SPOILER AHEAD) The bad guys may pay and the good guys may win in the end, but the path to there is one heck of a read.-----Martin Boucher

4.0 out of 5 stars INTERESTING, March 24, 2008

By 

CR "LOVE TO READ" (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Master Stroke (Paperback)

I COULD NOT TURN THE PAGES FAST ENOUGH. THE ONLY THING I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT THIS STORY WAS THAT THE ENDING WAS SO PREDICTABLE. IT DEFINATELY HELD MY INTEREST.