The Golden Butterfly

Early in his career, writer Walter Besant entered into a literary partnership with novelist James Rice. The result was a number of most successful novels, the series being opened by “The Golden Butterfly”, a satire on English philistinism. Based around the “Golden Butterfly”—a curiously shaped gold nugget, the lucky charm of the American millionaire Gilead P. Beck—the authors develop a story of romance, business, money, deception and mysterious relationships.

“‘The Golden Butterfly’ will certainly add to the happiness of mankind, for we defy anybody to read it with a gloomy countenance.”—The Times