The Beautiful White Devil

"The Beautiful White Devil" by Guy Boothby is a novel written in the late 19th century. The story follows George De Normanville, a medical doctor, who embarks on an unexpected adventure after becoming entangled with the enigmatic and notorious figure known as the Beautiful White Devil. Set against the backdrop of Hong Kong and the surrounding seas, this tale brims with elements of mystery, danger, and romance as De Normanville encounters various characters and scenarios that challenge his perceptions and skills. At the start of the book, the reader is introduced to the sweltering scene in Hong Kong, where De Normanville finds himself amidst a group of officers discussing the exploits of the Beautiful White Devil, a woman suspected of masterminding heists and abductions. As the conversation unfolds, a mysterious man named Horace Venderbrun approaches De Normanville with an urgent and lucrative proposition to attend to a smallpox outbreak on a remote island. Following a brief but intense discussion, the doctor agrees, only to be whisked away into a tumultuous adventure that involves piracy, a deadly encounter on a junk, and ultimately leads him to the luxurious yacht of the Beautiful White Devil herself, whose true character and intentions remain shrouded in intrigue as he contemplates the nature of good and evil. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Guy Newell Boothby was a prolific Australian novelist and writer, noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the end of the nineteenth century. He lived mainly in England. He is best known for such works as the Dr Nikola series, about an occultist criminal mastermind who is a Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu, and Pharos, the Egyptian, a tale of Gothic Egypt, mummies' curses and supernatural revenge. Rudyard Kipling was his friend and mentor, and his books were remembered with affection by George Orwell.