Fenella

The novel "Fenella" is a collective work of twenty-four British authors, each of whom wrote a subsequent chapter, taking over the "baton" from his predecessor. As a result, a work with a highly original plot was born. Among the authors of "Fenella" were such famous writers as Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker. The text of the novel is given in the translation of Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov. The book is adorned with illustrations by British artist Martin Jay Leighton.
The novel "Fenella" is a unique phenomenon in the literature of the late XIX century, because this original work has not one, but as many as twenty-four authors. Each of them wrote a subsequent chapter of the novel, taking over a kind of "baton" from his predecessor. The initiator of such an amusing literary game was an English entrepreneur Joseph Snell Wood (1853-1920). In addition to business, he was involved in various public affairs, including overseeing charitable hospitals for the indigent. Publishing played an important role in Wood's life. In particular, in 1890 he founded in London magazine "Gentlewoman". In an effort to attract new readers, Wood tried to come up with some unconventional methods. In the first issue of the magazine, he published the opening chapter of a novel. The intrigue was that the second and all subsequent chapters had to be written… by the readers themselves! The idea worked, and the editorial office began to receive letters with possible versions of the second chapter in response to Wood's call. The best text was selected for publication. This game stretched over twenty issues of the magazine, each of which printed a new chapter of the novel. The result was quite satisfactory to Wood. The chapters of the novel, composed by the British "collective mind", had only one flaw — it felt that they were written by amateurs, amateurs. Wood then decided to continue his game, taking it to a higher level. He approached English writers and suggested that they create a collective novel in the same way. Wood's acquaintances were initially skeptical of the idea. Writers are vivid individualists — they thought — and it is unlikely that any of them would agree to be only a certain "ingredient" of a common literary "vinaigrette". However, contrary to the skeptics, Wood's proposal to the leading British fiction writers liked it, and as a result, in 1891 in the pages of the magazine "Gentlewoman" was printed in the first chapter of the novel "Fenella". It was followed by other chapters, which totaled twenty-four, and each had its own author. The honor of introducing readers to the main character of the novel fell to the popular English writer Helen Matthews. Among the authors of "Fenella" were such famous writers as Arthur Conah Doyle and Bram Stoker (a brief note about each author is given in this book).
The unique novel, which originated with Joseph Wood, was introduced to domestic readers by Chekhov's own brother — Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov. He translated all twenty-four chapters of "Fenella", and in 1903 this collective work of English authors with an unpredictable plot was published by the lithographic publishing house "Energia".

And in 1903 this collective work of English authors with an unpredictable plot was published by the lithographic publishing house "Energia".