The Winds of Chance

‘The Winds of Chance’ by Rex Beach is an adventure novel which tells a fictionalised story of the Gold Rush. Adapted into a silent film of the same name in 1925, the story follows the penniless Pierce Phillips who cannot go seeking gold so instead works packing supplies for the other adventurers. Phillips soon falls in love with Countess Courteau but when he proposes to her he discovers that she already has a husband.

Pierce Phillips then joins a travelling show where one member, Laure, falls in love with him. When Phillips pays more attention to Rouletta, a daughter of a gambler, Laure becomes jealous and conspires with Count Courteau, who believes that Phillips is his wife’s lover.

Set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush, this novel will be enjoyed by fans of ‘Goldrush: A Real Life Alaskan Adventure’, and ‘The Klondike Gold Rush’.

Rex Beach, was an American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player. His novels, most of which were adventure novels, were influenced by Jack London – author of ‘White Fang’ – and they were very popular during the early 1900s. His second novel, ‘The Spoilers’ which was based on a true experience he witnessed while in Alaska of corrupt government officials stealing gold mines from prospectors, became one of the best-selling novels of 1906.