Daughter of Fortune Study Guide

Eliza Sommers

Eliza Sommers is a headstrong, half Chilean, half English girl abandoned at birth at the home of the Sommers. She is adopted and raised in part by Rose Sommers and also by Mama Fresia, the Sommers' servant and cook. She has an excellent sense of smell and a very detailed and accurate memory. She is the daughter of John Sommers, and only after she disappears to California do Rose and John tell Jeremy about this. Her mother is unknown, and believed to be a prostitute. She was recognized as John's daughter because of the jacket wrapped around her, which was the one he used to cover up the prostitute with months before.

Rose Sommers

Incredibly beautiful, Rose Sommers never married after an affair at a young age with an opera singer ended. She has raised Eliza as her own; although she did not wish to marry, she wanted children. She is a charming and vivacious woman, and capricious towards raising Eliza, though she does love and care for her in the way she thinks is best.

Jeremy Sommers

Jeremy is the oldest of the Sommers. He is solid and stern, taking care to never show emotion. Jeremy and Rose live together under unspoken conditions where she takes care of the house and he provides necessities. Despite his stoic and stubborn nature, he will concede to Rose under enough duress.

John Sommers

John is a captain of a ship and later a steamboat carrying supplies to California. He is a free spirit and the "loosest" of the Sommers, enjoying good drinks and women. He travels to many places and brings back gifts for Rose and for Eliza after she is born.

Mama Fresia

Mama Fresia is the Mapuche cook for the Sommers. No one pays much attention to her except for Eliza who benefits from her cooking skills as well as superstitions. Eventually Mama Fresia helps Eliza run away and then disappears herself.

Tao Chi'en

Tao Chi'en is a shanghaied zhong yi (physician) working as a cook on John Sommers' ship. Tao Chi'en cares for Eliza when she is found hidden and suffering from a miscarriage on the ship on which he is working. Once he has been dismissed from the captain's duty, Eliza comes to him to ask for him to help her follow her lover Joaquin Andieta to California. The two remain friends for life.

Joaquin Andieta

Joaquin is a young man who works for Jeremy Sommers, though is not known to him by name. He spends time with Jacob Todd talking about philosophy and freedom. He is a loyal and hard worker, trying his best to bring his mother into a better life. Joaquin meets Eliza when delivering something to the Sommers' house. They meet multiple times to talk, which leads to an affair. When Joaquin is struck by gold fever, he steals money and heads for California, but promises to return to ask to marry Eliza and to help his mother in moving her to a home where she can recuperate.

Jacob Todd/Freemont

Jacob is brought to Chile by a bet that he could not sell a specific number of Bibles in three months. Once he arrives he is distracted by the resisting Rose Sommers and lives off of money the local church gives him for his "mission work". Once he is unveiled as a fraud, Jacob takes off with what is left of his reputation. He ends up in California working as a journalist, though no more honest, and becomes famous for his pieces, especially those on the elusive bandit Joaquin Murieta.

Paulina Rodriguez de Santa Cruz y del Valle

The wife of a Chilean millionaire, Feliciano Rodriguez de Santa Cruz; because of Feliciano's lower status, her father Agustin de Valle was against their relationship and only through the discreet intervention of the couple's friend, Jacob Todd, were they able to marry and become wealthy. However, their continued success is due to Paulina's sharp business intuition, which her husband, though proud and headstrong, accepts as she has never been wrong. She becomes the owner of several steamships carrying fresh produce from Chile packed in glacial ice to California and employs John Sommers to captain the ship.

Joe Bonecrusher

The madam of the travelling brothel, who employs Eliza as a piano player and cook for her group, who all believe that Eliza is an effeminate homosexual man. Joe is tough and fearless, able to inspire respect from her girls, their bodyguard Babalu the Bad, and Joe's ward, Tom No-Tribe, and eventually townsfolk who disapprove of the brothel but are indebted to Joe because she has accepted and taken care of the sick.

Joaquin Murieta

A legendary vigilante whose infamy circulates throughout California. Eliza is never certain if he is Joaquin Andieta, but follows his deeds in her pursuit to find her lover.