Kane and Abel (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Jeffrey Archer |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
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Publication date
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1979 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 512 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 154821398 |
Kane and Abel is a 1979 novel by British author Jeffrey Archer. Released in the United Kingdom in 1979 and in the United States in February 1980, the book was an international success. It reached No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. The sequel to Kane and Abel is The Prodigal Daughter, in which Florentyna Kane is the protagonist.
Due to its success as a bestseller, Kane & Abel is among the top 100 list of best-selling books in the world, with a similar number of copies sold as To Kill a Mockingbird and Gone with the Wind.
In 2003, Kane and Abel was listed at number 96 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.
The book tells the stories of two men born worlds apart. They have nothing in common except the same date of birth (18 April 1906 in the book, and 1902 in the miniseries based on it) and a zeal to succeed in life. William Lowell Kane is a wealthy and powerful Boston Brahmin while Abel Rosnovski (originally named Wladek Koskiewicz) is a Pole who was born in a situation of great poverty and eventually migrated to the United States.
William follows the steps of his father, Richard Kane, to become a successful banker. When William was still a child, Richard dies in the Titanic disaster, leaving William fatherless and heir to the Kane & Cabot bank. William displays extraordinary discipline and intelligence as a young man at St. Paul's School and later at Harvard. His mother, Anne, marries Henry Osborne, who turns out to be interested in gambling and women. William hates Henry from the beginning and spends most of the time at Harvard and at his best friend Mathew Lester's home. William dreams of becoming the chairman of Lester's bank one day. Henry spends every last penny of Kane's mother's money on the pretext of speculation. Anonymous notes warn Anne (who has been impregnated by Osborne, a matter which causes William some worry -- until he finds out that he can toss Henry out easily without any money) about her husband whose real name is Victor Togna. She hires a detective to find out the truth, and miscarries fatally from the shock -- after which Kane ejects Henry from his home.
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