Doubly false

"Doubly false" by Ann S. Stephens is a novel written in the mid-19th century. It blends a sea-disaster melodrama with a domestic-sensation plot about a vast Hudson River estate and a perilous struggle over a will. The story centers on Virginia Lander, her cousin Cora, and Virginia’s wealthy father Amos, as jealousy, courage, and deception test family bonds after tragedy at sea.

The opening of the book follows two strikingly similar cousins, Virginia and Cora Lander, crossing the Atlantic with Virginia’s father, Amos, when a fire erupts on their steamer. After Virginia’s voice wins admiring applause—and sparks Cora’s envy—panic sweeps the ship; Cora leaps to a boat and is saved, while Virginia refuses to leave her father, is swept overboard by the crowd, then heroically supports a drowning hunchbacked girl until a sailor rescues them both. The scene shifts to Amos’s magnificent Hudson River mansion, where we learn of his devotion to Virginia, his generosity to his late brother’s widow (Mrs. Noel Lander) and niece (Cora), and the widow’s simmering ambition. News of the catastrophe drives the widow to Mr. Lander’s study, where she secretly opens his safe, discovers a will, and—fearing what it means for her—enlists her hard, clever maid Eunice Hurd and Eunice’s brother Joshua in a scheme, even as the family lawyer, Eben Stone, arrives and the widow feigns ignorance about any will. (This is an automatically generated summary.)