Has anyone notices in fairly recent years, protagonists of novels frequently **SPOILERS BIG TIME**

[raccoon]

end up wealthy, and they weren't when they started out?

For example:

Marcus Didius Falco (Ancient Roman mysteries, by Lindsey Davis.)

Kinsey Milhone (A is for Alibi, etc., mystery series By Sue Grafton.)

Boris and Theo (The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt)

And I feel I must add:
Atlantis, the Disney animated film. (OK, it's a movie, not a book. But the principle is the same.)

[northoftheborder]

1. plus Cinderella

[Curmudgeoness]

2. I don't think it is just in recent years.

This has been a theme that has often been there. I suppose it is because books are there to help dreams.

My examples:

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austin)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)

And those are just off the top of my head.

[raccoon]

3. Good point--perhaps I should've made the OP more restricted. I

noticed it in the two mystery series I mentioned.

Anyone noticed it in other mystery series?

[Curmudgeoness]

5. If I remember correctly

the character Jim Qwilleran in the Cat Who..... series became wealthy after being broke, when he got an inheritance. I suppose that it gives him much more freedom since he doesn't have to work and can just poke around in murders without that pesky job getting in the way.

We could all be great detectives if we only had the time and freedom, huh?

[raccoon]

6. Well, in the case of the Falco mysteries, after Falco

became wealthy, he quit detecting. In the latest book in the series,
THE IDES OF APRIL, Falco's adopted daughter is the sleuth.

In the case of Kinsey Milhone, she apparently is going to use her inherited money for her retirement, and I guess she'll go on sleuthing until "Z is for Zoloft" or whatever it's going to be.

[petronius]

4. I can't say I've noticed it more or less frequently, but when it happens might

a possible explanation be that it's a device to continue the series? Giving your character wealth (or at least access to resources) opens up all sorts of plot-lines and scene changes that might otherwise be more difficult to explore.

For example, I'm a big fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, and wealth is showered on the main characters several times (in one case in a highly deus ex machina sort of way) and almost as frequently snatched away. It's maybe a bit unrealistic, but the narrative becomes a lot richer by giving the characters the freedom and flexibility of wealth...

[Nay]

7. "I Still Dream About You" by Fannie Flagg. It's one of her recent books, and

boy, did the protagonist got wealthy by a very deus ex machina method. I wasn't really happy about that; it was just a bit too farfetched.