Winston GrahamRecensioni

This is the eleventh book in the Poldark series and is my least favorite novel by Graham far. Much of it takes place in France and coincides with the return of Napoleon Bonaparte and the battle of Waterloo. I didn't feel really feel connected to the story or the characters until the latter quarter of the book. Part of the issue likely is the fact I do not find the storylines involving the younger generation to be as compelling as the prior books focusing more on Ross and Demelza. There is one more book in the series though and I still plan to read it.

I am glad to have completed the Poldark series but the last book wasn't quite on par with the earlier novels.

If you've read this book, then you know Ross does something in it that I think is highly out of character for him, but to keep this a spoiler free review I shant say what it was. However, as a whole, it was a good edition to the series and kept me guessing in some places. Well written. 4 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it.

Why would you start a literary prize for genre fiction? Publicity, obviously. But why would you want publicity? Because you're confident that your genre has reached a point of maturity from which proselytising might reap converts? Or because you're quietly anxious that the genre is ailing, and the congregation might dwindle without reinvigoration?

As the very first winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, "The Little Walls" supports the latter speculation. It's an anxious novel. The most enduring work of Its author, Winston Graham, is the series of Poldark novels, inspiration for multiple Sunday-night-sexytimes TV adaptations. But he turned his hand to various forms and genres, and he certainly had a keen sense of the competition in the crime genre; through his characters, he ventriloquises jabs at private dicks "who risk their lives and their virtue for ten dollars a day and expenses" and "literary Catholics" (apparently the only case in which religion is still fashionable).

Considering the award it won, the book hasn't much crime in it, nor much mystery. It's a manhunt and a womanhunt combined, and both are essentially solved two thirds of the way through the book. So what's left? For the hunted man and the hunting man to fight over the hunted woman, as a direct reckoning over past sins and as a proxy for a clash of values.

Ah yes, the clash of values. The book's action is accommodated to a battle-of-ideas framework in which a dogged Christian morality incorporating a firm belief in right and wrong is set against an anarchist live-as-you-will tendency very loosely inspired by a mix of Freud and Nietzsche. This framework is somewhat laboriously constructed from elements of set-piece dialogues, reconstructed diary entries, and the protagonist's private musings. No prizes for guessing which side wins. It wins by winning the woman, who (perhaps unsurprisingly, but not pleasingly all the same) seems to lack much by way of agency, and a fair bit by way of character---though she definitely has a physical appearance. Another period trope to tick off the bingo card is a disabled person whose disability is quite explicitly presented as an outward marker of inner corruption.

All the same, there's enough here to see why it might have won an award; it's not badly written, the bloviating about the nature of morality gives it an air of superiority over the mere genre stuff, there is some interest in the plot and some nice observations of particularities of feeling, thought, and action. Several minor characters seem superfluous, but do allow the author to efficiently invoke an atmosphere and a milieu.

This last seems faintly incredible from 70 years distance. The book is set in a post-war Europe in which it is very possible for a member of the monied, educated upper middle class to arrange personal meetings with senior police officers in multiple countries, to turn up in Capri confident of ingratiation into a society circle, to all in all act as though the world is very much at their command. I've been thinking about this a lot, and I suppose it's not unbelievable. The population was much smaller, and the percentage of the population occupying this particular social stratum was smaller. Perhaps a person within that stratum did indeed get to have the doors opened for them by other members of it.

To be more generous about the ideas, the book's atmosphere also imbues a sense that this is a Europe shaken by the war and the Holocaust, sitting loosely now on its moral foundations, where a kind of ethical anarchism might really be an appropriate intellectual stance, not just a convenient excuse for knavery. In a Europe like that, one might feel the need to have one's protagonist shore up the foundations, and to do it with something besides brute force. All the same, it's hard not to conflate the book's anxiety about the moral state of Europe with the CWA's anxiety about the state of the crime novel—as if it's time for the genre to reflect on its own moral state, and to do so through introspective reflection. I'm all for introspective reflection, but one can have too much of a good thing.

Better than the first.

Very slow to begin with, it wasn't until Demelza became a more prominent character that I started enjoying the book.

In the final volume of the Poldark saga, Bella Poldark begins to explore a career on the stage and struggles with determining if and who to marry. Meanwhile, Clowance is unsure if she ever can trust a man again after Stephen's betrayal and death. Ross continues to butt heads with George Warleggan, with Valentine often lending fuel to the the fire.

I was astounded to discover that this final book in the series was published in 2002 (when Winston Graham was 94), 60 years after the publication of the first book in the series. Graham's writing is amazingly consistent and compelling throughout the series. As always I was delighted to fall back in with the Poldarks as they face the never ending joys and challenges of life in Cornwall. Graham also manages to tie up loose ends without making the novel feel too pat and I was thoroughly satisfied as I completed the final page. If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this entire saga.

Great historical fiction. Cornwall, England. I read the first three after seeing the PBS series. Reading again in 2015. Finished July 31. Still good! Orig. read in '79.

After watching the TV series, I was determined to read the entire book-series and so far enjoy the books just as much.

In it I got to know the characters and had my favourites too; forming a perfect picture in my mind of life back in the late 1700s.

Once I read the books, the characters became alive as each enter the scene and can I identify with the sights and sounds of this beautiful part of the world: Nampara, the beach as the Poldark couple walk along the coastline are just a few to mention.

It is a well-developed story that keeps your attention from beginning to end and I get engrossed with each character once more.

In book 3, we are facing the trail of Ross once more. With each character telling it from their point of view to give you a broad picture of the town, how the people lived. Their views, experiences and hardships, etc. It all is vividly described within the pages.

The author's writing style was something to get used to, but now that I do, the reading goes quicker. The detail adds to the development of the story. It feels like I am right there with each one as they struggle through puddles and mud. Walk through an overcrowded town, or along the coast, or even being inside a pub. Everything becomes alive. This time my sight is not directed by a camera but by my imagination.

It is truly a great story that takes you back into times when the luxury of everyday things we take for granted wasn't available. Where women and children were treated with contempt and the average person had no value.

I can understand why this story is such a favourite among many readers and that the TV series was such a big hit. It touches the heart of humankind and shows us what we as humans can accomplish, no matter the odds against you.

The third book in the Poldark series. The farther into the series I go the deeper my feelings become for these marvelous characters. Demelza Poldark is one of the most finely drawn, enthralling women ever put to paper. She has become the heart of the books for me, and I feel that Winston Graham must have felt the same. She is open and honest and leads with her heart, and she puts the gentry to shame.

In this book we become better acquainted with Dwight Enys, a doctor ahead of his time, who feels for his patients and despairs when he cannot provide for them the basic services they so sorely need. And, there is, of course, the villain, George Warleggan, whose villainy springs from all to recognizable human traits: greed, jealousy, and feelings of his own insecurity. I love his repartee with Caroline Penvenen that is charged with both humor and an undercurrent of sexual tension.

Ross Poldark walks the tightrope that is life, and he does it without a net. He faces risks with bravado but without arrogance. He knows he might lose at any moment and that what he bets on is precious and irreplaceable, but he is unwilling to let someone else pulls his strings. You cannot help admiring him, even when he is so headstrong and wrong-headed that you want to shake him.

I cannot imagine what more one would want from a story of this nature than that it holds you, involves you, and pleases you. Winston Graham does all three. I am anxious to begin Book Four.

”Human beings were blind, crazy creatures, he thought, forever walking the tightrope of the present condemned to ever changing shifts and expedients to maintain the balance of existence, not knowing even as far ahead as tomorrow what the actions of today would bring. How could one plan a year ahead, how influence the imponderables?”

A psychological mystery in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier or Mary Stewart, Marnie is a wonderfully suspenseful and well-written novel. This novel became famous as an Alfred Hitchcock movie in the 1960s, it reads as if Winston Graham had Hitchcock in mind all the way.

You have a sense right from the beginning that there is more to this woman than meets the eye; that she has a past, secrets, issues, that will explain her inability to connect to people and her need to be someone other than herself.

Loads of fun, and even better because I had Lori to help me peel the layers away and made me want to do it SLOWLY.

Graham continues to amaze me with his ability to spin a story that has never-ending interest. I held my breath, quite literally, during parts of this book, and I find myself just as involved in the second generation's well-being as I have been with the first generation. To my delight, Ross and Demelza still play an important role in the story and have not been left behind in favor of the younger group, but of course, their roles have changed just as they would have done in life itself.

I am sad to know I am nearing the end of this series. Only two more volumes to go and I will have to say goodbye to the Poldarks. It will be bittersweet to reach the end.

The twelfth and last book of the Poldark series, Bella Poldark is a fitting and satisfying end to a saga that has spanned several decades and multiple generations of the Poldarks of Cornwall. Packed with story lines all its own, it still manages to tie up all the central characters and give one a sense that things have come to a completion. At the same time, there is a sense that life, as it always does, goes on.

Near the end, Demelza (perhaps my favorite character among all those I have loved in this series) states “I have only one regret--and that is that time just goes too fast.” It struck me that this echoes my feelings about this series of books….they just went too fast. I am not ready to relinquish either the characters or the story. I dare say I will be thinking about them for some time to come.

I can positively say that Winston Graham was a writer extraordinaire. How many people could write a series of books that cover this much territory and never make a misstep or get lost? Each of these people has a certain character when we meet them, and while each of them grows and changes, as people do, we never feel that they have become someone we do not recognize or that they have done something impossibly out of keeping with who they are. That is difficult when the writing is contiguous, amazing when you consider that Graham wrote these books over a span of some 70 years, with a gap of 20 years between the fourth and the fifth installment. Boggles the mind.

Having checked, I can see that his other works are hard to come by, but I will be watching and if one of them ever comes within my range, I will snap it up. If you are thinking of reading this series, please dive right in, you will find the water is FINE.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that reading this with my GR friend, Lori, made it all the more special. It was wonderful to know that every time I murmured an “Oh, God, No” or found myself with tears streaking my face, there was a kindred soul out there feeling the same. A treasure shared is a treasure doubled, Lori...you made this experience twice as rich.

I am all pumped for the third season of the PBS series now and will only regret that the story on PBS will end long before the actual story has been told. I do wish they would take it all the way through to the end, but as it is, I will be grateful to have read the entire series and to know the rest of the story that transpires after the credits roll.

4.5 stars. Just a tad short of the best books in the series.

According to William Shakespeare (and who would know better than he?), “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Not a trace of smooth sailing for the lovers and would-be lovers in The Miller’s Dance. Graham, in his inimitable style, weaves us a tale of snags that range from lack of interest on someone’s part to uncontrollable circumstances that seemingly cannot be overcome. The only lovers who are contented here are the old ones.

This is the ninth installment in the series, and I know these characters so well by now that I should be able to predict their next move. The fact that I cannot, but that the unpredictability never steps outside the bounds of the character that Winston Graham has told me these people have, is a real testament to his skill and imagination as a storyteller.

I have become just as enthralled and anxious over the second generation of Poldarks as I was over the first. I'm glad, however, that Graham did not drop the early characters (as long sagas often do) and has continued to include Ross, Demelza and even the reprehensible George in meaningful ways.

I have been buying and reading these novels in groups of three, and I am sorry to say that when I take the next book in hand I will have entered that last trilogy. I would never have expected to take on a series with twelve books, but I am very glad I decided to read this one. Highly recommended to any and all, but especially those who enjoy knowing the characters that people a world long gone and immersing themselves in the history of another time.

But now and then you do not have all the control of your feelings
that you should have--and then thoughts and feelings
surge up in you like--like an angry tide.
And it is hard, sometimes it is hard to control the tide.”


This installment of the Poldark saga is, like all the others, stellar writing and storytelling. You have lived with these characters so long by this stage that you know them by heart, and yet there is always something new and exciting and vibrant and alive about them.

There is heartbreak and redemption and confusion and sorrow to be found within these pages, and much that makes you reflect on what it means to just be human. The name is so appropriate, for it is the uncontrolled feelings of each of these people that brings them to their greatest impasses. There is stubbornness and tenacity and failure to release the past and the redemption that is possible when you finally do.

One theme that runs through the series, and that we see more and more clearly as the books progress, is that the things we do matter. They influence not only our lives, but those of others, perhaps in ways we cannot ever imagine they will. One moment of passion, of thoughtlessness, of lust for revenge, can lead to consequences that haunt us endlessly and reverberate even after our deaths...in the lives of our greatest loves and our children.

I have not had a moment of regret in taking on this series. Or, if I have, it is that I cannot just sit and read it end to end without life interrupting. This is book seven of twelve, so there is a lot more of Ross Poldark’s life to come, but I am already sure that when I close on the last page of the last book, my heart is going to scream at me to start all over again.

This volume, the eleventh in the series, is a sword that twists in your heart. Set in the last days of Bonaparte’s reign, it captures all the tension and fear that war can produce when it spills over into and affects the lives of so many people in so many countries. On a personal level for Graham's characters, it highlights all the missteps that await everyone and can wreak havoc in a heart and a life.

Graham continues to follow the second generation, but he does so without losing touch with the first. We see Demelza and Ross dealing with all the pressures, hopes and heartaches that come with having grown children and watching them feel their own ways into the future. My mother always said it was much harder having grown children than having small ones. When they are small we fear they will hurt themselves, but most of the perils are within our control. When they are grown, all the perils and choices are their own, and we often watch with a heavy heart as they seem to make all the wrong choices we have warned them against.

I will not reveal any of the plot of this book, as I have tried to reveal nothing of the specifics in any of the previous ten. I will say that I closed it with a broken heart, that mirrored the hearts of so many of the characters I have come to love. My time with the Poldarks is rapidly coming to an end and I am going to miss them. I have grown to genuinely love these very human individuals, who display all that is wonderful in humanity and all that is flawed. Winston Graham has an ability to see into the soul and not once in all these pages has he lost the thread of the story, made a character do something “out of character”, or written a superfluous word. That is approximately 5500 pages of excellent storytelling so far, and that is quite an accomplishment.

I want to thank my reading companion, Lori, who has traveled this road with me, step by step, and has made a pleasurable reading experience all the more so for being there to share it with me.

Book Eight of the Poldark Series, [b:The Stranger from the Sea|194622|The Stranger from the Sea (Poldark, #8)|Winston Graham|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356129610s/194622.jpg|1545373] takes place ten years after Book Seven, [b:The Angry Tide|194630|The Angry Tide (Poldark, #7)|Winston Graham|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391952789s/194630.jpg|364847]. I was concerned that this would mean an abrupt transition from the story of Ross and Demelza to that of the next generation. I have had this happen with other sagas and found it disconcerting. Not to fear, Winston Graham knows precisely how to tell a story with continuity and progress mixed in perfect proportions.

Life has continued apace since we left Ross at a moment of sadness, but revelation, and Ross now finds himself in a very respectable, but not affluent, position:

”He had made little money. But over the years they had continued sufficiently affluent to live a comfortable life. As he said to Demelza, the most important thing was to strike a balance: poverty and riches each in their own way caused unhappiness. With money, the way to be happy was to continue to have almost enough.”

I was struck by how much truth there is to that. And, within this novel, we get a glimpse of both the horrors of extreme poverty and the decadence of unearned wealth. I am happy to say that Ross and Demelza have raised lovely children, smart and unassuming and in so many ways reflective of both their parents. I became immediately as interested in the futures of Jeremy and Clowance as I had been in that of Ross, Demelza, Elizabeth, George, Dwight and Caroline.

This installment reminds me particularly of Jane Austen. If you enjoy her witty look into the depths of societal classes, this book will resonate with you. It is the time in which class distinctions are collapsing due to the influx of new money, and the time when the aristocracy is perhaps most fervent to hold on to its position and power.

As always there are difficulties in love. People can never fall in love with only the right people and, even today, there are often obstacles not of our own making.

She helped tighten one of the girths. ‘I know you have been--greatly upset; and I cannot help you. It grieves me that I cannot help you. I can’t even give you advice!’
‘Nobody can’
‘For you would not take it. Quite right. It is hopeless for older people to tell younger ones--particularly their own children--that they have been through the same thing. Such information is no use at all! It bounces off one’s own grief--or jealousy or distress. If we are all born the same we are also all born unique--we all go through torments nobody else has ever had.”

Another bit of the human condition I could well relate to. Don’t we all want to save our children from pitfalls, but isn’t it human nature for each man to make his own mistakes and pay his own penalties...and isn’t that, in truth, the only way anyone finds their way and their own happiness.

Ross fails to see Jeremy for the man he is, capable and interested and daring. Again, I think Winston Graham has seen into the soul of mankind. We so often miss that which is most essential and best in those we are close to; we often view our children as children long after we should have seen them as adults. And, in the way he has often failed to appreciate Demelza, Ross is prone to failing to recognize the value of those who love him most. There is much, I would contend, about Jeremy that is Ross. That fearlessness and drive is there waiting for a place to commit itself, and the similarities sometimes make for less instead of more understanding.

And, lastly, we see that Ross and Demelza are no longer young themselves. They are well along their journey and, while not doddering on old age, we clearly see that they are closer to the end than they now are to the beginning.

”And who would have thought Lady Landsdowne was three months forward? I wish I were. I wish Jeremy was three again like her son. I wish I was twenty-six like her and it was all to come again. Life...it slips away like sand out of a torn envelope. Well, I’m still not exactly old. But it hurst me to see Ross limp and the lines about his jaw, and many of my friends sick or old or dead.”

Ah, another passage that seems written for my life and my age. I hear you, Demelza, but oh it has been a wonderful life, full of events that have warmed and torn you, and sworn to your zest for living it.

Demelza, the second book in the Poldark series, is what second books should be, even better than the first. The story builds to a crescendo, and even though I knew from watching the TV series exactly what was in store, I was glued to every page and full of emotion by the end.

What I love the most about this story is that every character is fully developed and very real. No one is always right, no one always wrong. They do things without fully understanding the consequences of their actions; they endeavor to right things and frequently make them worse; they love and hate--and sometimes both emotions are thrown at the same individual. There are complicated family relationships (and who doesn’t have those?) and there is jealousy and greed and every other aspect of being human and fallible.

I am not one who generally reads a series. I seldom want to commit that kind of time and energy to one story, and I fear that, like a TV show that goes on too long, the author will begin to short change his audience because he should have closed out a story that he is milking along. If the second book of this series is any indicator, I will be glad that I made an exception in this case.

Winston Graham took a 20 year writing break between the fourth book of this series, Warleggan, and this fifth one, The Black Moon. At the beginning, I thought he might have lost his way during that hiatus, but boy was I wrong. He picked his story up and his characters led him into the heart of the battle. I wonder if there ever was a more believable and despicable villain than George Warleggan.

I had initially intended to stop reading this series at book four so that I would not infringe on the new season of the series which will begin later on this year. However, unlike Mr. Graham, I was not able to leave these characters celebrating their Christmas in 1793. I wanted to know what happened to them in 1794.

I haven’t been this in love with a male character since I fell for Rhett Butler when I was sixteen. It doesn’t hurt to have Aiden Turner’s face in my head when Ross Poldark is speaking to me (uh, I mean speaking to Demelza). I am so glad I decided to dive into this series of books. Graham is a marvelous writer, with style, finesse and a great ability to develop characters you can love or hate, want to shake, slap or kiss. I’m anxious to get on to book six.

In general, I am very reluctant to take on a series read. What often happens is that you begin the series with great expectations and as it progresses, the writer gets lazy, runs out of storyline, or loses touch with his characters...like a tv series that is on its last leg and is just inventing a reason to continue. THIS IS NOT THE CASE with Winston Graham. He is such a skillful and thoughtful writer that he never gives us an inconsistency in the character that cannot be explained or that is foreign to what he has already told us about them; he finds new plot twists that are in total keeping with the realities of life and seem brilliantly surprising; and he adds new characters when they make sense and has them interact with the old characters without overshadowing them. Everything is so seamless that you cannot believe he did not envision this story in its entirety from the first written line.

I guess it is obvious that I am a fan. The Four Swans is one of the best books in this series, but then I say that about each one as I close it, because this series is always building momentum. It cannot be read in anything other than chronological order and it is twelve books total. So, it is an investment, but oh my does it pay dividends.

Ross and Demelza Poldark are so real to me that I feel I know them intimately, but along with my attachment to the Poldarks themselves, Graham has given us the perfect foil in George Warleggan, a second villain who, for me, defines evil and makes me appreciate that George isn’t quite the bottom of the sludge of life barrel. Elizabeth, whose beauty might be stunning but whose soul needs a little work, epitomizes the woman who has it all and then finds that it is nothing. Dr. Dwight Enys, with whom I am hopelessly enamored, the good man but not the perfect one, and his spirited and witty Caroline; Morweena, Drake and Geoffrey Charles, Sam and Emma, and Hugh Armitage, who managed to break my heart and show me that a sad heart is large enough to include more than one love.

I must say that the joy of reading these books has been increased tenfold by the sharing of it with the wonderful ladies of the RFP group. I sat up way past my bedtime to finish this novel, because I knew that putting it down would ensure that I got no sleep in any case. So, I am on to the next volume and hopes that Mr. Graham can sustain this wonderful ride for me until we reach the farthest shore.

The fourth book in the Poldark series is a runaway train. It takes all the impetus of motion created in the first three volumes and pushes it headlong down the track at a screaming pace. Fortunes change on a whim and evil prospers and ebbs and prospers again. I spent much of this volume holding my breath.

After losing Francis, the triangle of Ross, Elizabeth and Demelza reaches a fever pitch and Ross finds himself caught between his inability to give up his old, unfulfilled affections and his now too comfortable life with his wife. The results are a flurry of emotions that serve none of these characters well. I could not help casting back to poor Keren Daniels and thinking that what others deemed in a female a felonious crime is but a misdemeanor for the male population.

Meanwhile, the romance between Dwight and Caroline progresses as well, with a lovely edge that is both witty and romantic. I must confess to loving this couple and cringing at the idea that they will not have their own happy ending...but happiness can be an elusive thing in this 1790s world of Cornwall.

As the name suggests, we begin to see George come into his own and the Warleggans figure very prominent in Ross’ destiny. Up to this point, Ross has had the hatred of Cary, but George has been less vitriolic. No more. Now George’s real colors begin to show and the kind of hatred he spews is extreme and dangerous. By the end of this volume, the field is beginning to be evened by Ross’ success at Wheal Grace, and it leaves me in anticipation of how the fight may change now that Ross has some resources with which to counter-punch.

By this point in the story, I am totally committed to these characters and their fate. They are drawn with such detail that they have nuanced personalities and temperaments, and Graham happily keeps them to the standards that he set for them in the beginning. I find every action and word to be in keeping with what we already have been told about these people, and that is essential to my enjoyment of the story.

4.5 rounded up.

I couldn’t resist this book...it has a picture of Aidan Turner on its cover. Seriously, I have loved watching the Poldark series on PBS and I find the book it is based on to be just as interesting and fulfilling. I will be reading the entire book series, although at what pace I am not sure.

Book 1 deals with Ross Poldark, who comes home to England (Cornwall, no less) from the American Revolution to find that his father has died, his land is in complete disrepair, and his love is about to marry his cousin, Francis. Ross appears to have picked up some ideas about freedom and equality while across the Atlantic and he finds himself outside the normal bounds of his class in his thinking. We are set up for a tale of class struggle and moral choices in the heart and hands of a very independent and atypical man.

The characters are developed beautifully, there is enough of romance and intrigue to keep you guessing and the writing is well-paced, even though you can sense this is going to be a long story. I am in for the full ride and expect it to be delightful.

I love historical fiction. I also apparently have a weakness for soap opera type stories. This book combines both brilliantly. On the historical side I got many glimpses into the lives of people living in Cornwall, England during the late 1700s. It's not always pretty - children are abused, woman are harassed, miners die early deaths due to horrible working conditions and gentleman engage in bloody cockfights. On the soap opera side you have our main character - Ross Poldark - who returns home from fighting in America (our revolutionary war). His first night home he visits the home of his cousin Francis to find that his entire extended family is gathered there for a celebratory dinner. His lady love, Elizabeth, is there as well and then he finds out that the dinner is to celebrate her engagement to his cousin! Shocked and betrayed he returns to his family estate, only to find it in shambles after the death of his father. Ross is not one to lie low and lick his wound however, he gets to work fixing up his estate, schemes to open a copper mining venture, and rescues a young lady (a 11-12 year old girl) from an abusive father and sets her up as a housemaid. There are many juicy side stories alongside the main thread of Ross's strained relationship with his family members and his efforts to get over his love for Elizabeth. Ross lives by his own moral code - one that does not see upper class people as better than lower class people. This puts him at odds with many of the members of "his class". And he is not without his own moral flaws. But on the whole this rambling story is full of great drama, and the descriptions of the countryside and way of life at that time are top notch.
Also I listened to the audiobook version, and that added another layer of delight, as Oliver Hembrough does an excellent job with the Cornish dialect and the narration in general. Indeed, I would say it's one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened too.½

Demelza's character is one most women can relate to. In book 1, she was a youngster with little knowledge or finesse. When she ends up in Ross Poldark's kitchen as a maid, she was not much to look at even. Yet through the entire storyline, you could witness her growth. First she notices the books and wondered about the writings, then she discovered the piano in the corner of the living room. Then she found the dresses in a trunk and realizes there was more about a woman. And each time she makes a new discovery, she learns something new—about the world, life and herself.

In Book 2, Ross finally sees her as a woman and not as the kitchen maid and her station lifts once more. Here she comes face to face with the upper class, how to act, manners, how to be genteel, savouring your words, be more mature while her impulsive side remained intact.

Through it all, a love story unfolds as it draws you into the life of this fair maiden and her lord.
Life is continuous from where it left off n book 1, and you are plunged into the political and economic situation they had to face.
Each time a new character is introduced, the story grows with a deeper sense of understanding.

The writer's writing always inspiring you to turn the page.
"He set off to walk. It was only a matter of two miles.
A hail of leaves and grass and dirt and small twigs met him as he turned the corner of the house. Behind him the wind was tearing off mouthfuls of sea and flinging them to join the clouds. At another time he would have been upset at the damage to his crops, but now that seemed a small matter. It was not so much a gale as a sudden storm, as if the forces of a gathering anger had been bottled up for a month and must be spent in an hour. The branch of an elm came down across the stream. He stumbled past it, wondering if he could make the brow of the hill.
In the ruined buildings of Wheal Maiden he sat and gasped and groped for breath and rubbed his bruised hand, and the wind blew bits of masonry from the gaunt old granite walls and screamed like a harlot through every slit and hole.
Once through the pine trees, he met the full force of the storm coming in across Grambler Plain, bringing with it a bombardment of rain and dirt and gravel. Here it seemed that all the loose soil was being ploughed up and all the fresh young leaves and all the other small substances of the earth were being blown right away. The clouds were low over his head, brown and racing, all the rain emptied out of them and flying like torn rags before the frown of God.
Down in Fernmore, Dr Choake was beginning his breakfast."

Even though I have watched the TV series, the books add more depth to the story; the characters become alive and you can literally see each one as they develop, get angry, struggle, laugh, or experience deep sorrow. A remarkable series.

Ross Poldark's book was waiting for me patiently for a few years, I might add, before I could finally get to it.

After watching the entire TV series, I knew I had to make a plan to buy these books. Each time I receive money I buy the Kindle version and finally got to it in last week.

The author's writing style brought all the scenes of the series to the forefront and I could enjoy the characters, the beautiful sceneries of Cornwall, the crash of the seas on the nearby rocks in vivid colour once again.

It felt like I was walking back in time and experience the hardships of the mining families, the longing of Verity to be with her beau. Witness Ross as he limped his way through Treadwell's doors and meets Elizabeth after a time of separation. The heartache of knowing his love was engaged to another. It was like looking at the series all over again.

Book one begins with Ross Poldark returning from America after a two-year war. The boy that went away and left under the scrutiny of childish whims became a man. Once he returned, the boy made room for a man that had to face the harsh realities of Nampara's neglect. Of his father's death, two trusted workers who cared more for their next glass of ale than running the farm and the poverty-stricken chaos left behind.

Through these discouragements, he finds his feet once more and we watch as he picks up the pieces and gets his life back on track.

It's a story almost too common to be a hit series. With highs and lows of typical everyday life, but through the author's writing, it becomes a tale of victory, love and determination.

A story that touches the heart and leaves you with a sense of peace. As if all things are possible, if you will stay with the basics; do what is right, be true and all will work out.
The things that mostly stood out for me were to stay true to your path and enjoy the simple things in life. The rest will work out on its own.

This is really a must read for all readers that is looking for more than just crisp writing or a thrilling story. It allows you to forget the problems in your own life and see through the author's eyes the lives of others and how they have found their own wisdom and peace.

Now I am off to read more about Demelza and her part within this growing saga of the Poldark clan.