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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Poldark Series is the Best!, Dec 31 2003
By A Customer
I first encountered the Poldark story on PBS Masterpiece Theatre 25 years ago. This series is written over four decades by a master craftsman of history and character detail. Set in Cornwall just after the American Revolutionary War, it opens with the return of Ross Poldark to England after being wounded and thought dead in that war. He returns to find his father dead, his finances in disarray, his fiance now engaged to his cousin, the Warleggans have taken over much of Cornwall, and his house full of livestock and drunken servants. Books 1-4 are found in the video series Poldark. Books 5-7 are covered in the video series Poldark 2. I did not know Graham had written additional books in this series until a search on Amazon turned up the others. Books 8-12 cover the children of Ross and Demelza, and they are amazing. Most writers get into a rut and create the same novel over and over again. Winston Graham keeps finding fresh things to say and innovative things for his characters to do in these books. This picture of Cornwall at the turn of the 19th century rings true from beginning to end. The love, passion, struggles, and lives of this family are so engaging that I could read these books over and over again. The perils and joys of mining and seamanship, farming, religion, banking, courting, medicine, justice, war, all form a backdrop for the day-to-day details as this time and place come to life. These people love and hate and dispise each other, they forgive each other, and sometimes learn to live with each other. Through each book the cast is expanded with wonderful characters full of quirks and individual personalities. But the Poldarks remain: Ross and Demelza, his cousin Francis and Elizabeth; his arch-enemy George Warleggan and their children: Jeremy, Clowance, Bella, Geoffrey Charles, Valentine and Ursula. Each grows and develops, matures and becomes seasoned as the story moves through rebellion, lost love, marriage, business, sickness, death, war, success, and tragedy. The series books in order are: 1. Ross Poldark (1951, original title The Renegade)
2. Demelza (1953, original title Elizabeth's Story)
3. Jeremy Poldark (1954, original title Venture Once More)
4. Warleggan (1955, original title The Last Gamble)
5. The Black Moon (1973)
6. The Four Swans (1976)
7. The Angry Tide (1977)
8. The Stranger from the Sea (1981)
9. The Miller's Dance (1982)
10. The Loving Cup (1984)
11. The Twisted Sword (1990)
12. Bella Poldark (subtitled The Final Poldark Novel!) I hope that you will have the opportunity to enjoy them as much as I have.
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by Winston Graham
by Winston Graham
by Winston Graham
