Hello everyone!
I'm picking up the pace with my reading a little bit, because even though I've been working quite a bit in the past couple of weeks, I've found that reading does in fact help me relax a whole lot more despite my initial thought that I couldn't focus on anything beside the manuals and stuff.
But all the same, some of the books I've read have been very mindless, very easy, and definitely not as time-consuming as you'd think.
Of course, there have been exceptions to this rule. After all, rules (about books) were made to be broken.
I'm a bit behind with my watching of Poldark, I have yet to see the latest episode but luckily for me, I'm actually AHEAD of BBC in terms of reading through the books. Since season two is an adaptation of books three and four, and I've finished four, I think I have quite a good jump ahead on the lot, don't you?
This blog post will briefly cover the first four books in the Poldark saga, without going into too much detail since there ARE four of them, not just one.
So, without further ado, let's get into it!
Now, originally, Graham thought that he would be finished with this family after writing the first four books, but then twenty years later he resumed the saga and continued on until he had twelve books all total.
Which is really good for us readers, really, since he managed to create compelling and believable characters who sometimes behave so badly you just want to smack them upside the head.
Just like you would in real life.
The story begins with Ross Poldark, who has just returned from fighting the war in America, which he had gone to fight chiefly to escape some criminal charges he was facing back home. Unfortunately for him, his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth got tired of waiting and ends up marrying his cousin, Francis. With Ross' parents gone, his home in shambles, and his future prospects bleak, he starts out to reclaim his place in Cornish society, not without its own perils, to be sure. Not only does he have a temper, but he also has the same sort of thirst for mining as his father did, which is how he clashes with George Warleggan, who, in the eyes of old families, is an upstart with 'new money'. Their rivalry is only just beginning, but Ross focuses primarily on himself, his cousin Verity, his kitchen maid Demelza, whom he ends up marrying, and his own problems.
In the second book, Demelza, life seems to slowly be settling for Ross and Demelza both as they welcome their first child, Julia, but temperatures continue to grow as both Ross and George Warleggan continue to strike the iron. With the price of copper falling and the Warleggans pretty much owning everything in the district (not to mention everyone) it takes a bit for people to take their minds off their troubles - it just so happens that the new surgeon helps them with it. Dwight Enys, a brilliant young scholar who seems to wish for nothing more than to aid the poor, lands among them and starts attempting to make things better. But when a miner's wife sets her eyes on him, things are bound to go south - which they do when she ends up dead at the hands of her husband. This tragedy and scandal sort of distract us from the primary problems that are at stake here: poverty, hunger, and the Warleggans on the rise.
Jeremy Poldark returns us to Cornwall and all its trials and tribulations, where after losing Julia to putrid throat and almost losing Demelza as well, Ross takes his grief out on a ship that gets stranded in his cove - after which come the charges which send him to prison. Luckily, he evades the gallows, but he keeps on brushing against the law as he accumulates more and more debt at staggering rates. Demelza is afraid to tell him she's pregnant again - and yet she is, and their son, Jeremy is born into this uncertain and insecure world. Unlike them, however, the good doctor is experiencing a second chance at love with an heiress who seems to be bored with everything except him. Caroline Penvenen is set to marry a rich, and incredibly ridiculous man (this may be his show portrayal talking though), but she seems to find the local doctor a whole lot more fetching. I wouldn't blame her. Have you seen the actor who plays him in the show? And tragedy befalls the Poldarks when Francis drowns in the new mining venture, Wheal Grace.
The fourth book, Warleggan, as its title suggests offers more insight into the mind of George Warleggan, bu still keeps to the dotted line of following the Poldarks. Ross is facing prison for his debt when an unknown benefactor steps forth to pay it off to the Warleggans, much to his delight. But unfortunately a darker side of Ross emerges in this book as, after Elizabeth, Francis' widow, explains she is marrying George Warleggan, he rapes her. Demelza also almost breaks her wedding vows with Scottish Captain MacNeill, stopping herself at the last moment instead. The couple seem to be at odds end, and it's no better for Dwight and Caroline who, after a failed plan of elopement when Dwight stayed behind to warn Ross & Co of an ambush to their smuggling entreprise, are now not even on speaking terms. But after learning the truth about who bought his debts (Caroline), and realising things can't go on as they are now, Ross tests his hand at matchmaking and reunites the two star-crossed lovers, while braving the fire to mend the relationship with his own wife, rying to forget about Elizabeth.
The thing I love most about these books is how diverse the characters are, because Ross and Dwight couldn't be more different: while Ross follows the passions of his heart, Dwight uses his head, and when he does use his heart it gets him in trouble. Mostly.
Also, seeing more of how George feels has been a great insight to just painting him into the regular bad guy of the series, because learning that he's loved Elizabeth for years does turn the tide.
However, I will never be happy about what Ross did, because that's just crossing a line.
I think it might come back to bite him since Elizabeth now seems firmly on George's side (though hopefully she'll lift her head enough to realise that her husband is certainly no saint either), but I'm hoping the show somehow changes this. I don't know if they will, but there've been certain allusions by actors that they're changing 'something big', and unless there's something I missed in the books, this is it.
Unfortunately, the books also just drop Verity like a bad habit, which I was sad to hear since I love her story, and I'm hoping we get to see more little nuggets in the show itself. There are some here and there in the books, of course, but oh so little!
The Paynters remain comic relief, right along with Aunt Agatha who never fails to please, in the book and in the show (can we please agree her with a pistol equals awesomeness? Thank you).
All in all, however, these books are very much worth the read, and if you have yet to sink your teeth into them, I heartily recommend them!
And I want the new releases with the stunning covers!
xx
*images not mine
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