My first read for this year’s #DDMreadingweek was The King’s General – an historical novel set in seventeenth century Cornwall at the time of the English Civil War. Proving yet again her versatility du Maurier combines, history, romance, tension, with a poignancy for ageing and the dispossessed. All the main players in this novel are people who once lived – I assume relatively little is known about most of them though – enabling du Maurier to weave her story around them, a story not lacking in credibility. Much of the novel takes place in the house of Menabilly, a house Daphne du Maurier had been fascinated by for many years. She spent a lot of time researching the house and its original owners – who themselves appear in the novel – and a story of the discovery that was made during renovation work in the 1820s fuelled her imagination.
As in several other du Maurier novels her depiction of Cornwall, its landscape, its houses and its people is vivid and strangely timeless. The essence of that landscape, the shape of the land and its coast will have changed little in the long years since.
The novel opens with Honor Harris in 1653, she is thirty eight – looking back at the past recalling her youth and later the war that came to Cornwall. There is a feeling of melancholy in this opening as Honor talks about the last of summer and the approaching chill of autumn.
“It is a strange, joyous feeling, this streak back to the past. Nothing is regretted, and I am happy and proud. The mist and cloud have gone, and the sun, high now and full of warmth, holds revel with my ebb-tide. How blue and hard is the sea as it curls westward from the bay, and the Blackhead, darkly purple, leans to the deep water like a sloping shoulder. Once again – and this I know is fancy – it seems to me that the tide ebbs away in the middle of the day, when hope is highest and my mood is still. Then, half-consciously I become aware of a shadow, of a sudden droop of the spirit. The first clouds of evening are gathering beyond the Dodman. They cast long fingers on the sea. And the surge of the sea, once far-off and faint, comes louder now, creeping towards the sands. The tide has turned.”
Honor Harris grew up the youngest daughter of the Harris family at Lanrest, when she was ten her older brother Kit married the beautiful Gartred Grenvile. The Grenviles being one of the principle families in Cornwall. The marriage is a short one, Kit leaving Gartred a young widow a few years later. Honor has no love for her sister-in-law from the first, but as the years pass the two women will find themselves thrown together more than once in difficult circumstances.
On her eighteenth birthday, Honor Harris meets Gartred’s brother Sir Richard Grenvile – a man of whom she has already heard stories. He is a captivating, reckless presence – and Honor, beautiful and possessed of a sharp wit intrigues him immediately. The Harris family do not approve, but Honor and Richard ensure that their intended marriage is accepted by everyone. However, just days before the wedding a terrible accident puts a stop to everything and Honor reconciles herself to a single life and puts all thoughts of Richard firmly behind her.
Fifteen years later, the Civil War has brought great danger and uncertainty to Cornwall. Honor, still carrying the disability she acquired fifteen years earlier, is advised by her brother Robin to leave Lanrest and take shelter with her sister Mary (married to Jonathan Rashford) at Menabilly. Honor and her faithful servant Matty travel to Menabilly where they find a house fairly packed with various relatives all seeking refuge from the war. Honor is given a pleasant chamber in the belfry – where she is soon to make an astonishing and important discovery – and from where she can watch the comings and goings of the household in the courtyard below.
“Time heals all wounds, say the complacent, but I think it is not so much time that does it as determination of the spirit. And the spirit can often turn to devil in the darkness.”
It is here at Menabilly that Honor meets Richard again, now he is a much talked about general serving King Charles I. Despite all that happened, Richard and Honor are drawn back to one another – it quickly becomes clear that Richard favours Honor above almost everyone else. In the intervening years he married unhappily, which ended in divorce and has a son and daughter, his son Dick – still a young lad bitterly resentful of his father.
Over the next several years as War tears Cornwall and Cornish families apart – Honor finds herself having to find the most extraordinary reserves of courage as more than once she fights to save the lives of her beloved Richard and others as they try to defend their country and all they believe in. She must watch as Parliamentarian soldiers tear Menabilly apart – knowing her own home of Lanrest has suffered the same fate. War brings danger, violence, instability and loss and in this novel du Maurier again pitches the tension just perfectly.
“There was only the sound of the ripping wood, the breaking of the furniture, the hacking to pieces of the great dining table and the grunts of the men as they lifted their axes. The first thing that was thrown down to us across the hall, torn and split was the portrait of the King, and even the muddied heel that had been ground upon his features, and the great crack across the mouth, had not distorted those melancholy eyes that stared up at us without complaint from the wrecked canvas.”
There’s nothing quite like a suspenseful historical novel for escapism, and this one had all the ingredients necessary for a proper escapist read. du Maurier’s writing though goes far beyond the mere escapist, her description of place and the sense of time passing and ageing is really beautifully done.
Enjoyed reading your review. Again one which I read quite long ago but I remember that I liked it a lot; If I remember right, some of these characters also appear in The Children of the New Forest which I had incidentally read around the same time.
Thank you, I seem to remember The Children of the New Forest from years ago.
Here’s my take — I read DuMaurier, many of her books, non-fiction as well as fiction, and books about her and her art:
It is a book about WW2, about how women experience war, and seriously about the Civil War in the 17th century in Cornwall (accurately researched, from documents at Menabilly and elsewhere) — as well as the dark romance elements of the story of a cruel man, crippled woman, and vulnerable young boy: https://reveriesunderthesignofausten.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/daphne-dumauriers-kings-generalalivingbook/
Ellen
Thank you for your thoughts. The romance element is quite dark as is Richard’s relationship with his son.
Thanks for sharing your review of The King’s General. I’ve only read Rebecca (3x) and I think I would enjoy this!
Rebecca is so brilliant, I really hope you enjoy this if you get a chance to read it.
I never read this one.
I recommend it.
This one sounds brilliant! I had only read Rebecca (many years ago) but have just read Frenchman’s Creek and Don’t Look Now and am amazed at her versatility, so completely different – and from Rebecca!
Yes, her versitality is amazing. She does historical, contemporary settings, gothic, paranormal short stories and non fiction so well.
As Jane says, it’s her versatility which is so remarkable. Really enjoyed this review, Ali.
Thank you Sandra, yes, her versitality always impresses me.
I’m so glad you liked it. I loved the romance–that Richard was so masculine and Honor seemed to love that too. Simple reason I suppose–there is so much more in the book that I loved, too.
I don’t always like romanctic storylines, but I suppose this one isn’t conventional really.
This is really tempting – even as a teen I liked stories about aging and now I’m middle-aged they still appeal, but also resonate a bit more! The relationship between Honor and Gartred sounds interesting too.
There are several interesting and complex relationships in this one in fact. The ageing, passage of time is beautifully done.
That sounds so well done, and the extract couldn’t have been written by anybody else, could it! A great addition to your DDM week.
She is such a good writer, so underrated. She does historical so well, if that’s your thing.
Sounds marvellous, Ali, and what a great quotes! I must confess I know little about the English Civil War and I think a fiction like this would be a wonderful way to learn more. She’s very good at historical settings, isn’t she, yet equally good at contemporary.
Glad you like the quotes. I realised I didn’t know a huge amount about the Civil war either, I had to look things up. Her settings are always so good.
This does sound very good indeed, Ali. It must be very challenging to write a gripping historical novel like this while retaining a sense of authenticity / credibility – something that du Maurier appears to have achieved with this book. As you say, it demonstrates another element of her range as a writer. I couldn’t help but think of Rule Britannia, that prescient political novel you reviewed a year or so ago, another example of DdM’s vision and versatility…
She seems to have had a really excellent sense of historical periods, and uses the landscape she knew, alongside that to good effect.
So even with the historical stuff, she still writes suspense?! Cool. I don’t think I have a copy of this one, but it sounds like a great read.
She is so good at suspense and atmosphere and brings that into all her writing. She always seems to know her period pretty well too.
Ooo I can’t wait to read this one! 😃
I have a feeling you will love the historical nature of this one.