Bronze Age Tomb, Cornwall
Gentle readers,
I hope I do not try your patience by placing a concise survey of the Poldark series, together with the counterparts of each novel in the mini-series, and a list of fiction and non-fiction by Graham I’ve read thus far, two closely related books by other authors, and two links to full lists of each of his publications.
I’m in the midst of writing my paper (it’s coming!), and it would be very handy were I to have a single place to refer to — one click away!
I know I can become obsessive over detail once I allow my love and absorption in a particular interest to take over my mind for a while (I did this with the Palliser series, Jane Austen’s novels’ timelines and the Austen films, and am now doing it over Jane Austen’s letters), so I do try to keep this focused and concise.
First, here are the twelve Poldark books with the dates they are set in, their numbers, counterparts in the films, and first publishers and dates published. All are set in Cornwall.
Ross Poldark (1), 1783-87 (Season 1, Parts 1-4) – Ward Lock 1945
Demelza (2), 1788-1790 (Parts 5-8) – Ward Lock 1946
Jeremy Poldark (3), 1790-1791 (Parts 9-12) – Ward Lock 1950
Warleggan (4), 1792-1793 (Parts 13-16) – Ward Lock 1953
The Black Moon (5), 1794-95 (Season 2, Parts 1-5) – Collins 1973
The Four Swans (6), 1795-97 (Parts 6-10) – Collins 1976
The Angry Tide (7), 1798-99 (Parts 11-13) – Collins 1977
The Stranger from the Sea (8), 1810-11 (1996 two hour film) – Collins 1981
The Miller’s Dance (9), 1812-13 – Collins 1982
The Loving Cup (10), 1813-15 – Collins 1984
The Twisted Sword (11), 1815 – 1990 – Chapmans 1990
Bella (12), 1818-20 – Macmillan 2003
Angharad Rees, Paul Curran and Robin Ellis in costume, with Winston Graham
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Here are his other historical novels that I’ve read:
The Forgotten Story, Cornwall 1898 (BBC mini-series, same title 1983) – Ward Lock 1945
Cordelia, Manchester 1869 – Ward Lock 1949
The Grove of Eagles, Cornwall, 1595-98 – Hodder & Stoughton, 1963 (this one just begun, gotten 1/3rd through)
St Ives, Cornwall 1898
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The Mystery and Suspense novels — contemporary dates, UK and Europe
Take My life (film of the same name, one of the authors of the final script Margaret Kennedy who, e.g., wrote The Constant Nymph, 1947) — Ward Lock 1947
The Little Walls – Hodder & Stoughton 1955
Marnie (Hitchcock, film of same name, 1964) – Hodder & Stoughton 1961
The Walking Stick (film of same name, 1970) – Collins 1967
Online still from The Walking Stick
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Non-fiction
The Spanish Armadas – Collins 1972 (this one, just begun, 1/3rd through)
Poldark’s Cornwall – Webb & Brower/Bodley Head 1983
Memoirs of a Private Man – Macmillan 2003
by other authors but directly related:
Poldark Country by David Clarke – Bossiney 1977
Making Poldark by Robin Ellis – Bossiney 1978
20thc photo of Walter Ralegh’s study, Sherbourne Castle, Dorset, set up 1594 (Ralegh figures in The Spanish Armada and Grove of Eagles)
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And here are some handy links to lists of all his novels, the film adaptations made from them, and my blogs on his definitions of historical fiction (in Poldark’s Cornwall) and his memoir:
Graham’s 3 types of historical fiction
Graham’s Memoirs of a Private Man
Ellen
Ellen And Jim Have A Blog, Two 
Some of the non-Poldark novels I’ve not written separate blogs on
1) I’ve not finished it: Unfortunately for me right now Groves of Eagles, a historical novel set in the 16th century is too long and involved, it’s an imitation of 16th century novels were there such things (as seen through 20th century eyes) so I’ve not got far enough to see if the same patterns are really here, but some have been begun: instinctive feminism, strong representations of the injustices of the time, an illegitimate hero (oldest son) with a missing erased mother … — and yes an attempt to characterize the era as a whole and mirror it, this time through this representative of a famous Cornish family: the Killigrews.
2) I’ve not had time. Take My Life. another semi-mystery suspense.
It’s a page turner again; this time we know who is the killer and watch the wrong man taken into custody and a trial go on where circumstantial evidence is very strong. The back-story is what interested me most: what slowly emerged: the murdered woman is someone we gradually realize was sexually exploited used by our playboy looking hero : we learn of their trip away where she thought he would marry her, a child out of wedlock by him, dead at birth — which he takes no thought of. Then she was a physically abused woman by her apparently impeccable schoolmaster husband: he beats her and murders her when she seeks a divorce; .
Here alas Graham at moments seems to side with those who criticize this woman for not obeying this headmaster and living self-erasingly by his side. She was ambitious you see; could not accept the life of a headmaster’s wife. And chases our hero. How dare she?
She writes a note to the hero which all interpret as wanting to renew an affair; it could also could have been a cry for help.
Interestingly tellingly her name is Elizabeth — the heroine whose death to cover a rape, an illegitimate child by a hero against the abuse of the protagonist-villain of the Poldark novels, Graham says his original tale of the Poldarks was meant to end on.
Graham wrote it with movies in mind; in fact he was turning it into a screenplay before it even got out as a novel to the public. What they — Valerie Taylor — and he concocted wouldn’t do. So Margaret Kennedy was called. Her great book The constant Nymph. She wrote feminist novels in the 1930s, leftist ones. I would like to see the movie, but it’s another not available. Would she have brought out the level of the novel I just have?
3) The novel, Walking Stick set in the 1960s when it was written, was made into a film which is admired by those who’ve seen it, but is utterly disappeared as far as I can tell thus far — it’s about a woman with a disability, crippled from polio. She lives a life apart, and would today perhaps be called Aspergers or autistic, partly a reaction to her crippled leg, partly from her personality, partly from a depression which is the result of the way people react to her. Graham writes he knew of a girl who walked pathetically with a stick (from polio) and also that in life his wife began to use a walking stick.
Postscript on 10/10/11: I’ve done a blog since
E.M.
Thanks, Ellen, for the information on Winston Graham. The Poldark series is certainly one of the great enterprises in historical fiction. It combines its theme of liberty and social change together with detailed descriptions of industrial and financial procedures as well as home and family life. My academic background includes history as well as librarianship and I found it to be utterly fascinating. It was a great reading experience.
John Ryland
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