Daphne Du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier's Frenchman's Creek is the scandalous tale of one woman's will to seize adventure by the horns and become the fugitive of her own fate.

Frenchman's Creek

The Restoration Court knows Lady Dona St Columb to be ripe for any folly, any outrage that will relieve the tedium of her days. But there is another, secret Dona who longs for a life of honest love - and sweetness, even if it is spiced with danger. Dona flees London for remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds there the passion her spirit craves - in the love of a daring pirate hunted across Cornwall, a Frenchman who, like Dona, would gamble his life for a moment's joy.

Jasmine Stanway

** spoiler alert **
           I have a lot of thoughts about this book. It was engaging and funny and bittersweet, and truly felt like your classic adventure story. When it comes to the protagonist, I don’t know how I feel about her. On one hand I empathize with her and the lack of contentment she feels in her life, surrounded by fake people and having a husband who she can’t seem to love. But on the other hand, she neglects her family and ultimately betrays them. And yet she’s so quick witted and clever that you can’t help but like her at parts. 

Then again that’s the genius of Du Maurier’s writing- we’re never given flat, one-dimensional characters to read about, we’re given their good and bad sides and left to decide for ourselves how they rank in our esteem. If anything, I think I rooted for the Frenchman and William throughout more than Dona, and I lacked sympathy for what she endures in the book simply because she put herself in those situations. 

I think when it comes to Dona, I’ll never be able to decide whether I like her or not- after all, she was unfaithful and still viewed herself as the victim of harsh circumstances despite her other advantages. But ultimately she returns to her family, even though she longed to joined the Frenchman, and there’s something to be said for that action in her favour.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the twists and turns that kept me up until 1 am reading, and I’ll likely read it again one day!

Jade Flynn

Read for my 'Acceptable' N.E.W.T in Potions 2019 #magicalreadathon. Prompt - Read your friends favourite book. Career choice - Ministry of Magic, Department of Mysteries Worker.  I've read all four of du Maurier's most famous novels now and I really didn't think that Frenchman's Creek would end up being my favourite out of Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel & Jamaica Inn. I seem to have the opposite opinion to most people with Jamaica Inn and Frenchamn's Creek being my top two of the four. All in all this is a simple tale about a woman wanting more out of life. Who doesn't want an adventure of a lifetime?

Andrea Badgley

In fact, William, I propose to behave outrageously.

I loved this book: pirates, seafaring, cleverness, romantic tension, a scandalous woman challenging the constraints of her gender, and skilled, sensuous descriptions of landscape and scene. What more could you ask for, really? 

After reading My Cousin Rachel, I expected flashes of incisive insight from Frenchman's Creek, and was not disappointed:

No, to be really free, a man must sail alone.

This other self knew that life need not be bitter, nor worthless, nor bounded by a narrow casement, but could be limitless, infinite.

What I did not expect, though, was the humor in this book. I was continually caught off guard by how funny it was. The dialogue is brilliant, and there is a particular exchange between Dona (the scandalous woman) and the prudish Lord Godolphin, that kept me giggling:

As this fellow is a Frenchman we all realize that it is only a question of time before something dastardly occurs.

"If you came face to face with a pirate I dare swear you would shiver and swoon, like the rest of your sex."

"I would certainly shiver."

I've only recently begun reading Daphne du Maurier (thanks Ben!), and I've discovered after My Cousin Rachel and Frenchman's Creek that she is an author I will want to read a lot of.

Emily Carruthers 

Abby Beatrice Quick

Pierke Bosschieter

Rebecca Grandison 

Marisa N

Daphne du Maurier

This "highly personalized adventure, ultra-romantic" story from the author of Rebecca tells the tale of a woman looking for adventure, only to find it in the arms a rebellious criminal (New York Times). Bored and restless in London's Restoration Court, Lady Dona escapes into the British countryside with her restlessness and thirst for adventure as her only guides. Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall. Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.

Frenchman's Creek

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