Review: The House on the Strand

The House on the Strand
by Daphne Du Maurier

Plot Summary:

Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as a guinea pig for a new drug that Magnus has discovered in his scientific research.

When Dick samples Magnus's potion, he finds himself doing the impossible: traveling through time while staying in place, thrown all the way back into Medieval Cornwall. The concoction wear off after several hours, but its effects are intoxicating and Dick cannot resist his newfound powers. As his journeys increase, Dick begins to resent the days he must spend in the modern world, longing ever more fervently to get back into his world of centuries before, and the home of the beautiful Lady Isolda..

Review:

Daphne du Maurier's novel on time travel and history was a particularly captivating read for me.  Because of the time travel aspect obviously and the scientific approach to it, but also because I kind of think of it as watching a train wreck.  Hear me out.  It's because as I read more of it, the sense that things were going to end unhappily became more and more pronounced.  The sense is hard to pinpoint, but seeing how unhappy Dick is with his real life, and the way he becomes obsessed with seeing lives that have nothing to do with him and which he can never participate in became gradually nervewracking.  I didn't think he should keep trying to make visits to the Medieval past, but he was compelled to keep going.

It was interesting to read how Dick develops as a character.  As a reader I felt very sympathetic with him and his uncertainty about his future.  He seems to love his wife, but he also pushes her away in ways that at first seemed natural (she did seem kind of annoying) but then somewhere in the middle of the book, it seemed like maybe he was being unfair.  I love that about Daphne du Maurier's writing - there is an unpredictability in her characters that keeps the suspense going.  She can turn these characters around and make it completely believable.

The past that Dick finds himself in is just as compelling as Dick's present; there are many characters introduced and it does get a bit confusing in the beginning but all that exposition sorts itself out and the main players in the drama of the past becomes clearer.  At first I did find Dick's attraction (if I can call it that) to Lady Isolda to be a little bit odd and a little too instantaneous, but after finishing the novel I think there is a reason to support why that was.  Except that is just one of the things that is nebulous about the ending of this story.  It's something the author does often I think - to give a chance for the reader to interpret the ending in their own way - which was a little disappointing because I wanted to have more answers.

Time travel in this story is very intriguing though.  Dick's friend Magnus created a potion that caused your consciousness to travel into the past, but not your body, so that Dick was always trying to independently prove that he was not hallucinating and that what he was seeing had really happened.  The idea that you can poke your head into the past is very appealing, and probably addicting as Dick finds out, and the idea that while he was in the past, anything could be happening to his body is another very suspenseful plot point.

This story is very well-written and intricately plotted and while it does take time to start up in the beginning, it becomes fascinating to visit the past with Dick and to read how his life becomes corrupted by the time travel.

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Review: My Cousin Rachel

My Cousin Rachel
by Daphne Du Maurier

Plot Summary:

Philip Ashley's older cousin Ambrose, who raised the orphaned Philip as his own son, has died in Rome. Philip, the heir to Ambrose's beautiful English estate, is crushed that the man he loved died far from home. He is also suspicious. While in Italy, Ambrose fell in love with Rachel, a beautiful English and Italian woman. But the final, brief letters Ambrose wrote hint that his love had turned to paranoia and fear.

Now Rachel has arrived at Philip's newly inherited estate. Could this exquisite woman, who seems to genuinely share Philip's grief at Ambrose's death, really be as cruel as Philip imagined? Or is she the kind, passionate woman with whom Ambrose fell in love? Philip struggles to answer this question, knowing Ambrose's estate, and his own future, will be destroyed if his answer is wrong.

Review:

This is a suspense story that takes it's time to build.  While the narrator, Philip, reminisces about what happened with his cousin Rachel, the reader is constantly left guessing until about Rachel's true intentions and her past.

Philip Ashley is not a character I liked a whole lot as I read more about him.  He's sheltered and a curious mixture of phlegmatic detachment and impulsive immaturity, prone to jumping to conclusions and acting on them without much thought, while also keeping his emotions locked away as much as possible.  For a character to be so introverted I suppose I thought he would have been more thoughtful and aware.  But as a narrator he was perfect to tell this story because he was not equal to dealing with Rachel who had charm and sophistication and plenty of secrets to keep the reader on edge.  And while you couldn't trust Rachel, you equally couldn't trust Philip which kept increasing the suspense.

I can't talk too much about Rachel without revealing the basic plot point of this book - did she bring about the murder of Ambrose Ashley and is she planning something similar for Philip, or is she innocent and all  the evidence against her merely circumstantial.  It's difficult to determine, and conflicting information avalanches the reader from the beginning, so that there is an aspect to the ending that feels very open to interpretation.  I have my own feeling one way or the other about Rachel and I found the way I interpreted the ending to have a very profound effect on me, which showed me that the way this plot was built was very effective.  The story's pace flags at times - especially in the beginning before Rachel arrives, but I think the story is so well written, and paints the characters in such murky lights that the novel is ultimately very intriguing and satisfying.

The other aspect that was so intriguing about this book - which was really brought home by the ending - is the power of femininity over a man.  Rachel holds this sway over more than one man, and yet all of her power comes from feminine charm and interest.  She's contrasted very well with Louise, who is Philip's childhood friend and long thought to be the girl he would marry.  Philip treats her terribly though, especially when he becomes obsessed with Rachel, but Louise remains steadfast and loyal and yet not very effective.  It's interesting to read how these two women work, and how Rachel is much more effective at snaring attention than Louise.

The setting in this book created a wonderfully immersive atmosphere - from the heat and opulence of Italy to the solid strength and beauty of Cornwall, I felt like I was in those countries, experiencing the emotional twists and turns in this story.  It keeps you guessing, and packs an emotional punch by the end.

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 Third read for Classics Club Challenge

Review: Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn
by Daphne Du Maurier

Plot Summary:

The coachman tried to warn her away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But young Mary Yellan chose instead to honor her mother's dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn's dark power. But never did Mary dream that she would become hopelessly ensnared in the vile, villainous schemes being hatched within its crumbling walls -- or that a handsome, mysterious stranger would so incite her passions ... tempting her to love a man whom she dares not trust.

Review:

In this atmospheric, sinister tale, the main character, Mary, must confront the evil doings of her Uncle-in-Law Joss and find a way to bring him to justice while also sparing her downtrodden, nervous Aunt Patience.  The story builds slowly as more and more is revealed of Jamaica Inn and Joss's activities.  When you think it can't get worse, things definitely get worse.  This is such a wonderfully dark story with glimpses of light in Mary's strength of character.  Mary stands up for herself and has a very determined personality, but she is a little naive and jumps to a few conclusions very easily.  Although there is romance in this story it moves very quickly and doesn't seemed based on a true connection.  And it's not even very romantic since the object of Mary's affection is a little suspicious himself, and in one scene of the novel leaves Mary stranded without a word or money in a town at night.

Though the story is very engaging, there were issues I had personally with the very misogynistic aspect of the story.  Even though Mary is the strongest character she proves largely ineffective in what she is trying to accomplish (the men accomplish it of course), and when she visits the man she comes to love (her very first visit!), he tells her to cook dinner for him, but first she cleans his kitchen because she can't cook in that pigsty.  Seriously.  Mary makes claims that she would rather be a man and live and work alone, but she disappointingly succumbs to feminine weakness more than once.  The other female characters in this story are all pretty weak as well, especially feeble, doting Aunt Patience.  It seems to me that this story shows how terrible the influence of a man can be.

Yet even after that rather depressing aspect to this story, I think it is a very entertaining read, with a mystery that sort of sneaks up on the reader, because it wasn't every clear that there was even a mystery brewing in the tale.  The writing is top notch, and illustrates the stark beauty of Jamaica Inn's lonely surroundings very well.  It paints a picture thoroughly and allows the reader to delve into Mary's mind completely.  It's an overwrought, daring and captivating read.

Now on to watch Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of this novel!

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