The Twisted Sword (The Poldark Saga #11) by Winston Graham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Read: 28th December 2017
Purchase: Amazon
★★★ 3 stars
** spoiler alert **
I have been thoroughly enjoying the Poldark series, though admittedly I enjoyed the earlier books up till the end of Book 7 the most. I think when Book 8 began and jumped some 11 years, it kind of felt as if we missed something and it lost it's momentum. That's not to say that the ride has still been enjoyable - it has. It just took some time to find that momentum again since everything had changed in 11 years between the end of Book 7 and the beginning of Book 8. And while there has always been an element of war on and off throughout the series, the last 4 have detailed a lot about the Napoleonic war and politics that far from interested me. I enjoyed life in Cornwall with the Poldarks, their friends and the miners, not war - the threat of war has always been there, but never filled half the book. It would be for these reasons that I have rated the last 4 books lower than the first 7.
Having said that, I DID enjoy this penultimate installment of the Poldark series. We had several births as well as deaths, some laughter as well as tears. The book opened with Ross and Demelza taking their children Bella and Harry with Mrs Kemp to Paris to live for 3 months. The idea was to have Jeremy and Cuby, and longtime friends Dwight and Caroline Enys with their children joining them at Easter. However, the stealth advancement of Napoleon into France once again to reclaim power, put paid to those plans. Dwight and Caroline were stopped after they crossed the channel and had to return to England, and Jeremy who was living in Brussels with Cuby and his regiment, was given orders to hold off Napoleon's further advancement into Belguim. And so begun the battle of Waterloo and there endeth the love story of Jeremy and Cuby - he who had loved Cuby since the first moment he set eyes on her when she hid him from the gaugers in Book 8, and pursued her to no avail until just 6 short months before, she agreed to marry him towards the end of Book 10. So much happened in this book. One death devastated readers, the other probably made them cheer - as it did me.
Back in England, Demelza stayed in London awaiting news of Ross who had been captured by Napoleon's officials and was interned as a spy for 3 months before he made his escape to rejoin his wife and family. But not before the battle of Waterloo and finding Jeremy just in time. By the time Ross had made it back to London, Demelza had returned to Cornwall and some devastating news from which it took her some time to recover from.
Meanwhile Valentine Warleggan has some questions, first for Dwight, and then for Ross - regarding his mother's death...and ultimately his parentage. We all know the contempt with which George has treated his only son in the early years when Elizabeth was alive. With those final words uttered by old Aunt Agatha ringing in his ears, George has never really shaken the feeling that Valentine wasn't actually his son. In this book George has once again broken his promise he made to Elizabeth on her death bed to never again question Valentine's parentage and to continue to love him, in disowning and disinheriting him from the Warleggan fortune when Valentine married the widowed Selina Pope in secret. George then pitted all his hopes upon his current wife's "confinement" of being with child in her bearing him a son to carry on the Warleggan name. How fate, as readers must have, laughed when the doctor informed him of the birth of twin daughters! And given Harriet's contempt for him of late I doubt she will be bearing him any more children. Valentine's wife Selina, however, is 6 months pregnant by the book's end - a chuckle I will have if it turns out to be the longed for boy by George to carry on the Warleggan name. After all, despite his parentage whatever it may be, Valentine is legally a Warleggan.
Then there is Clowance, the headstrong Poldark daughter, married to the awful Stephen Carrington who entered in Book 8 as "the stranger from the sea". I have never liked him, never trusted him and would have liked to have seen his demise long before he wedded Clowance. The fact that he had been married before and bore a son without telling her, leaves his entire past a mystery. One cannot trust anything he said of his life or his past as truth, since the man couldn't lie straight in bed. He had the same arrogance and sense of entitlement as George Warleggan, which drew him to the Warleggans and seeking a friendship and acceptance among them. Whilst Harriet enjoyed Clowance's friendship, Stephen was never completely accepted and George himself never trusted him. One thing I will say for George, he is smart and intelligent...even if arrogant. His hatred for the Poldarks, namely Ross and anyone connected to him, goes far deeper than anyone could ever imagine. So much so has his hatred filled him that he appears to have long forgotten the original slight and simply carried on the hatred and feud out of habit. Although he has mellowed in later years, his hatred for the Poldarks has not. However, that hatred aside, he had the ability to see through Stephen Carrington and set out to ruin him, after Stephen had taken out a loan with his bank. But Harriet stepped in and had him withdraw the note (and threat) of bankruptcy upon informing him of her being "with child". George, in his desperation for another son to inherit his name and his fortune, agreed. Stephen saw this as an acceptance on Harriet's part...and when he went to thank her for stepping in, her coldness rocked him to the core. It wasn't for him she'd put a stop to it, but for Clowance. Him, she didn't care for. In Stephen's arrogance, he raced her on horseback - a mistake as Harriet is a born horsewoman. But his broken back would not dissuade him as he recuperated, as Clowance nursed him in their cottage at Penryn until his dying breath. I was glad to see the back of him. But Clowance grieves for him and continued his shipping business, and would not return to Nampara for Christmas with Jeremy's wife Cuby there, heavily pregnant with child. The following day after Christmas, Cuby gave birth to a girl she named Noelle - a bittersweet time for Jeremy was not there to share in the joy. And Ross and Demelza? Beginning to feel their age with the birth of their first grandchild.
I love how this book "came home" at the end. Though it still incorporated the mines of Wheal Grace and Wheal Leisure and a few of the miners, and the return of Verity and Andrew given that Clowance now lives so close to them - her in Penryn and they in Flushing - we still feel the absence of Drake and Morwenna, whom we saw briefly last book, and Sam and Rosina. Geoffrey Charles is absent what with being int he army and living momentarily in Spain with his Spanish wife and their daughter. Drake and Morwenna are mentioned on occasion, as staying at Trenwith in Geoffrey Charles' absence but that is all. We all fell in love with Drake and Morwenna and wished to see more of them once they finally found each other after the nightmare that was Morwenna's first marriage to the hateful Rev Osbourne Whitworth. I would have liked to see more of them over the past few books, but alas we have not. However, as always, the book ended beautifully with the wise words of Demelza in conversation with the rugged Ross - the couple with whom we first fell in love with and will love until the series' last page.
Beginning the final installment "Bella Poldark" (who will be 16 in its beginning of 1818), I am hoping to find the saga come full circle....with no unanswered questions, because as Winston Graham died a year after this book's publication, I am hoping he had no intention of continuing the series....dying before they could be finished. I hope this 12th book will have a sufficient ending to end this saga we have all fallen in love with.
Having said that, I DID enjoy this penultimate installment of the Poldark series. We had several births as well as deaths, some laughter as well as tears. The book opened with Ross and Demelza taking their children Bella and Harry with Mrs Kemp to Paris to live for 3 months. The idea was to have Jeremy and Cuby, and longtime friends Dwight and Caroline Enys with their children joining them at Easter. However, the stealth advancement of Napoleon into France once again to reclaim power, put paid to those plans. Dwight and Caroline were stopped after they crossed the channel and had to return to England, and Jeremy who was living in Brussels with Cuby and his regiment, was given orders to hold off Napoleon's further advancement into Belguim. And so begun the battle of Waterloo and there endeth the love story of Jeremy and Cuby - he who had loved Cuby since the first moment he set eyes on her when she hid him from the gaugers in Book 8, and pursued her to no avail until just 6 short months before, she agreed to marry him towards the end of Book 10. So much happened in this book. One death devastated readers, the other probably made them cheer - as it did me.
Back in England, Demelza stayed in London awaiting news of Ross who had been captured by Napoleon's officials and was interned as a spy for 3 months before he made his escape to rejoin his wife and family. But not before the battle of Waterloo and finding Jeremy just in time. By the time Ross had made it back to London, Demelza had returned to Cornwall and some devastating news from which it took her some time to recover from.
Meanwhile Valentine Warleggan has some questions, first for Dwight, and then for Ross - regarding his mother's death...and ultimately his parentage. We all know the contempt with which George has treated his only son in the early years when Elizabeth was alive. With those final words uttered by old Aunt Agatha ringing in his ears, George has never really shaken the feeling that Valentine wasn't actually his son. In this book George has once again broken his promise he made to Elizabeth on her death bed to never again question Valentine's parentage and to continue to love him, in disowning and disinheriting him from the Warleggan fortune when Valentine married the widowed Selina Pope in secret. George then pitted all his hopes upon his current wife's "confinement" of being with child in her bearing him a son to carry on the Warleggan name. How fate, as readers must have, laughed when the doctor informed him of the birth of twin daughters! And given Harriet's contempt for him of late I doubt she will be bearing him any more children. Valentine's wife Selina, however, is 6 months pregnant by the book's end - a chuckle I will have if it turns out to be the longed for boy by George to carry on the Warleggan name. After all, despite his parentage whatever it may be, Valentine is legally a Warleggan.
Then there is Clowance, the headstrong Poldark daughter, married to the awful Stephen Carrington who entered in Book 8 as "the stranger from the sea". I have never liked him, never trusted him and would have liked to have seen his demise long before he wedded Clowance. The fact that he had been married before and bore a son without telling her, leaves his entire past a mystery. One cannot trust anything he said of his life or his past as truth, since the man couldn't lie straight in bed. He had the same arrogance and sense of entitlement as George Warleggan, which drew him to the Warleggans and seeking a friendship and acceptance among them. Whilst Harriet enjoyed Clowance's friendship, Stephen was never completely accepted and George himself never trusted him. One thing I will say for George, he is smart and intelligent...even if arrogant. His hatred for the Poldarks, namely Ross and anyone connected to him, goes far deeper than anyone could ever imagine. So much so has his hatred filled him that he appears to have long forgotten the original slight and simply carried on the hatred and feud out of habit. Although he has mellowed in later years, his hatred for the Poldarks has not. However, that hatred aside, he had the ability to see through Stephen Carrington and set out to ruin him, after Stephen had taken out a loan with his bank. But Harriet stepped in and had him withdraw the note (and threat) of bankruptcy upon informing him of her being "with child". George, in his desperation for another son to inherit his name and his fortune, agreed. Stephen saw this as an acceptance on Harriet's part...and when he went to thank her for stepping in, her coldness rocked him to the core. It wasn't for him she'd put a stop to it, but for Clowance. Him, she didn't care for. In Stephen's arrogance, he raced her on horseback - a mistake as Harriet is a born horsewoman. But his broken back would not dissuade him as he recuperated, as Clowance nursed him in their cottage at Penryn until his dying breath. I was glad to see the back of him. But Clowance grieves for him and continued his shipping business, and would not return to Nampara for Christmas with Jeremy's wife Cuby there, heavily pregnant with child. The following day after Christmas, Cuby gave birth to a girl she named Noelle - a bittersweet time for Jeremy was not there to share in the joy. And Ross and Demelza? Beginning to feel their age with the birth of their first grandchild.
I love how this book "came home" at the end. Though it still incorporated the mines of Wheal Grace and Wheal Leisure and a few of the miners, and the return of Verity and Andrew given that Clowance now lives so close to them - her in Penryn and they in Flushing - we still feel the absence of Drake and Morwenna, whom we saw briefly last book, and Sam and Rosina. Geoffrey Charles is absent what with being int he army and living momentarily in Spain with his Spanish wife and their daughter. Drake and Morwenna are mentioned on occasion, as staying at Trenwith in Geoffrey Charles' absence but that is all. We all fell in love with Drake and Morwenna and wished to see more of them once they finally found each other after the nightmare that was Morwenna's first marriage to the hateful Rev Osbourne Whitworth. I would have liked to see more of them over the past few books, but alas we have not. However, as always, the book ended beautifully with the wise words of Demelza in conversation with the rugged Ross - the couple with whom we first fell in love with and will love until the series' last page.
Beginning the final installment "Bella Poldark" (who will be 16 in its beginning of 1818), I am hoping to find the saga come full circle....with no unanswered questions, because as Winston Graham died a year after this book's publication, I am hoping he had no intention of continuing the series....dying before they could be finished. I hope this 12th book will have a sufficient ending to end this saga we have all fallen in love with.
