Bella Poldark (The Poldark Saga #12) by Winston Graham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Read: 3rd January 2018
Purchase: Amazon
★★★★★ 5 stars
I can't believe it! 12 books and 2 and a half months later and I have finished the complete series! I am so going to miss my much beloved characters from the north coast of Cornwall. Having read the final pages, I'd wondered if Winston Graham intended to continue the series at some point but died before he could...I guess we will never know. However, having said that, the ending was absolute in one way or another and did so perfectly. Whether he had intended to continue the series or not, the final book "Bella Poldark" still gave a wonderfully complete ending either way. I just know that I will miss them, having lived and breathed alongside them in reading each book back to back. Going back to my usual genre of psychological thrillers and mysteries are going to seem lacking in part after having lived in 18th and 19th century Cornwall for the past 2 months.
This book was a little different in part than the previous Poldark books, in that we had an element of mystery with a murderer afoot, killing off women by slashing their throats and leaving them to be later discovered by a passerby. I must admit, given my usual genre of thrillers and crime, I had my own list of suspects and narrowed it to 2 possibles in the end before the killer was revealed. My reasoning for suspecting them were different for each character, but in the end on Guy Fawkes night all was revealed. I should have liked to have learnt the outcome of the fate of the"killer" but as his trial wasn't until February 1821 and the book only covered up till 1820 I figured that was never going to happen in this book. However, he was sitting in Bodmin prison awaiting his trial but it seemed his fate was inevitable regardless.
There were also quite a number of deaths in this book - some significant and some not so significant. Given that there was a murderer on the loose, it goes without saying that there were going to be several deaths. Demelza was followed one night on her way back from the Paynters (I'm amazed those two were still alive and kicking after the 35 years covered in the books) and narrowly missed what may have been the killer. Another young woman walking home to her village one night also almost fell victim but was a luckily escapee also. Several others, mostly insignificant name except for Agneta Trenelgos, were not so lucky.
Last book we saw the Poldark's oldest child Jeremy killed at Waterloo in the Napoleonic war and Clowance's husband Stephen Carrington also dying. One missed, one not so missed. In this book we saw the near death of our favourite adversary Sir George Warleggan, when his horse fell and he found himself in a muddy hole almost unable to keep himself from sinking. I really thought we would be rid of him at last! But notably he has taken a back seat in the later novels and the continual feud between George and Ross has simply been "background" to rest of the story. Our favourite larrikin Valentine who, having disinherited himself from the Warleggan fortune by going against his father and marrying Selina Pope, is still up to mischief.
I must say there was a discrepancy I found regarding Valentine and Selina, or rather their child. At the end of the previous book, in which the timeline went up until 1815, Valentine had mentioned that Selina was "6 months forward" in her pregnancy. If that had been the case, then come the time this book's timeline started in 1818, the child would therefore be 3 years old, or near to. However, this book opens under the part titled "Valentine" and with the news that Selina has just given birth to their first child. Either, Selina miscarried 3 years before and it was never mentioned in this book, it was a mistake or Selina's pregnancy has to be the longest one on record! Oh well, I guess we will never know. Valentine, naturally, has not given up his womansing ways and goes forth and continues to bed many a woman in the county and beyond! As much I loved Valentine, this was an awful thing to do to a woman who is obviously devoted to him but would not stand for such behaviour. I know it was "the norm" in those days for men to keep mistresses despite being married but it's not a type of behaviour I condone nor welcome.
Which brings me to Bella's beau, Christopher, whom she met last book whilst they were in Paris and she just a mere 13. For 5 years to continue their "affiliation" with each other and ultimate betrothal, he still maintained a membership to an exclusive gentlemen's club where women were for the taking! And to tell Bella that he would stop about a year after their marriage. To say that he still intended to continue seeking those services even after their marriage was appalling! I don't blame Bella for upping and going off to Paris with the sleazy Maurice Valery, though I did not like him in the slightest. However, Christopher has been betrothed in a sense to Bella for many years and despite this flaw, I preferred him to Maurice. This book focused a lot on Bella and her rise to become prima donna in the opera, but after Maurice pushed her too far too soon, she returned to England with a sore throat, which upon arrival back in England Dwight diagnosed as diptheria - aka the morbid sore throat that killed the Poldark's first child Julia and that Demelza had been incredibly sick from. After several months of recuperation, Bella could no longer reach those higher notes and sought a life in the theatre, where she ended up playing Romeo in a production of "Romeo and Juliet", titled "Two Lovers of Verona", after the original Romeo was injured in dress rehearshal. The book in ending, went on to say that she became famous and had appeared successfully in many more theatre productions, which she was oblivious to at this moment in time. An apt way to end the series.
But apart from all I have mentioned, so much more happened too. There were several marriages, a few births and of course many deaths. So much took place within these final pages of a much loved series, I could barely express it all. One thing I will say...at least Ross and Demelza survived the entire series and remained as much in love as in the beginning.
A brilliant end to an even more brilliant series!!
