Review: Frenchman's Creek by Daphne DuMaurier



Frenchman's Creek
by Daphne DuMaurier



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Lady Dona has grown weary of her high society life.  She is fed up with the endless parties filled of people with too much money and too less to do.  It's an inane and nonsensical existence - sleeping until noon and staying up all night in the card houses.  Playing silly jokes just to pass time.  Boredom of the rich is nothing to scoff at.

Finally, she can't take it anymore, the urge to flee is too overwhelming.  Telling her husband that she would like some time alone, she grabs her two kids and a nurse and sets off at break-neck speed to their house at Navron in Cornwall.  Upon arrival, she finds there is only one servant, William with the strange accent that she can't quite place.  He and Lady Dona seem to almost click at once, then develop a relationship throughout.  They have some great repartee!  

Dona settles nicely into life at Navron.  Playing with the children, getting dirty and enjoying the country suit her just fine and you can feel the real Dona emerging.  And the woman here is much more likeable than the woman in the beginning.  She is mischievous and funny, laid back and a realist.  It's solely to her precariousness that she stumbles across the Frenchman in his hidden creek - she figures quickly that this must be the pirate the locals have told her about.  The French pirate that's been stealing from them, the one they have been unable to catch.  She also links him to her servant, William, thus securing him as a partner in crime to her meetings with the Frenchman.  Adventure awaits her upon La Mouette and she is not going to let this opportunity go by.

DaMaurier writes a smartly crafted novel about one woman's need to escape, the need to feel something real, something tangible.  At the same time Dona is a realist and appreciates that she can't escape forever - above anything, she is a mother and knows her place is with them.  But, she'll always have that memory, that moment, that is truly hers alone - and she can escape there anytime...with her mind.





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7 comments:

  1. This one was the book that got me in a du Maurier frenzy. I really, really liked it and I'm glad that there is a lot more of du Maurier to read and savor.

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  2. I have owned this book for ages! One of these days I will get around to reading it!

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  3. I have heard so many good things about the Author! I really want to get to one of the books very soon!

    Thank you!

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  4. I have appreciated more than Rebecca. Actually I read this first .Great book..

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  5. Sounds like a great book! It's been on my list for a while. Why do these odd things always happen in Cornwall??

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  6. This is a great favourite of mine. I probably re-read it every year or two. I read somewhere that Daphne du Maurier herself disliked London and only felt truly free in Cornwall, and I wonder if she gave that to Dona?

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  7. Great review Amy. I really enjoyed this book as well.

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