Bella Poldark, A Novel of Cornwall: 1818-1820 [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Winston Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2002

The stories of the Poldark family—Ross, the strong, independent squire and his beautiful, outspoken wife Demelza; their son Jeremy, killed at the battle of Waterloo; their talented, headstrong daughter Bella; and their long-standing feud with humorless landowner Sir George Warleggan—have sold millions of copies, and in the 1970s were made into the most widely watched TV series of the decade. Now, the twelfth and final novel brings the family story to a close—with Bella taking center stage, moving between her home at Nampara on the rugged Cornish coast and the wildly exciting world of the theater in London and Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In the 12th and final novel of Graham's acclaimed series, which debuted in 1945, the Poldark and Warleggan families continue to feud and try to deal with personal losses and social unrest after the Napoleonic wars. (Earlier "Poldark" books were made into a popular Masterpiece Theater series in the 1970s.) As the story opens, Valentine Warleggan's paternity still poisons the atmosphere, and his financial and marital troubles form a major narrative strand set firmly against the saga's familiar background of Cornwall. Meanwhile, Bella Poldark's desire for a musical career takes her to stages in London and France, where she is involved with rival suitors. Her widowed older sister, Clowance, must also choose between two men of vastly different backgrounds who propose marriage. A host of other characters and subplots, including a series of murders, keeps the action bubbling. Graham surmounts the daunting challenge of reminding readers of major events and characters from previous Poldark novels. Still, even devoted fans of the books or the BBC series may require a refresher. Public libraries with earlier volumes will want to complete their set, but the novel's ties to its predecessors reduce its interest as a stand-alone novel.
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

“From the incomparable Winston Graham… who has everything anyone else has, then a whole lot more.” -- The Guardian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• ISBN-10: 0333989236
• ASIN: B000BZ6UNK
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #509,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A quiet ending to the Poldark saga, December 17, 2002

By 

eLizabeth bennett (washington, dc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bella Poldark, A Novel of Cornwall: 1818-1820 (Hardcover)

I fell in love with the Poldark saga through the Masterpiece Theater series in the 70s and found that I preferred the books to the teleplay. I read paperback copies of the first seven books to pieces.

This 12th and, presumably, final Poldark novel is a must for any fan of the series. A caution: it lacks the narrative richness and detail of the preceding books. Promising plot lines and character developments bob to the surface briefly, only to plunge back into the depths without ever being fully explored, such as Clowance's dislike of Cuby, Cuby's future, Clowance's own courtships. It feels as if there were material enough here for more than one book, but perhaps Graham felt compelled to finish off the saga.

Some of the plot is creaky and out-of-joint. There is a subplot regarding a serial killer; Graham is an accomplished suspence writer, but the subplot feels dreadfully out of place here, and there is never any serious doubt as to the killer's true identity. Valentine's story develops in a way that felt, to me, forced and false. Clowance's choice of a second husband is resolved too quickly and too easily. And, finally, it's hard for me to believe that even parents as easy going as Ross and Demelza would have let their daughter embark on a stage career, or that Ross would have reacted with such control to the realization that his unmarried teenage daughter was having an affair with her French orchestra conductor.

For me, the best book in this series was The Four Swans: quiet, insightful, with surprising plot twists that nonetheless grew naturally out of what we knew of the characters. This book is closer to, say, The Twisted Sword, in that it covers a great deal of plot ground without showing us a great deal about the characters.

If you're not a fan of the Poldark saga, you may find this book confusing; too much of the past history has been left out for the book to be truly enjoyable for the new reader. If you are a fan of the Poldark saga, you may find the book not quite up to Graham's past standards, yet it will be irresistible and not totally unsatisfying.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CODA 1820, August 21, 2005

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bella Poldark, A Novel of Cornwall: 1818-1820 (Hardcover)

It was as I was reading Bella Poldark, a novel I never expected to be written (The Twisted Sword seemed to end the series and it came out in 1991) that I learned of Mr. Graham's passing. The knowledge that this really, truly and for all time marked the ending of this voyage back to Cornwall of two centuries ago, made the book I had before me infinitely more meaningful.

I do not think Graham intended to continue the series, even had death not taken him so soon after Bella Poldark was done. He was in his nineties and this novel is filled with omens that the end had been reached. (Ross illustrating to Demelza his thoughts on the brevity of life and futility of ongoing rancor with his remark on how in fifty years they'd all be gone and yet without them the tide would still rise to spout through the hole worn in the sea-cliff was one such example.)

Graham left us with this gift of a book. It is probably the best in the section of the Poldark series since the titles "graduated" from the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. I read the other eleven Poldark volumes between 1995-1997 and in the years since they have frequently crossed my thoughts, along with certain unanswered questions. The lingering mystery of Valentine's paternity becomes an issue yet again and is resolved before the book's conclusion. The "curse" literal or fanciful that struck down both Stephen Carrington and Jeremy Poldark after their robbery of the Warleggan carriage emerges to inflict its harm on a participant in that long-ago event. Ross and George Warleggan verbally spar as they have done for forty years, and Bella, the beautiful, angelic-voiced final child of Demelza and Ross, takes to the stage, her spirit set on becoming an opera star.

I wish the Poldark saga could have lasted forever, but since it could not, at least we had this one last visit among old friends to console us before our departure.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winston Graham, Thank You for a Wonderful Series, October 2, 2003

By 

MONTGOMERY (WASHINGTON, DC - U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bella Poldark (The Poldark Saga) (Paperback)

In this novel, the lives of the Poldark Family come full circle. As the title suggests, the novel is centered on the youngest daughter, Bella, who has her heart set on becoming an operatic singer.

As in all the preceding 11 novels of the series, Graham brings to life here the feelings and sensibilities of early 19th century Cornwall, and by extension, England and Europe in the immediate post-Napoleonic era. The characters are well-drawn and you find yourself, as you read this novel, wanting to know how they'll fare at journey's end.

While I enjoyed this novel, and the other 3 novels of the series I have read (I'm now reading "ROSS POLDARK", the first of the series), I felt sad to know that this is the last of the series. (As some of you may already know, Winston Graham passed away at the age of 93 this past July.)

Next to James Clavell, Graham has been able to create characters in the Poldark Series - Ross & Demelza & their children, George Warleggan, Valentine Warleggan, Verity, Geoffrey-Charles, Cuby - who could take on the lives of REAL PEOPLE. Love or hate them, you could never be indifferent about these people while reading any of the Poldark novels.