18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The splendor of Du Maurier!!!, October 17, 2006
Reading Daphne du Maurier's The King's General makes me realize that they just don't have a lot of authors like her anymore. Meticulously researched, this saga of the English Civil War is free from the anachronisms one so often finds in modern historical novels, conveying the reader back in time. Without being explicit, the author weaves one of the most passionate and sensual love stories ever, even though the heroine is a disabled and thought that love would never find her again. The family divisions and painful separations which so characterized the era are captured with heartbreaking intensity, as well as the indestructible love between Honor and her general. Beautiful descriptions and flowing narrative, this is a historical fiction as it should be.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am a black widow spider, August 6, 2002
My friend said she read this book and hated it. I didn't pay much attention, and probably would never have checked it out. I'm not much a fan of historical dramas. But when another friend said she read it and hated it I became very interested of a sudden. I had to know what was so horrible and depressing about this story.
And I have never regretted reading it.
I will confess. The characters are less than ideal. Sir Richard Grenvile is a self-centred cad; Honour Harris is a vain, spoiled maiden. Gartred is evil to the core, but every story has to have a villain, so that's all right.
But for some reason these characters are real. I've known self-centred cads before and I can easily understand Honour's tireless, devoted devotion to Richard, regardless of what he does or says.
Honour is crippled early in the book and spends the rest in a wheelchair. From this confining angle of vision comes a story of epic proportions, a sort of Cornwallian Gone With the Wind. Set in the 1600's during some civil war (I cannot tell which one, or if it was the only one), it tells the story of surviving invading soldiers and the desolation of the aftermath of war.
This story has it all. Romance, intrigue, births, deaths, tragedies, and the gothic setting of Menabilly. I cannot understand why my two friends hate it so. It was the best, most realistic, most fascinating story that I had read in a long time, and I felt peculiarly alive and inspired when I had finished it.
I told this to my first friend and she backed away from me. She referred to this motion as (I paraphrase) her retreat from a black widow spider. "How can you like that horrible book?" she asked. She and my other friend and I have had many, many debates - I in defense and they against me.
But I am happy to be a black widow spider as long as my web... web of intrigue... can be this book.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A most unusual love story, October 16, 2009
Set during the English Civil War of the 1640's, du Maurier retells a lesser known bit of Cornish history as an elderly Honor Harris reflects back on her life and love. Wooed by the charming, irascible but extremely flawed Richard Grenvile, eighteen year old Honor loses her heart and prepares to marry Richard until a tragic accident changes their plans. Richard and Honor separate, but meet years later during the Civil War as he is now the King's General in the West as they fight the Parliamentarian rebels - although not all the Royalists think too highly of Richard's high-handed approach to prisoners and discipline. While Honor refuses to marry Richard, her feelings for him are as strong as before and they begin a most unusual relationship as the tides of war ebb and flow around them.
Honor takes up residence at Menabilly, the family home of Honor's brother-in-law Jonathan Rashleigh and things soon begin to go bump in the night in typical du Maurier fashion - mysterious comings and goings, a secret door, a mystery floorboard in the summerhouse and..... well more than that, I'm not telling - read it for yourself. du Maurier once again weaves a magical tale, albeit this time with real-life characters. The dialogue between Richard and Honor sizzles off the pages, as does the enmity between Honor and Richard's sister - and boy can those two swap some memorable barbs. The scene where those two sat and played at cards and witty repartee as the rebels sacked Menabilly to its bare walls was just brilliant, as was the bit when Richard over indulged in dinner and wine and called the troops back after retiring - simply priceless.
All in all a very unusual love story and an interesting glimpse at a footnote in Cornish history. I'd love to see this one on film - the actors would have a field day. As for Menabilly, du Maurier rented the home from the Rashleigh family and lived in it for some time and was the inspiration for her most famous novel, Rebecca. Five stars and now I'm off to find more of these almost long lost gems to put on the reading pile.
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