Customer Reviews

The Loving Cup: A Novel of Cornwall, 1813-1815

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1984's The Loving Cup, a novel released almost exactly forty years after the Poldark saga began, marks the tenth occasion Winston Graham visits Cornwall with his cast of characters. In this novel we witness Britain's reaction as the seemingly eternal war with France grinds down to what appears to be victory, and as a consequence Geoffrey Charles comes home at last from the front with a Spanish bride in tow. He takes up living in the old house he remembers from his childhood, when his father and mother, Francis and Elizabeth Poldark, resided there together in the far happier times of the 1780's and 1790's. But while this one homecoming passes, another Poldark takes a commission and goes to the perilous front, as the lovelorn Jeremy, at last accepting that the woman he'd hoped to marry will never have him in the face of her family's opposition, leaves behind all he has ever known and seeks his fate elsewhere. The Loving Cup is a novel about war, the results of an act of crime, and about the power of the place one dubs one's home. It tells tales of love and heartbreak, of ambitions successfully attained, and plans dashed by the whim of fate. In this book old friends from this long series are given exposure and updated, and many familiar men and women carry on with lives that seem very real beyond this literary context. As with all of Winston Graham's novels, this is historical fiction at its highest caliber.

I really enjoyed reading The Loving Cup. I have read all of the previous books in the Poldark series and this one was just as interesting and exciting as the previous ones. Winston Graham is able to make the second generation characters as compelling as the parents. I am glad, however, that Demelza and Ross continue to be integral to the storyline.

Winston Graham's last book really is the crowning glory to this magnificent series of the Cornish Poldarks and Warleggans which held me in thrall for so many years. He will be missed by all of us who could not wait for the next book in this enthralling saga, which brought to vivid life the whole of Cornwall from the 1790's, right through the turmoil caused by the French Revolution until the downfall of Napoleon. Every character, real and imagined, came to life not only in his books, but also in the TV series during the eighties of the previous century.
For every lover of historical romance, this is surely the ultimate read.

I bought the last 4 or 5 Poldark Books from Amazon about 3 years ago - sent to my sister, Mrs Laetitia Bundock of 17 Peartree Rd, Dibdon, Purlieu, Southampton, in order to save on postage to South Africa.