Customer Reviews

The Loving Spirit

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Loving Spirit is the most underated novel by Daphne Du Maurier. In her first published novel Daphne's characters, especially the women, are multidimensional with many desires, the strongest being to follow their heart and remain true to their spirit. With four generations of family, each character gets closer to the truth and living a life that fulfills their inner needs and that of their soul. Rich in romance, wit, adventure and also very much a spiritual book, even for it's time period, The Loving Spirit should be read by all DuMaurier fans and those wanting to change their paths in life and look within themselves.

It all begins in Plyn, Cornwall, 1830. Janet Coombe is a free spirit. Sometimes she feels she should have been a boy. She loves boats and the sea, and dreams of being a traveler and adventurer. A perfect day for her entails running about the countryside with her skirt hiked up to her knees. But since she is born female, things are expected from her. So she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and gives him children and marital contentment. But as he becomes involved in his family business, Janet begins to wonder if this is all there is to life. She passes her spirited ways on to her son Joseph, and amid family drama, tragedies, changes and some suspense, it is Joseph's granddaughter Jennifer who, with her own free spirit, intends to mend everything and live the life that was once meant for Janet Coombe.

Janet Coombe seems to be the fictionalized version of Daphne du Maurier. In various autobiographies, Du Maurier often said that she wished she had been born a boy, that she'd always been a tomboy and that she lived her fantasies through her male narrators in various novels. This is her first novel, and probably her most autobiographical effort. The Loving Spirit has a wonderful beginning. It kept me turning the pages because the writing is lyrical and sublime, and it engaged me with little effort. It does get a bit tedious somewhere in the middle, and it took me a while to read it at that point. It does, however, pick up when Jennifer's story comes in. It is, in fact, the best part of the novel and I couldn't put it down. Daphne du Maurier is one of my favorite novelists. She wrote a little bit of everything, took risks that paid off. This is a wonderful look at her writing during its beginner state. I have to say this debut is better than most books written by today's experienced authors. And that speaks volumes about today's commercial fiction.

I read a serialized version of this in the late 50s in a British women's magazine (Women or Womens Own). It made a huge impression on me, though I was barely a teenager at the time. It spoke directly to my heart about a woman's emotional fulfillment and finding and keeping your own true self (though I could not articulate that at the time). Over the years, I have searched bookstores and thrift shops across America on a quest to find this book. When I located a copy via Amazon it was with fear that I opened and began to read. Would it hold up? Have I become too jaded to defer to my 13 year old taste?
I LOVED it once again.

"High above the clustered houses and the grey harbour waters of Plyn, the loving spirit smiles and is free."

Although you know I'm not going to tell if that's from the beginning of the book or the end. This first novel of Du Maurier's tells the story of four generations of the Coombe family of Plyn, Cornwall beginning in the early 1800's as young bride Janet Coombe, happy as she is with her children and husband, always longs for the freedom of the sea. Her son Joseph follows his mother's dreams and sets sail in the merchant ship built by the Coombe family and named after his mother - as is her image the figurehead at the prow of the ship. Joseph eventually marries, but his real love is always the sea and when he can no longer sail he takes his bitterness out on his family, which eventually leads to dire changes in their lives.

Joseph's son Christopher, realizing he is not cut out for the sailing life, abandons ship in London and ekes out a living there and marries his landlady's daughter Bertha Parkins. Finally tiring of London life, they return to Plyn in hopes of reuniting with his estranged family and find work in the family's shipbuilding business - although his uncle Phillip's grudge against Joseph continues unabated against his son and forces the grief stricken family to return to London. The book culminates with the story of Christopher's daughter Jennifer as her restless spirit brings her back to Plyn to a chance meeting with a long-lost cousin at the wreck of the Janet Coombe, as well as a show down with her great-uncle Phillip over the damage his hatred has wreaked on the Coombe family.

Throughout the book, the loving spirit of Janet Coombe seems to guide her family through the best and worst times of their lives. As a first book it is certainly good, but far from what readers of her later classics might expect, and a bit slow paced for the most part except the last 50 or so pages - she had me biting my nails for a while there. While I do enjoy family sagas continuing over multiple generations, this one is far from the best either, a bit too short and not as well developed as I like them. I'd recommend this one for fans of Du Maurier wanting to get a look at her first book, but I doubt there's enough here to hold the interest of a more casual reader. 3/5 stars.

I have read most of her novels & I cannot recommend her works highly enough. What a gift she had. That the LORD would give such gifts to men is marvelous, & all to the praise of His most glorious mercy & goodness.

I am a loyal Du Maurier fan..I enjoyed, this but it is not as good as her other novels that I have read.