It changes as they change and pursue their own ambitions. There are no straight cuckold or jilted woman stereotypes, nor is one character always a Penelope and the other always Ulysses. Sometimes, it is Ross’s wandering eye that gets the couple in trouble, sometimes it is Demelza’s.

The interesting thing about Ross and Demelza’s relationship is that the dynamics, both positive and negative, are not always gender-based. This contradiction is so compelling to read. Money, infidelity, distance, and time all pull and contract at its very foundation, yet there is a deep friendship and admiration that burns even when they are at each other’s throats. The relationship heats up and cools down and even faces moments where it comes close to shattering. Now that I have finished the series, it is the subtle complexity of Ross and Demelza’s marriage that has impressed me the most about Winston Graham’s writing. Demelza is hard stock, self-reliant and honest, but as beautiful and stormy as the Cornish coast itself. Elizabeth comes from one of the oldest families in Cornwall, she is delicate, refined and fashionable. Demelza is nothing like Ross’s first love, Elizabeth. He marries Demelza Carne, a miner’s daughter, and the marriage is talked about throughout the county as the scandal of the decade. By signing up you agree to our terms of useĪlong with Ross’s prison breaks, mining schemes, and political dramas, the story is always of his marriage. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Somehow, even the prose feels sticky with sea salt as the sea roars behind the characters. The windy moors make it hard to grow things, and mining is the trade of most. Cornwall is a place that is as beautiful as it is harsh. Most of the 37 years that the novels span take place on the ragged cliffs of Cornwall on England’s far Southwest Coast.

The Poldark series centers around the life of Ross Poldark, a lovable bad boy in a Tricorn hat and with a scar across his cheek that he got while fighting in the American Revolutionary War. As the first season ended, I needed more, and quickly found my way into the novels. Panning shots of Ross Poldark cantering across the cliffs of eighteenth-century Cornwall left me starry-eyed. I first discovered the series through the TV adaptation on Masterpiece Theater.

It took me so long partly because I didn’t want them to end, and partly because I knew that they would be there waiting while I dallied through other, sometimes less reliable books. It has taken me three years to get through the Poldark novels by Winston Graham.

The poldark book series