I blame Ross Poldark for ...
I hadn’t read any of the books
from the Poldark saga before the new adaptation started on BBC1, though I had
been totally smitten by the original series back in the 70s. I was just a
kid who was beginning to learn English as a foreign language at school at that time and my love
for everything British is, for sure, a result of Robin Ellis’s good looks and Ross Poldark’s
charm as a character. My interest in Jane Austen's novels came soon after.
However, I bought the first 2 Poldark books when the remake was announced in the press. I
decided I wanted to read them, to compare them to their adaptation in the upcoming TV
series.
You know, that’s one of my favourite passtimes!
Synopsis of Book 1 - Ross Poldark
In the first novel in Winston
Graham’s hit series, a weary Ross Poldark returns to England from war, looking
forward to a joyful homecoming with his beloved Elizabeth. But instead he
discovers his father has died, his home is overrun by livestock and drunken
servants, and Elizabeth—believing Ross to be dead—is now engaged to his cousin.
Ross has no choice but to start his life anew.
Thus begins the Poldark series, a
heartwarming, gripping saga set in the windswept landscape of Cornwall. With an
unforgettable cast of characters that spans loves, lives, and generations, this
extraordinary masterwork from Winston Graham is a story you will never forget.
The hero
“His was not an easy face to read, and no one could have told that in the past half hour he had suffered the worst knock of his life. Except that he no longer whistled into the wind or talked to his irritable mare, there was nothing to show.”
(pictures: Robin Ellis and Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark)
Respect to other 18th century
gentlemen, Ross Poldark is quite the restless Romantic type and very little the
well-mannered Austen hero. As a matter of fact, being Ross a gentleman of the Georgian Era, his
good manners may be well considered flawed.
He is a living contradiction - as alive as a literary character can be - in so
many aspects. He is generous and passionate, has a huge sense of honour and
dignity. Anyhow, his impulsiveness,
rebelliousness, anticonformism, pride and moody temper distance him from other
literary gentlemen of his time.
