HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Frenchman's Creek (1941)

by Daphne du Maurier

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,180587,199 (3.78)213
Fiction. Romance. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:

This "highly personalized adventure, ultra-romantic" story tells the tale of a woman looking for adventure, only to find it in the arms a rebellious criminal (New York Times).


Bored and restless in London's Restoration Court, Lady Dona escapes into the British countryside with her restlessness and thirst for adventure as her only guides.


Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall.


Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.

.
… (more)
  1. 10
    The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (avalon_today)
    avalon_today: Largely centered around the sea. Both have that bittersweet quality running threw the book
  2. 10
    Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini (avalon_today)
    avalon_today: pirates and romance. captain blood was more pirates than romance :-)
  3. 00
    Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (Booksloth)
  4. 00
    Martha Peake by Patrick McGrath (Bookmarque)
    Bookmarque: definitely not a romance, but a gothic tale of revenge. Partially set in Cornwall.
  5. 00
    The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier (sturlington)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 213 mentions

English (56)  Dutch (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (58)
Showing 1-5 of 56 (next | show all)
I read this when I was a teenager and had fond memories of it, so I decided to read it again now that I am sixty. Mistake. It is a fun romp I suppose for a romance novel, and the female protagonist is not helpless or meek. She is also not very likeable. I did enjoy the ending, which I will not spoil here. I skimmed the middle as it was pure romance, which is a genre I am not fond of. I can say it is well written, and if you enjoy the historical romance genre you may have a different experience with this book. ( )
  MrsLee | Nov 26, 2023 |
Not as good as her other work. Seemed less believable, less investing, and more like any romance novel. ( )
  judeprufrock | Jul 4, 2023 |
3.5* for the book itself, rounded up due to John Castle's marvelous narration. ( )
  leslie.98 | Jun 27, 2023 |
Personally I don’t think this is Daphne du Maurier‘s best work. I think it sits well with other novels set in Cornwall. It should be read as historical fiction with a dash of romance and crime Thornton in. The plotting is good and there are certainly some times when there is a feeling of a Saturday morning pulp adventure going on. I largely enjoyed it. I thought the overall plot was simple was well handled. ( )
  aadyer | Sep 14, 2022 |
Lady Dona St. Columb is tired of Court life in London, tired of her husband and her position, so she takes her children down to her husband’s country estate in Cornwall, in order to rest in isolation. Alas, it turns out that the countryside is being menaced by a pirate, a French pirate at that, and it seems her neighbours want to enlist her husband to help them catch the scoundrel. One evening, she sees a ship making its way into a creek on her property and before she knows it, she has been captured by the pirate! And so, of course, they fall in love…. Well, a brief sketch of this classic novel, one that isn’t really to my taste as I really don’t care for romance novels and that is what this is primarily; but it’s also an adventure story, and a rather lovely pean to the marvelous countryside of Cornwall, a place where I lived as a small child. It made me nostalgic in that respect, and I did like that Lady Dona is a fiercely independent young woman in a time (the reign of Charles II) when women had little freedom; but really, aside from the descriptive writing, this one was not really for me. ( )
  thefirstalicat | Apr 2, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 56 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (16 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Maurier, Daphne duprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Castle, JohnNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McCaddon, WandaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Myerson, JulieIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Porter, DavinaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
To Paddy and Christopher
First words
When the east wind blows up Helford River the shining waters become troubled and disturbed and the little waves beat angrily upon the sandy shores.
Back in 1975 when I was fifteen and already determined to Be A Novelist, I wrote a letter to Daphne du Maurier. (Introduction)
Quotations
When the east wind blows up Helford River the shining waters become troubled and disturbed and the little waves beat angrily upon the sandy shores. The short seas break above the bar at ebb-tide, and the waders fly inland to the mud-flats, their wings skimming the surface, and calling to one another as they go. Only the gulls remain, wheeling and crying above the foam, diving now and again in search of food, their grey feathers glistening with the salt spray.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Fiction. Romance. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:

This "highly personalized adventure, ultra-romantic" story tells the tale of a woman looking for adventure, only to find it in the arms a rebellious criminal (New York Times).


Bored and restless in London's Restoration Court, Lady Dona escapes into the British countryside with her restlessness and thirst for adventure as her only guides.


Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall.


Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him.

.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
VIRAGO EDITION:
Lady Dona St Columb is beautiful, headstrong - and bored. Desperate to escape the pomp and ritual of the Restoration Court, she retreats to the hidden creeks and secret woods of the family estate at Navron, in Cornwall. Though renowned for her passionate engagement with life, privately she yearns for freedom, integrity and love - whatever the cost.

The peace Lady Dona craves, however, eludes her from the moment she stumbles across the mooring place of a white-sailed ship that plunders the Cornish coast. And as she becomes embroiled in a plot to steal another ship from under the nose of the English authorities, she realises that her heart is under seige from the French philosopher-pirate Jean Aubrey...
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.78)
0.5
1 2
1.5 1
2 24
2.5 8
3 104
3.5 30
4 177
4.5 14
5 84

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,657,304 books! | Top bar: Always visible