You will recall that I read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca a few weeks ago. I devoured it, could hardly put it down, loved the film too. Once I had written my review I went to put the book away and, being a strictly alphabetical storer of books, discovered I had another du Maurier tucked away on the shelf that I had completely forgotten about. It looks like I bought it in 1989 (I used adhesive book plates in those days) so I was still at university and must have picked it up in a secondhand bookshop. It’s a 1965 Penguin edition, which means it has a very small typeface and is only a little over 230 pages long. I was very excited about this find and could not wait to get stuck in.
I assumed that as the book appeared to be so short it would not take me too long to read. It took me the best part of three weeks! I kept falling asleep reading it, which may have been due to the fact that my life has been a bit topsy-turvy this last month or so and I have been tired, or the fact that 1960s typeface is actually impossible to read and a tremendous strain on the eyes. Or perhaps it is just that I was so decidedly underwhelmed. I think that is the kindest thing I can say about it. It was the first novel published after Rebecca, (the latter published in 1938, while Frenchman’s Creek came out in 1941) and yet it reads like it could have been her first, practice or unfinished novel, discovered posthumously. I was so disappointed.
The plot is a simple one – set in Restoration England, wealthy Dona St Columb, bored with the frivolousness of London life (and also bored with her husband), decides to take herself, her two young children and the nanny to the family’s estate in Cornwall, Navron House. The house has been locked up, unoccupied for some time, looked after solely by a single mysterious servant William. There is much gossip around the town in Cornwall about a French pirate, terrorising the locals, and jeopardising the noblemen whose fortunes are made through maritime activity. Dona is intrigued by the stories. At the same time, Dona begins to notice some strange things in her house: a jar of tobacco and a volume of French poetry in her private bedroom, and the feeling that there is more to the servant William than meets the eye.
When Dona confronts William she learns that he is in fact an associate of the infamous Breton pirate of the La Mouette, Jean-Benoit Aubery, who, between raids, lays his ship at anchor in the hidden creek below Navron. Dona is clearly immediately attracted to the idea of the mysterious pirate, and when she does finally meet him, he does not disappoint. They begin a fairly passionate (by the standards of the time!) love affair, and…well, I won’t give you any more spoilers. Suffice it to say, that Dona finds herself torn when her fellow Cornish nobles decide that they want to capture the Frenchman and hang him for his crimes. She will have to use all her feminine wiles to help her lover evade capture. This event is slightly comic (due largely to the ineptitude of most of the men invovled), but the threat grows somewhat darker when Dona’s husband Harry decides he will join her in the country and brings his friend, the rather sinister Lord Rockingham, who is not so gullible as Harry. Not only does he suspect that Dona is hiding something but is clearly intent upon using his suspicion to get what he wants out of her.
I feel like I have just outlined the plot of a Mills & Boon and I’m afraid that’s how I felt reading it. The novel is set in the Restoration era, presumably because that is when pirates were around terrorising coastal communities, but there is very little sense of either time or place in this novel, something that du Maurier does so brilliantly in Rebecca. The love affair between Dona and her pirate is so extremely implausible as is the interaction with the servant William, as are the key events of the novel. None of the characters are fully developed and our Breton pirate (himself a nobleman in his part of the world, but who, like Dona, is a restless soul who likes a bit of high-seas adventure) speaks impeccable English!
I read that du Maurier was often dismissed as a “romantic novelist”, but that she resisted this pigeonhole. Certainly, Rebecca, is so much more than a romance; perhaps not even a romance. But Frenchman’s Creek, in my view, is a poor follow-up to that novel, a throwaway romance that has little of real substance. I’d be interested to know what du Maurier fans think of it and how it is perceived critically. I’m going to try more du Maurier and hope that this novel is an aberration.
Read this book if you love Rebecca and are as intrigued as me by the contrasting quality!
Julia's books 
Your review is interesting. I think you have read Frenchman’s Creek in quite a superficial way. The first time I read it in my 20s, I too read it as an adventurous, swashbuckling romance. Re-reading it in my 50s, there are so many themes that jump out of the page and so many references to modern life for a novel that was written in 1940 and set in the 1640s. The bored mother in London with two small children seeking escape from a loveless marriage; the things that once attracted her to her husband now repel her; Dona is bored eating at the same restaurants, her only amusement being the theatre; her husband’s best friend also trying to seduce her and turning nasty when she does not acquiese……. There is so much going on beneath the surface. This novel is a great study of character, the French seemingly coming out on top. The book is very much about Dona though. Have you noticed that all the characters reflect what Dona is like? Even the pirate we only get to know through what he thinks about Dona. William is probably the only other stand out character as he is one of the few that we learn much about. Read the book again in 5 years time and see if you have the same view. The beauty of this book is it’s subtlety. Don’t underestimate the power of this book.
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Hmm. thank you for your thoughts on this. Overall, I found the book did not capture my interest, and I suppose that is always my starting point. Then I look for reasons why that might have been. It’s a short book though, so perhaps I’ll follow your advice and give it another try in five years! 😀
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Hahaha…….do! As you say, it’s an easy read.
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Listening to “Frenchman’s Creek” on the radio, and I completely agree with Julia’s critique of it. It’s – creaky: stereotyped spirited heroine, writing rushed (how could her son be asleep and ‘truculent’ at the same time?), well-worn tropes like the opening glimpse of past ghosts, even her heroine’s name isn’t believable. It just feels impatient and sloppy to me, as if she had to write something but really couldn’t be bothered to give the amount of time to it that might have made it more convincing.
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Thanks for the comment. Interesting that you felt the same – glad it wasn’t just me!
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Cheering to find that others feel the same about this book. I gave up on the ‘Book at Bedtime’ reading after three episodes with no patience to listen to any more of the twaddle. I found it hard to believe that du Maurier, spoken of with admiration and supposedly a class novelist, could produce something so trivial and – to me – immature, and get it published. It seemed no more than the unlikely fantasies of a teenage girl of decades past. What an unfortunate choice for ‘Book at Bedtime’.
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I hadn’t realised it was a Book at Bedtime. I’m intrigued to find out what its merits are considered to be.
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Hello Julia
Yes, this was the ‘Book at Bedtime’ the week before last, I think. I was so puzzled by the choice, apart from the fact that there is some Daphne du Maurier anniversary event at the moment with a lot of media coverage. She did write better stuff than this. The characters are so utterly unconvincing. I had to wonder how Dona managed to climb in and out of rowing boats and aboard the pirate ship, in the 17thc gown she would have been wearing, before she became the ‘cabin boy’. I googled reviews of ‘Frenchman’s Creek’ online and found your site. Really interested to read what you do. I won’t subscribe as I have so little time to read. I checked on Amazon – many rave reviews – and found a small minority who share our views of this insubstantial girly fantasy.
Best wishes
Angela
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I’ve not read the Amazon reviews – I’ll check them out. I’m surprised. It’s so weird when you read something that is poor and you see reviews that are great and wonder if you’ve read the same thing! Yes, I do that – wonder about practicalities of clothing! 😀
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How nice to hear back from you, Julia. Yes, the enthusiasm for this rubbish is most puzzling. I had the same experience with P D James’ ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’ and Robert Harris and ‘The Second Sleep’ - a small minority of Amazon reviewers were critical, the rest thrilled.
I will keep tabs on your site from time to time, in order to be cheered by some kindreds spirits.
Best wishes – Angela
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