Robin Ellis as Ross Poldark and Angharad Rees as his wife, Demelza
The Poldark Novels by Winston Graham
Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787
The First Poldark Novel, Published 1945
Wounded in the American Revolution, Ross Poldark returned to Cornwall in 1783 to find the lady of his choice engaged to his cousin and his family home at
Nampara gone completely to seed. With an indifference to convention, inherited from an irreverent father and reinforced by the disappointments which had marred his
homecoming, Ross scorned the society of his relatives and neighbors and put his mind solely to the restoration of his estate.
Then one day at Redruth Fair his defiance took the form of action. Rescuing a half-starved young girl from an urchin's brawl, he took her back to Nampara as a
maid-of-all-work. She was Demelza, daughter of the drunken and impoverished miner, Tom Carne, and when Tom came to claim his offspring, Ross was forced to fight
a battle which shook Nampara to its rafters. The girl stayed with him.
Eighteenth-century Cornwall offered high adventure with its rivalry between mining communities and its many family intrigues, and, slowly, against his will, Ross
became involved in the lives of those about him. He aided his cousin Verity to meet the man she loved despite her family's objections; he stood alone against the local
gentry in their ruthless prosecution of a neighbor charged with poaching; and he helped to hunt a madman who threatened violence to a young girl in the district.
Meanwhile, Nampara commenced to repay his efforts, and Demelza flowered into a beautiful woman. With her passionate but unobtrusive devotion to Ross, she
brought a great change into the atmosphere of Nampara House, a change Ross might never have noticed if Tom Carne had not reappeared to take his daughter home. It
was then that Demelza conceived a plan which terrified her only a little less than the thought of leaving Nampara. And her execution of this scheme is a fitting climax to
an exciting and lusty tale, full of all the romance and action of a colorful age and a picturesque country.
Demelza: A Novel of Cornwall, 1788-1790
The Second Poldark Novel, Published 1946
"Nothing else matters but you. Remember that. All my relatives and friends . . . and this house and the mine -- I'd throw them in the dust and you know it. If you
don't know it, then all these months I've failed and no words I can give you now will make it otherwise. I love you, Demelza, and we've had such happiness. And we're
going to have it again. Take hold of that, my sweet. Hold it and keep it, for no one else can."
Demelza Carne, the miner's daughter, had married Ross Poldark, renegade from the landed gentry. Rescued from a life of brutality and poverty, she had tried her
best to be a good wife in surroundings quite strange to her and in the face of the antagonism of Ross's relatives. Now she lay in childbirth, while outside a raging storm
tore at the coast of Cornwall. Leaving to fetch the doctor, Ross had paused to kiss her, to reassure her, with the words, "Nothing else matters but you."
This novel is written with the same warmth of style and wealth of detail as Ross Poldark -- Mr. Graham's first book about Demelza and Ross Poldark. It continues
the story of a marriage begun in extraordinary circumstances, a marriage which survives not only the inevitable collisions of two strong and, in many ways, opposed
temperaments, but which also survives the inevitable pressures of the world. The year is 1788-a time of birth and violence, regeneration and reaction. All these forces
are vigorously reflected in the small Cornish community of miners and fishermen, farmers and merchants, rulers and ruled, where Ross and Demelza live. Their
marriage is eventful -and even stormy-but it is always sustained by a passionate devotion.
Jeremy Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1790-1791
The Third Poldark Novel, Published 1950
In September of 1790 Ross Poldark faced the darkest moment of his life. He appeared before the summer assizes in the Cornish town of Bodmin charged with the
responsibility for the plundering of two ships which had been wrecked on the beach below his house. Despite his protests his wife, Demelza, had insisted on attending
the trial; and now she sat in the courtroom and listened as the clerk read out the charge . . . a charge which, if proved, could mean the gallows.
His cousin, Francis, believing that Ross and Demelza had encouraged his sister's elopement, had broken with them. The enterprise in which Ross had invested all
his resources had been destroyed, and he was convinced that it was Francis who bad betrayed his plans to the Warleggans, the unscrupulous bankers who were
gradually gaining control of all the commercial life of Cornwall. And then had come the indictment.
Thus begins a story of courage and love and triumph over adversity. It follows Winston Graham's two earlier novels about the Poldarks -- Ross Poldark and
Demelza -- and is even more absorbing. The small community of miners and fishermen, farmers and merchants, rulers and ruled, where Ross and Demelza lived
springs to life as Mr. Graham describes - as only he can - the Cornwall of yesterday.
Warleggan: A Novel of Cornwall, 1792-1793
The Fourth Poldark Novel, Published 1953
The author of Demelza, Ross Poldark and Jeremy Poldark tells another fascinating story of eighteenth-century Cornwall and the eventful lives of Demelza and
Ross Poldark. Demelza and Ross reach the blackest moment in their marriage as Ross's last gamble - a plunge into a highly speculative coppermining venture - seems
on the brink of failure. His relationship with Elizabeth, his cousin's beautiful wife, is dangerously close to exposure. And Demelza herself is captivated by a virile
Scottish officer.
But what happens to Ross and Demelza and the mining venture is only a part of this full-bodied, exciting novel as rugged and turbulent as the cliffs of Cornwall.
The countryside and local people, the various sub-plots - little vignettes in themselves - are threaded masterfully through a fast-moving story.
Those who are introduced for the first time to Winston Graham's writing and to his absorbing main characters, Ross and Demelza Poldark, will find Warleggan
Gamble a rich and rewarding novel in its own right. And readers long familiar with Mr. Graham and his saga of Cornish life will agree that this one is probably the best.
The Black Moon: A Novel of Cornwall, 1794-1795
The Fifth Poldark Novel, Published 1973
One of the most revolutionary epochs in English history comes to life in this novel of two powerful families and the feud that smolders between them. Set in
Cornwall at the close of the eighteenth century, with the upheaval in America, a recent memory in France a grim part of the present, it depicts the no less monumental
revolution taking place within the English social structure through its effects on the families of George Warleggan and Ross Poldark.
Theirs is the tale of jealousy and pride, of wealth versus class, and animosity made all the more bitter by innescapability. Skillfully interlacing the Warleggans and
Poldarks with ties of marriage and commercial dependency, Winston Graham sets the stage for a high drama that moves between the English countryside and a
French prisoner-of-war camp, and includes two haunting love stories as well as a fascinating look at the Wesleyan revival.
Through it all the Warleggan-Poldark enmity burns undiminished, bringing crisis to the lives of all it touches. With compelling tension, The Black Moon reveals the
terrible dilemma of two ambitious families who try to live by personal principles in an age when those principles begin to come apart.
The Four Swans: A Novel of Cornwall, 1795-1797
The Sixth Poldark Novel, Published 1976
Cornwall, England, 1797: On the morning of the day he is to stand for Parliament, Captain Ross Poldark -- a man of moderate wealth, bred of noble gentry, the
owner of a spreading and tin mines, heroic soldier and civil libertarian --peers at the four swans drifting gracefully upon the waters of the estuary. The swans, each one
mirrored in the still waters and admiring its own reflection. Graceful things. Like women. Gentle. Fierce. Unpredictable. The four women in his life? The four whose lives,
intertwined with his own, were now in part responsible for the remorse he felt at a time when any other man would be elated.
One of the most revolutionary epochs in English history comes to life in this novel of two powerful families -- the Poldarks and the Warleggans -- and the schism
which smolders between them, kindled by jealousy and pride, wealth versus class, and animosity made all the more bitter by its inescapability. Interweaving the feuding
families in an intricate pattern of marital ties and commercial and political dependencies, the enmity burns against a setting of a country threatened by the lurking
menace of Napoleon and by great social upheaval, fed by the growing resentment of the sharp class differences, and the unifying influence among the lower classes of
the Wesleyan revival.
What emerges is a fascinating and vivid portrait of life in Cornwall in the late eighteenth century, interlaced with the timeless crises wrought by love and ambition:
tempestuous and passionate love affairs which must not take place but do; forced relationships void of feeling which should never have taken place at all. And through it
all, the Poldark-Warleggan hostility bringing crisis to the lives of all it touches and revealing the terrible dilemma of two ambitious families hopelessly entangled.
The Angry Tide: A Novel of Cornwall, 1798-1799
The Seventh Poldark Novel, Published 1977
The magnificent Poldark saga continues in this bold and richly detailed novel of London and Cornwall at the close of the eighteenth century.
Captain Ross Poldark -- member of Parliament, settled father and husband, prospering country squire - has tried, in his way, to master the dark, unreasoning
impulses of his own restless spirit. But the time of peace cannot last. George Warleggan, lifelong rival of the Poldark clan, has set in motion new intrigues, political and
financial -- and the stage is set for a confrontation, a deadly game of conflict and revenge, that could sweep away in an instant all that Ross Poldark has struggled so
long to build.
And lying in wait are hazards of fortune no one could predict - a tragedy of the Poldark Mine...acts of infidelity and murder that will shatter the brooding quiet of the
Cornish countryside...and a duel in the morning mists of Hyde Park, London, that could alter the course of all their lives forever.
The Stranger From the Sea: A Novel of Cornwall, 1810-1811
The Eighth Poldark Novel, Published 1981
The rugged, windswept Cornish coast is a vivid landscape to countless readers, thanks to the vigorous pen of Winston Graham. Now the masterful storyteller
continues the Poldark family saga with a fresh, new generation of heroes and heroines, rogues and villains.
Tales of ambition and romance intertwine with a narrative of England's political confusion in 1810. War with France and an ailing King George III demand Ross
Poldark's presence in London, while in Cornwall the lives of his children, Jeremy and Clowance, are profoundly changed by the arrival of a handsome newcomer to their
shores.
When Jeremy saves the shipwrecked Stephen Carrington from drowning, he does not heed an old Cornish rhyme advising, "Save a stranger from the sea/And he
will turn your enemee." For Jeremy finds a comrade in the adventurous Stephen, and Clowance an ardent suitor. Yet Stephen's dubious enterprises, his abrupt
disappearance and dramatic reappearance, and his elusive past are the ingredients for mystery in the further adventures of Winston Graham's famous story cycle.
The passing of years has rendered the fiery rivalry between Ross Poldark and George Warleggan into an ember's glow. But will the children of this infamous pair
smother or feed the smoldering remains of hatred and jealousy? The Stranger from the Sea, replete with dramatic possibilities, promises to keep Poldark fans in
speculation and high suspense.
The Miller's Dance: A Novel of Cornwall, 1812-1813
The Ninth Poldark Novel, Published 1982
"Galloping into your easy chair from Masterpiece Theatre."
The Poldarks are back!
That's what Kirkus Reviews announced when we published Winston Graham's last novel, The Stranger From the Sea, in which the masterful storyteller continued
the Poldark family saga. Now, in the ninth of the Poldark novels, Mr. Graham takes his readers back to rugged, windswept Cornwall, whose coast has become his own
fictional territory.
As the second decade of the nineteenth century begins and the first glimmers of light break through the clouds of war which have for so long hung over Europe, the
turmoil of the Industrial Revolution propels the Poldarks into a new age.
The Miller's Dance recalls characters thousands of readers (and television viewers) have come to know, to love and sometimes to despise Jeremy and Clowance,
for example, must find their own solutions to the frustrations of unrequited love, fluctuating morality, financial upheaval and an emerging social order. Meanwhile, their
parents, Ross and Demelza, are adjusting to startling developments in their own lives Ross, watching the young people and uneasily reminded of a recurring pattern
that might carry into the future bitter rivalries from the past. And Demelza, pregnant again, almost fearfully seeking something more than mere happiness for her
children.
This new Poldark novel introduces a set of young protagonists who will not fail to rouse strong emotions and inspire fresh allegiances. It is a full and satisfying novel
of unexpected conclusions. . . and exciting new beginnings.
The Loving Cup: A Novel of Cornwall, 1813-1815
The Tenth Poldark Novel, Published 1984
The vigorous tides off the breathtaking Cornwall coast once again sweep us back for more exciting adventures with Ross, Demelza. et. al. in The Loving Cup the
tenth Poldark novel in Winston Graham's esteemed family saga, basis for the critically acclaimed BBC miniseries, aired in the United States by PBS which has drawn
thousands of devoted followers. All the familiar and beloved characters -- and a host of intriguing newcomers -- are here as Graham picks up the story where his
previous novel, The Miller's Dance left off.
It is now 1813 and the Napoleonic wars are winding down. Two generations of Poldarks and Warleggans, confronting the changing morality of the age, are caught
up in the growing turbulence brought by the Industrial Revolution. New allegiances are forged and old feuds re-emerge.
Ross Poldark's cousin, Geoffrey Charles, returning from the war, brings his new Spanish bride, Amadora to Trenwith, to pick up the pieces of an abandoned home
life. Ross himself has done outstanding work in the House of Commons, and he and Demelza have been blessed with a new son, Henry. Their older son and daughter,
Jeremy and Clowance, each face personal crises: Clowance's relationship with handsome, impulsive Stephen Carrington takes a dramatic turn, while Jeremy pursues
his dream of actively participating in the Industrial Revolution. But trouble looms for Jeremy and Stephen as their joint past reaches out to threaten their plans for the
future. When Sir George Warleggan becomes bent on sending someone to the gallows for the robbery, of a considerable sum of money from a stagecoach, Demelza
realizes she must take action to protect both Jeremy and Stephen.
With his unfailing eve for detail -- the beauty of Cornwall, its landscape and its people -- Winston Graham provides in his latest work a most welcome and eagerly
anticipated visit with characters whom countless readers have come to cherish
The Twisted Sword:
A Novel of Cornwall, 1815-1816
The Eleventh and Final Poldark Novel, Published 1990
The Twisted Sword is historical fiction of the very highest order. The enormously popular Poldark saga has enchanted readers and "Masterpiece Theatre" viewers
around the world. Told with unfailing authenticity, it is a fascinating portrait of an age-vital yet tender and sometimes shocking-filled with a genuine love of life.
The Poldark story began in 1783, the year in which Ross Poldark met Demelza Carne. Now in 1815 in The Twisted Sword the saga reaches its dramatic
conclusion.
1815 is a year when the shadow of war reaches out even to the remote corners of Cornwall. For Ross and Demelza Poldark the year starts in Paris, with gaiety and
laughter, with friendships old and new. But suddenly it turns to fearful separation, distrust and danger
When Napoleon triumphantly returns to France, Jeremy, their elder son, is parted from his beloved wife, Cuby. A talented engineer, Jeremy is a reluctant soldier,
but on the battlefield of Waterloo he discovers that he is also a leader of men.
War brings prosperity to their daughter Clowance and Stephen, her husband; but for them, too, fate adds a sardonic nightmare twist to their hopes and plans.
And always for Demelza there is the shadow of the secret she does not even share with Ross the secret of the loving cup.
The Twisted Sword is the last novel of the Poldark saga. Powerful, ironic, compassionate, and written with unfailing insight and elegance, this eleventh Poldark
story is a brilliant finale, and Winston Graham's highest achievement.