Pages: 274
Original date of publication: 1961
My copy: 2004 (Virago Modern Classics)
Why I decided to read:
How I acquired my copy: The Strand, NYC, July 2011
Castle Dor was the last unfinished work of the critic Sir
Arthur Quiller-Couch and finished (at his daughter’s request) by Daphne Du
Maurier after his death. The novel is a modern retelling of the Tristan and
Isolde myth, re-set to Cornwall of the 1840s. Linnet Lewarne is a young woman
married to an innkeeper; she strikes up a relationship with a Briton onion
seller named Amyot Trestane. Although not written from the first person point
of view, the center viewpoint is that of the village doctor, who recognizes how
history is repeating itself, literally.
Du Maurier did a fairly good job of finishing the novel—you
can’t tell where Quiller-Couch’s writing leaves off and Du Maurier’s begins.
She later wrote that she could never hope to imitate Quiller-Couch’s style of
writing, but that she tried to adopt his “modd;” still, this wasn’t one of the
best books that she’s put her pen to. Because the story is told from an
“outside” point of view, we don’t really get that of the main two characters,
so it’s hard to assess their motives.
In fact, the main character of the book is Doctor Carfax,
who, as Du Maurier put it, serves as a kind of Prospero, helping move the
events of the novel along while not really being a part of them. One gets the
sense that all of these characters are involved in something much larger than
themselves, something much beyond their control, and there’s a fairly wonderful
kind of atmosphere to that effect. Although I had some reservations about this
novel, it’s interesting to see how two writers—one a critic of literature, the
other considered a “romance” novelist—coincide, and how they were able to
create one cohesive novel.
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