The Four Swans (Poldark)

Read all the previous ones, now reading this one & watching season 3 of Poldark. What can I say but excellent, both the book & the tv series. This novel, The Four Swans, delves so much into the lives of Elizabeth, Demelza, Morwena & Caroline. It is so hard to put down once I start reading it. Granted some parts seem hard to understand but above all it is enjoyable. I have laughed, cried, been so angry, sympathetic & pulling for each character. Can't wait to finish this one & go on the the Angry Tide. So hooked on the series too!! Brilliant acting & writing, & Aiden Turner so easy on the eyes to watch. Ross & Demelza, Elizabeth & George--a character you love to hate, Morwena & Drake, Caroline & Dr. Enys....what does the future hold for them?????? WELL worth reading to find out!!!

Compelling stories. Graham always interweaves his characters and storylines with considerable skill. It's easy to see how these books made two highly successful miniseries. Graham is psychologically perceptive in creating such characters as the narcissist Ossie Whitworth. It's also fascinating to see Caroline engage in politics centuries before feminism.

In waiting for season 3 of Poldark this was a long but great read. The ending felt good, right and just. It also sets up the next book 'The Angry Tide' which will not be apart of season 3, or so I've read, but I like to read ahead and I plan to continue on with the series I have come to find captivating and worded in a way that other authors just can't articulate in.highly recommended this book if you're interested in love stories , war and family rivalries with the backdrop of 19th-century and 20th century early England and European events

Winston Graham is an extraordinary writer. His style is somewhat Dickensian. One of the more interesting things about his books is development of multiple interwoven plot lines. Although the main line of the narrative focuses on Ross and Demelza Poldark, there are a number of subplots in each of the twelve novels that are extremely engaging, with full-blooded, three dimensional characters. Often secondary characters in novels are given little attention. Not so with Mr. Grahams characters. These are the sort of books that cause melancholy when the reader approaches the denouement because one does not want it to end. I've recommended them to numerous friends and had no dissatisfied "customers" thus far.

THis was the 6th book on the series and I am an addict. While I really enjoy them I don't think a reader would be able to really follow the story line if they hadn't read the previous novels in the series. The historic details are interesting and I find the characters, all both noble and flawed, to be well developed. The descriptions of the politics make it seem that in 250 years little has changed. The reading is engaging but not highly challenging. I am looking forward to the next 6 books.

I love the Poldark series. This one is a little bit slower, though things are happening and quite a lot. Demelza and Ross deal with their relationship and it is interesting how the author writes about the marriage and love from the male and female's perspective. Demelza who married very young and also who did not have much exposure always considered Ross the center of her world. The man who brought her to light by giving her a chance in life and showed her how a man could be. Ross if flawed, but he is fair and honest and very interesting. She is such a great partner for him and I am always so proud of her. Demelza meets Hugh, a young man who was rescued by Ross in France. He is romantic and poetic, someone completely different in her life and someone who writes poems to her. It was always Demelza who loved more and Ross who was choosing. Suddenly, it is Demelza who is drawn to another man. I thought that part was wonderful. There are more stories there, funny as usual with complex characters, but I love the two the most.

In this sixth book of the Poldark Saga, the four swans are four women whose lives touch Ross: Demelza, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Morwenna. For a man that often seems to be rather ignorant of love beyond his past pining for Elizabeth, Ross has a remarkable romantic streak for the lives and relationships of others! This story perhaps falls more in the "romance" genre than the others as numerous men reconcile themselves to loves they cannot have--Demelza's brothers Sam and Drake and the besotted Hugh Armitage, yearning for the wife of the man that saved his life. The author includes many moments of introspection and deep thoughts in this novel. From Hugh: "By giving love you do not diminish it. Love only adds to itself, it never destroys. Tenderness is not like money; the more you give to one the more you have for others." From Ross: "No man wants his wife to be a woman that other men don't desire....But every man wants his wife to be a woman that other men don't get." Intertwined in the lives of the characters (Ross, Demelza, George, Elizabeth, Drake, Sam, Dwight, Caroline, Morwenna, Osborne) is the ongoing Napoleonic war and civil unrest in England among the poor. The feud/competition between Ross and George continues and compels both men to take actions to try to best the other.

Winston Graham is a superb writer and story-teller. He understands and can convey brilliantly the nuances of human nature. Each book in the Poldark series is utter reading pleasure. I find I can't put them down. What strikes me especially is his ability to make the elements of nature, so much a part of the Cornwall landscape, nearly characters in their own right. Their influences throughout the books are as real as any characters'. Graham has a marvelous, super-dry sense of humor. In this book, the chapter in which Jud Paynter is bit in the butt by a dog is pure genius in terms of subtle humor!

I read this series of books many years ago but my mind just glossed over the supporting characters, now I appreciate just how well drawn those characters are. The language and descriptions are fantastic and, I would imagine, very true to the period and local dialect. However, if you try to find out some of the meanings from the online dictionary it will often say that there is no definition available. I was also surprised by how accurately the current television series follows the plotline with a few omissions of minor characters obviously for clarity and conciseness. But that is the beauty of these novels, they have the scope to explore the breadth of eighteenth century Cornwall and, indeed, the history of England. I am not writing a novel specific review, this one will suffice for the entire series, certainly up to the tenth novel. Now, if you will please excuse me I have to get back to Nampara.

Book 6 in the Poldark series. The ongoing gripping tale of the Poldarks. Can't put them down. I highly recommend this series.

I've loved all the Poldark books. I have just finished reading the whole series and refuse to watch the BBC Series as the thing that annoys me most is not the casting, but the fact that they have Demelza as being fair haired as as I recall it, Elizabeth as being dark haired. How stupid is that!! It's a little thing but most irritating when it could have so easily been otherwise. Fred

una storia stupenda

J'ai adoré ce livre qui est le sixième roman dans la saga des Poldarks. Winston Graham décrit très bien les conditions de vie au 18ème siècle à travers les différents personnages.