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Frenchman's Creek

Daphne du Maurier

Start date: August 1, 2025

Finish date: August 31, 2025

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: August 2025 New School Group Read
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New School Classics- 1915-2005

Frenchman's Creek - No Spoilers
By Lynn , New School Classics · 23 posts · 62 views

last updated Sep 05, 2025 10:33AM

To Kill a Mockingbird: NO spoilers
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last updated Sep 01, 2025 06:49AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 24, 2017 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, historical-fiction, gothic-lit

Daphne du Maurier enthralls and enchants me again. This book is less foreboding than others but is still wonderful. What is not to love about French pirates wooing an English woman and then allowing her to live a moment as a pirate herself? What is not to love about beautifully written prose and a very feminist slant? There is very little about which to complain in any of du Maurier's books. I have now read 8 of them and am on the hunt to find her others. ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Jun 05, 2018 Julie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fin-2018, 1940s-fiction

After reading the brilliant Rebecca, I wanted to enjoy another of Du Maurier's novels so I ordered this one from the library, since the story is set during the reign of Charles II, one of my favorite British eras. I love a good piece of historical fiction....This is historical fiction in the same way that the old tv show Hogan's Heroes is an accurate depiction of life in a Nazi POW camp.

I knew I was in for something terrible within the first few pages. Dona, the main character, is fleeing to her After reading the brilliant Rebecca, I wanted to enjoy another of Du Maurier's novels so I ordered this one from the library, since the story is set during the reign of Charles II, one of my favorite British eras. I love a good piece of historical fiction....This is historical fiction in the same way that the old tv show Hogan's Heroes is an accurate depiction of life in a Nazi POW camp.

I knew I was in for something terrible within the first few pages. Dona, the main character, is fleeing to her country home - without her ladies maid. Huh, I thought, ok, I guess she will meet a servant at the country estate who will take over those duties. No siree! Dona appears to have magical powers, for she is able to dress & undress herself with no help. My favorite is when she decides to change dresses behind a tree outside - "give me 5 minutes" she says to the weirdly inappropriate manservant she hangs out with. You don't have to be an expert in historical costumes to know it takes more than five minutes to lace and unlace multiple layers of clothes upper class women wore back then. Not to mention she physically could not have done so since all the laces and grommets were on the back of the clothes.

Another jarring moment came when Du Maurier describes the dinner Dona and her swarthy Harlequin romance pirate were eating. Strangely enough, it is exactly what people in the middle of the twentieth century liked to eat! Go figure. I mean, potatoes?? Those were considered food for livestock at that time period.

I could go on and on about all the cultural anachronisms in the book. Such a pet peeve of mine. The only reason du Maurier set the book in the 1670's was so she could write about a pirate. That, and being able to give Dona a Restoration era hairstyle - Dona's miraculous ringlets that stayed bouncy and firm no matter what! Maybe she had a seventeenth century perm lol.

Maybe if the plot had been amazing I could have overlooked the shoddy research into the era. (Maybe!) However, the plot was absolute drivel. Such a tired, cliche romance. It was torture reading the dialogue between Dona and her pirate. Not to mention the whole adultery, abandon your kids, be a terrible person vibe Dona had going on. Yuck. I am fine with fictional characters doing bad things, if they further the plot and are relevant and developed in a well rounded way. None of that was happening here. Instead Dona was presented as the good guy we should relate to and her behaviors were rationalized, minimized, dismissed. Yeah.....no.

On the plus side, I didn't spend any money buying this book. Back to the library it goes! ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Mar 24, 2024 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, classic, women-on-the-edge, audio, historical-fiction, literary-schmiterary, era-15th-16th-17th-centuries

DuMaurier has the absolute talent of writing characters who are assholes and yet also very compelling. Dona St Columb, on the face of it, is an awful person - I would despise her if I knew her irl - but I couldn’t help being charmed by her in this story. I felt so anxious for her, I wanted everything to work out for her. That created a lot of inner conflict for me, because Dona was not a good person, so why was I pulling for her so hard? Dang! Bravo, Ms DuMaurier!

And, wow, duMaurier can really ...more

1 like · Like · see review