There are some books that I return to again and again.
Frenchman's Creek is one of the books I re-read often. Recently, it began to call to me once more and for the umpteenth time I was happily lost in its magic.
First, it is wonderfully written as are all of du Maurier's novels. She begins by drawing the reader into the atmosphere of the Cornish coast with vivid description and beautiful prose:
When the east wind blows up Helford River the shining waters become troubled and disturbed and the little waves beat angrily upon the sandy shores. The short seas break above the bar at ebb-tide, and the waders fly inland to the mud-flats, their wings skimming the surface, and calling to one another as they go. Only the gulls remain, wheeling and crying above the foam, diving now and again in search of food, their grey feathers glistening with the salt spray.
It has a rich cinematic quality to it (in fact, it has been adapted for the screen twice) and the sea and the countryside are "characters" in the novel as much as Dona and her Frenchman.
A few months short of her thirtieth birthday, Lady Dona St. Columb is bored with her bumbling husband, stifled by the restrictions of seventeenth century London, and exasperated with the frivolity of her life. She takes her two children and flees to Navron, the house where her husband grew up, in order to find peace. But when she arrives, she finds the house inhabited by a lone servant, William, and the coast plagued by a marauding crew of pirates. William quickly and accurately appraises Dona and tells her she is "a fugitive from your London self and Navron is your sanctuary." A deep understanding and friendship develops between them with William supporting and assisting her in her escape from her former life. But William, a memorable and loveable character, turns out to be in league with the pirates.
Dona stumbles upon the pirate ship, La Mouette, anchored in the creek on Navron land and is brought aboard. The Frenchman, Jean Benoit Aubery, is not what she expects. He is much more of a gentleman than a savage and spends his time drawing birds and reading poetry. As he explains:
There are no dark problems about it. I have no grudge against society, no bitter hatred of my fellow-men. It just happens that the problems of piracy interest me, suit my particular bent of thought.
She finds in him a kindred spirit and a fellow escapee from the restraints of conventional society. He sees her as more than just the Lady St. Columb and, unlike her husband, understands her. Of course, she falls in love with him. But this is not a bodice-ripping pirate romance novel. Written in 1941, the physical side of their love in mostly hinted at and their relationship is revealed mainly in the witty, clever, sexy dialog they banter back and forth.
Disguised as a cabin-boy, Dona joins the Frenchman in one of his escapes and finds herself involved in piracy against her neighbors. She sails away with Jean Benoit and his crew for a wonderfully liberating week and returns to find that her husband has come to Navron to help capture the pirate. Her collaboration with the pirate is soon disrupted when he is caught and she must scheme to free him.
Frenchman's Creek is above all a story of self-discovery. Dona must learn the distinction between happiness and contentment. The Frenchman is aware of the difference and explains it to Dona. Happiness, he says, is "elusive, coming maybe once in a lifetime", and not a continuous thing. Happiness has degrees, however, and for a man "happiness tends to come from things
achieved". Contentment, on the other hand, is "a state of mind and body when the two work in harmony, and there is no friction. The mind is at peace and the body is also."
The difficulty for Dona, as William explains to her, is that the Frenchman's ship is his castle; that he comes and goes as he pleases, and dislikes a lifestyle that leads to habits and customs - fearful that it will kill all spontaneity; "he is without ties, without man-mad principles;" he is truly free. Dona, who initially wishes for the very same thing becomes aware that the options for a woman are very different than those for a man. The Frenchman feels the strong pull of the sea but Dona, as a mother, feels the pull of her children just as strongly. After experiencing true happiness, she must make a difficult choice.
But, above all,
Frenchman's Creek is about the desire to escape and the perfect novel to lose yourself in when you want to get away from it all. Pirates...Frenchmen...Swashbuckling...Breathtaking Romance - curl up and lose yourself on the Cornish coast!
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