Dave's Book Blog: Frenchman's Creek" by Daphne du Maurier

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Frenchman's Creek" by Daphne du Maurier

Seldom has derring do been better derring done. A love story between a bored aristocratic woman and a pirate set in the days of the Restoration.

The first chapter, set in the present day and written in the present tense, acts as an extended blurb, outlining the story and setting the tone. The story proper starts with chapter two; it is written in the past tense and in the third person, almost always from the point of view of the protagonist, Dona.

It begins with Dona fleeing from her dissolute life in London, ashamed of a prank, heading, with her two young children and the nanny, for a new world in her stately home in Cornwall. “She had reached a crisis in her particular span of time and existence, and must travel through that crisis, alone.” (Ch 2) Talk about a call to adventure!

This coach journey seemed an almost perfect parallel to the one at the start of du Maurier's Jamaica Inn (which was written five years earlier) in which a strong-willed protagonist heads for a new life, although Dona is rich and Mary poor.

When she meets the mysterious manservant at the new house, iwe seem to be reprising Mrs Danvers from Rebecca which was written three years before, as a servant with split loyalties.

There is a dramatic act of piracy at the very mid-point of novel.

The novelist must grapple with two difficulties. The first is the brutality of piracy. Stealing things is, in itself, not a very nice thing to do. Dona understands this: “You - when you have captured your prize or meet your landing - sail away with a sense of achievement, whereas I, in my pitiful little attempt at piracy, was filmed with self-hatred, and a feeling of degradation.” (Ch 9)

In order to alleviate this difficulty, du Maurier makes her pirate, like Robin Hood (eg in Ivanhoe) and so many highwaymen in fiction such as Tom Faggus in Lorna Doone, one who never kills (except where absolutely necessary) and one who always behaves honourably towards women (unless the women invite dishonourable actions). Not entirely realistic but the reader accepts this as one of the rules of the genre. She further throws a cloak over any remaining qualms by simply making the adventures so perilous and so thrilling that moral considerations are submerged, as if adrenaline conquers conscience.

The second difficulty is that Dona is a mother who almost entirely ignores her children. Will she run away with her pirate lover and abandon them? Looking at her toddler son, she thinks “He would no doubt grow up to be fat, and gross, and unattractive, making some woman miserable.” (Ch 3) Not very motherly! But this is a serious quandary that both Dona and the pirate consider:

“We are all cogs in a wheel, and mothers most especially. It is only the pirates who are free.” (Ch 7)
“Women are more primitive than men. For a time they will wonder, yes, and play at love, and play at adventure. And then, like the birds, they must make their nest. Instinct is too strong for them.” (Ch 15)

There is a rich quality in her descriptions of the Cornish countryside and the joys of sailing. But my favourite descriptive passage is this one that anchors the period: “The artificial painted London, the link-boys with their flares tip-toeing through the dusty cobbled streets, the swaggering gallants standing at the doors of the taverns laughing a little too loudly and singing over much, that roistering, rather tipsy atmosphere” (Ch 8)

There is one delightful demonstration of writerly skill in which Dona engages in a dialogue with William. But he, as a servant, can only respond by affirming what she has said. This 'dialogue' is, in effect, a monologue, or soliloquy, in which Dona can 'think aloud'. Very clever!

Selected quotes:

“Dear William, he was most companionable. He always understood. It was like having a confessor who never reproved or condemned.” (Ch 8)
“It seemed to her ... that she had never known peace before, until this moment, that all the restless devils inside of who fought and struggled too often for release were all ... now appeased.” (Ch 9)

If you're going to write slushy romantic fiction, write well and write hard.

I first read this book in October 2014. This review is from my reread in October 2026; 253 pages
First published by Victor Gollancz in 1941
My Virago paperback was issued in 2003