Bella Poldark is the last novel in the Poldark series by Winston Graham, and was published when he was a very elderly gentleman, not that long before his death.
It covers the years 1818-20, as the Poldark family are recovering from the death of Jeremy at Waterloo, and the death of Steven Carrington, Clowance's rakish and selfish husband. Cuby, Jeremy's widow, has a young daughter, Noelle, born in the Christmas of 1815. Clowance has no children and has learned that her late husband may not have been legally married to her, because he had been married and had a son by another woman in his earlier years. She runs his small shipping firm, and has various suitors vying for her attention. Bella the youngest daughter, is interested in a singing career and is studying Opera. Her fiance Christopher Havergal, was a soldier at Waterloo and lost a foot but he is eager to support and manage Bella in her career.
Ross and Demelza are now older, and saddened by the death of Jeremy, but they are content with their lives in Cornwall and Ross is less keen on going away. They still have one young son, Harry who is now heir to the baronetcy which Ross has been given.
Graham brings in a new character, Philip Prideaux who is also an ex soldier, and who is involved in trying to reform health and sanitary conditons in Cornwall. The book also has a plot about a serial killer of young women. Several young women are killed mysteriously, but it turns out that the killer is Jeremy's friend, Paul Kellow who has developed a hatred of women. The serial killer plot seems a litlte out of place but is explained partly by the fact that since the War's end, there is a lot of crime - with impoverished ex soldiers turned loose to try and make a living. The death of Jeremy also meant that Graham dropped the interest in steam engines which was Jeremy's hobby and work prior to his joining the army.
Bella trains as an opera singer but then loses her voice after an illness and becomes instead an actress, and we are told she becomes very famous.
Ben Carter, the son of Ross's friend, James Carter, marries Demelzas niece, who had become a nursemaid to Geoffrey Charles' children. He had been in love with Clowance but she refused him. Cuby also finds a new love with Philip Prideaux...
George Warleggan, Ross's ongoing enemy, does not change much. He has married a second time but his new wife - the horsey, hunting loving upper class Lady Harriet, only produces twin daughters, and while he is fond of the children, he is not a very happy man.
There are other sad parts of the novel, though it ends with Bella's acting career starting off and Clowance remarrying - to a young aristocrat who was courting her before she married Steven. Valentine Warleggan, who may have been Ross' son died in a fire, after his marriage broke down. Valentine had an affair with Agneta, the daughter of a local squire, who has learning difficulties, and when she disappeared and was found dead, it looked at first as if Valentine might have killed her.
Its a fitting end to the Poldark story.....
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