Poldark Novels Part VII

The next Poldark novel after THE ANGRY TIDE is set several years after Elizabeth's death and Ross and Demelza's children, Jeremy and Clowance, are now almost grown up. They have had another daughter, Isabella, who is several years younger. A young man is washed ashore near Nampara, and he turns out to be a sailor. His name is Stephen Carrington and he becomes friendly with the Poldarks and falls in love with Clowance. He comes from a poor background, and was reared by a foster family, before he went to sea. He tells them that he was a privateer and his ship was wrecked. George Warleggan has grieved for a long time about Elizabeth, but he is now beginning to think of remarriage. Ross still feels guilty over his forcing Elizabeth to have sex, which caused the problems in her marriage and led to her death. But he and Demelza are a happy couple and she has come to accept that he had a lingering love for Elizabeth but that she is his wife and love. Their 2 elder children, Jeremy and Clowance, are now in their teens. Demelza has grown and developed and is able to fit in with county society. Isabella has a talent for music, which she wants to develop. Geoffrey, Elizabeth's son by Francis Poldark, has joined the army and is fighting in the Peninsula. Valentine his half brother is a rather sinister young man who does not get on with his possible father George. George wants to marry Valentine off to a gentry family, but the boy is difficult and reluctant to obey him. George is resentful that he has tried to secure a genteel wife and connexion with the upper classes for his son, yet Valentine clearly does not want to marry according to his father's wishes and he shows George little respect. Verity, Ross's cousin, says that Valentine reminds her of Ross' Father Joshua who was a very selfish rakish man. George courts an aristocratic widow, Lady Harriet Carter. She is charming, loves hunting and horses but was left badly off by her late husband who had run through his fortune. She agrees to marry George, because she is not very well off. Jeremy is now a young man who is interested in engineering and in developing machinery for use in the mine, and he wants to experiment with using machinery to travel on the roads. He falls in love with Cuby Trevanion, the daughter of a grand family, who have over extended themselves building a large castle... Cuby is devoted to her family and has agreed to marry a rich man if they want her to do so, so although she is attracted to Jeremy she snubs him. Demelza becomes pregnant again and has another son, Harry. A new family have moved into Place House, near the Poldarks, consisting of an aging retired merchant, Mr Pope, his second wife and his 2 daughters. Pope is seen as not a gentleman and isn't much liked by the local gentry. George has been making plans for Valentine to marry Cuby, and to bring genteel Cornish blood into the family, but his rakish son has been having an affair with Selina Pope, Mr Pope's young and pretty wife. Mr Pope catches him in bed with Selina and he collapses and dies. Soon after the old man's death, Valentine secretly marries Selina who has inherited a fortune. So he tells George that he can't marry Cuby.. he's married already and his new wife will be able to support him.