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[FionaG]

Not the first name that comes to mind, either for historicals or for gay novels, but House on the Strand is technically both.

It tells the story of Dick, an unhappily married man who agrees to become a guinea pig for his best friend's scientific experiment and ends up travelling back in time to 14th century Cornwall where he becomes obsessed with estate stewart Roger, a former occupant of his house.

This book is sheer MAGIC. The plot and the descriptions grab you by the throat and it's hard to tear yourself away. Du Maurier is a past master at the sort of page-turning intrigue, and at making apparently unsympathetic characters sympathetic (and vice versa).

The gay element isn't huge and there's no sex, but the theme of longing for what you can never have imbues the whole novel.

Raw emotion at its best.

[Ansley Vaughan]

I used to love Du Maurier.

The strange thing is, I particularly liked 'The Glass Blowers'. It wasn't until about thirty years after I read it that I found some ancestors of my own who had been glass blowers in Bristol at the end of the 18th century.

Coincidence, probably...

[AnneBrooke]

Must admit to loving this one utterly when I was a teenager, but hating it having reread it recently! I just couldn't stand Dick!



A
xxx

[Shaz]

I've got this to read and am taking it away as a possible 'choice' (I always take more books than I will have time for) when we're on holiday next week. If I don't read it then, I will do so over the xmas break and let you know what I think.

[FionaG]

Oh, what a shame, Anne. I admit he's not a very nice person (and I do find it clever the way Du Maurier makes us sympathise with him even so, wish I could do that!) but I still find the book wonderful.

Ansley, I don't think I've read Glass Blowers - is it a book or one of her short stories?

[Ansley Vaughan]

It's a saga about a family of glass blowers in 18th century France. Based on her own family.

It's a thousand years since I read it, but I think you'd love it.

Come to think of it, Fiona, it's the perfect title for you.

If a little.. um...

[FionaG]

Oh gods, not another Glass pun?

I must look it out. I've read so many of her more obscure titles (as opposed to Rebecca, Jamaica Inn etc) and to be honest, the less well known ones tend to be better, at least imho.

You might enjoy The Parasites, which was also based on her family. Not gay and totally off-topic, but I'll mention it anyway. LOL

[Shaz]

Well, I read this while away and it's one of those books that left me feeling torn in two. I'm glad I read it and I did enjoy it but for some reason I was left feeling dissatisfied and while I absolutely 'get' the ending, I found it extremely abrupt.

As you say the gay part is quite openly implied although not in your face and I can't say I disliked Dick but neither did I care much about any of the characters come to that. I cared the most for Roger. I didn't think Dick horrible but just felt his addiction to the drug and to the past because even when I knew it couldn't be good for him, I wanted the next 'trip' as much as he did. I'm very glad I read it though, and slight aside, it has tempted me to read more of her work.

Slight spoiler: I was also disappointed that Magnus and Dick only ever speak on the phone. I really wanted to 'feel' them in the same room together.

[FionaG]

Oh, how interesting. I sort of know what you mean, even though it's one of my favourite books. The ending is abrupt, but then Du Maurier simply does not 'do' happy endings and most of hers end in this sort of way.

As to Dick and Magnus, I agree - but I wonder if Dick wouldn't have been so isolated if he'd had his best buddy around , and so wouldn't have felt the need to take refuge in the past? I see him doing that because he was so sad and lonely...

And :: spoiler alert::



it would have taken away some of the irony of Magnus being killed while he was on his way to see Dick. The way Du Maurier wrote it, they never did get to swap notes on their research and that makes it very poignant....

[Shaz]

True, and I was trying to be good and not give that much of a spoiler away. LOL. It's one of those books where I feel that the author was probably right in her take on it but you sort of wish it could be something else as well. I kept wanting the past and present to merge more in some impossible way. I truly did feel Dick's obsession and addiction though, so admire her for making me feel that. I also almost wanted to know them all personally, or at least learn more about them, which in the span of one novel just wouldn't be possible.