Reviews

The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier

colorfulleo92's review against another edition

1.0

I've read quite a few books by Daphne Du Maurier and usually I enjoy them quite a lot. Like her writing stile and her way of creating a story. But this one did not work for me at all. I kept hoping that my reading experience would change as I got further in the story but unfortunately it did not. The plot nor the characters where intriguing and got tedious to read at times. It feels awful to dislike a book so much from an author I usually enjoy from but I guess I can't love/like everything. Need to do a reread a Rebecca though remember giving it 5 stars the first time I read it but it changed drastically after seeing the new movie on Netflix and didn't rate it at all. Probably time for a reread

fros86's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars - mainly because it was generally as gripping as other Du Maurier novels that I have read, in terms of story and descriptive language (particularly in terms of Cornwall), but I did find much of the first half of the story very disturbing, and not in the usual creepy Du Maurier style.

Having just visited Cornwall (and bought this book from the Daphne Du Maurier bookshop 'Bookends', I found myself transported back there when reading about the countryside- the descriptions are so vivid.


A great read, just be prepared for some disturbing themes coming very close to incest...

louloup_reads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

paige1947_'s review against another edition

5.0

Daphane duMaurier's first novel it is really good

mrears0_0's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

0/10 for incest

lucyandherbooks's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

julie7's review against another edition

2.0

⭐=Below Average.
Now I adored Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel and The Scapegoat but I just found this one all rather depressing and found that the meaning the author was trying to put over was baffling.
As always by Du Maurier, the written word is poetic. 

katherinegrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

flamingo_and_owl_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

theannielibrarie's review against another edition

4.0

Recently I came across a documentary of Daphne Du Maurier called ‘The make believe world of Daphne Du Maurier’ where she says that she always believed that she lived in a world of make believe. To her, Cornwall where she was born was alive with things and characters that didn’t exist. And something about the way she describes Plyn that made the magical realism seem to almost come alive for me.

Plyn doesn’t exist, but Ferryside does. Where Daphne spent her summer holidays. A place that inspired her to pen down her first novel. The loving spirit. From the very start, her love for the Cornish countryside is so apparent. Wide open spaces, the sprawling blue skies overhead, the tiny swaying sails in the distance: I could almost feel the grass bend and the stalks break under my bare feet. Such is the elegance and dexterity of her prose. And even though her voice here isn’t as refined as in her later novels, especially Rebecca, it is strong with a whiff of the greatness it will ultimately mould into.

The central point of the story is Janet Coombe: the eye of the storm, the point of origin of the centrifugal force that pulls in and binds the four generations of the ship building family of Coombe. The inspiration for this character was found in a shipwreck named Jane Slade that fascinated the young Daphne and the matriarch’s footprint can be found resonating throughout the book, even after her death. She is the loving spirit.

Janet Coombe is a young girl more fascinated with the sea than with the wordly obessions of her contemporaries and community. She is a free spirit who longs to merge her soul with the sea but ends up conforming to social designs and marries her cousin. But her spirit, reflecting the mighty waves hidden just under the surface of the calm ripples, never fades away. Even through the birth of her children, her spirit remains wild and ultimately it takes the form of her son, Joseph. Joseph embodies the spirit of Janet and being a man succumbs to his love for the uncharted waters. It is in him, that Janet finds her respite. And after her death, it is through him and the ship that she lives on. Like a benevolent ghost and a tempestuous spirit.

The brushstrokes of feminism paint deftly. From the matriarch who pines for the sea but finds the cover, the shield of being a woman in countryside Plyn invisible iron bars and heavy shackles that drag her landward, to her progeny who deftly lifts the veil to come into her own.

There is an element of duality. The land versus the sea. The old versus the new. That which is known and familiar and comfortable and binding versus the ever shifting and unreliable and the sly. The story reflects the changes in Cornwall from the arrival of the Industrial Revolution on its shores. The fear of the unknown, the need for the comfort of a familiar embrace and finally the slow and gradual shift into a new age.

“Alas-the countless links are strong
That binds us to our clay,
The loving spirit lingers long,
And would not pass away.”