All reviews for The House on the Strand (2013)
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It's such a pity that writers go out of fashion, then few people read them. I was introduced to Daphne DuMaurier as a young teenager (by my very British mother), and I enjoyed her work. If you don't know, DuMaurier was an English writer from the 40s, 50s and 60s, who was a master storyteller and wrote some important books, including Rebecca (which was adapted into a movie and won an Oscar in 1941), and the original novelette The Birds, which Alfred Hitchcock later adapted into his famous movie. Wiki says she was never considered an intellectual heavyweight because she didn't write about angry young men (like Sinclair Lewis, say), which was in favour at the time.Anyway, why did I pick up The House on the Strand after reading it 35 years ago as a young teenager? Because I wanted to compare it to Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. After all the hype that franchise is getting, I wanted to compare Gabaldon to an earlier writer, DuMaurier, in the same genre. The House on the Strand and Outlander are similar in plot: time travel stories intertwined with a time-bending love story. The main difference is that DuMaurier's character is a man, Richard, and travels back and forth in time after taking an addictive hallucinogen concocted by his genius Professor friend, Magnus. In Outlander, of course, the heroine is stuck in the past with her lover in the 1760s, there is no back and forth in time.If I had to choose which book I preferred, it would be DuMaurier's The House on the Strand. The landscape, Cornwall in the 1960s/1300s, is lovingly described and very, very real. Richard is a great Jekyll/Hyde character, truly a man of the 60s caught in a nightmare of hallucination and drug addiction, and love of a woman he can never attain. The historical story is fascinating too, and the horror story aspects are quite chilling, DuMaurier nails the terror and disturbing aspects of reality/non reality and the quick-changes between times are very well done. Although I enjoyed Outlander, (I've reviewed it on Goodreads), I think DuMaurier's story is the better of the two, and I also think DuMaurier is the better writer. If you enjoy historical fiction, and you liked Outlander, you may want to give an earlier writer a try, and discover (or rediscover) an early entry into the horror/time travel/paranormal genre.
I actually hated the medieval time sequences, which were a good chunk of the book... The two characters who experienced them were supposed to be infatuated with their plot and characters, and I could not relate. But I still had to give this maximum rating because I was more transported by it than any other piece of fiction I've read recently. There was this sense of anticipation throughout for what seemed like an inevitable deliciously tragic ending. Also, I think most people can relate to the theme of escapism from a mundane life, but what's even better is the main character's relationship with his family. I read the wiki plot summary after I finished the book, it said that he does not truly love them. I don't think that's exactly it. I think he feels about them the way anyone transiently feels about people they love when those people become momentarily inconvenient... Like when you're trying to hide and indulge a drug addiction. Or like, on a Tuesday, when you're sleep deprived and burned out and wish you could just play video games.
great ghost story