Book Review: "The House on the Strand" by Daphne Du Maurier

Daphne Du Maurier is perhaps one of the best-known writers of the 20th century. She's mostly known for her work with Hitchcock, but I have a bit to tell you about my time with this author. When I was about fourteen, I encountered Rebecca and proceeded straight on to read what became my favourite novel by the writer - My Cousin Rachel. When I was in university, I took a film class in which I scripted The Apple Tree, a short story by Du Maurier, as one of my assignments. Over the years, I have read many of her works including but not limited to: The Birds, Frenchman's Creek, Jamaica Inn and of course, Don't Look Now. So, let's take a look at this novel entitled The House on the Strand.

Dick Young, a middle-aged man at a crossroads in life, agrees to spend a few weeks at the Cornish home of his friend, Magnus Lane, a brilliant yet eccentric biophysicist. Magnus introduces Dick to an experimental drug that he claims will transport him mentally to the 14th century. Eager for an escape from his mundane life, Dick agrees to try it. Magnus warns that the drug is still untested and may have side effects, adding a layer of foreboding to Dick’s decision. Obviously, this has the clear marker of tension and anguish of a Daphne Du Maurier novel - a person longing to be away from everything.

After consuming the drug, Dick experiences a vivid and startling shift. He finds himself in medieval Cornwall, observing the lives of people like Isolda Carminowe, a strikingly beautiful and complex woman caught in a web of love and deceit, and Sir Otto Bodrugan, her lover, whose ambitions and schemes play out against the turbulent backdrop of feudal politics. Dick quickly realises he is an invisible spectator, powerless to affect the events he witnesses, yet he becomes captivated by the world’s intensity and drama. This is where the novel starts to become really quite ethereal. It blends the new gothic with the old as we get a flavour of the far away whilst also maintaining to see it through the eyes of a character close to us.

As Dick continues using the drug, he finds it increasingly difficult to reconcile his ordinary life in the 20th century with the emotionally charged and dangerous medieval world. His wife, Vita, and her two sons arrive in Cornwall, disrupting his private escape. Vita’s enthusiasm for relocating to England from America contrasts starkly with Dick’s growing detachment, and tensions in their marriage begin to surface. In his time travels, Dick becomes engrossed in the intricacies of Isolda’s life. She is married to Richard de Prye, a man of wealth and influence, but her true affection lies with Sir Otto.

Her forbidden love for Otto and the political machinations surrounding them escalate into a series of betrayals and tragedies. Dick’s fascination with Isolda deepens into an obsession, and he begins to see her as a symbol of passion and freedom that his own life lacks. Daphne Du Maurier was always good at writing those characters who cannot live in their own worlds, always wanting to run, always wanting to go somewhere else. It is not a wanderlust thing, but instead it is a want to be away from their own true selves. It is a form of self-loathing.

Magnus dies in a tragic accident involving a train, which Dick suspects is linked to his own use of the drug. The circumstances of Magnus’s death remain ambiguous—was it an accident, or did Magnus succumb to the same dangerous pull of the past? His death leaves Dick without a guide or mentor, heightening the protagonist’s sense of isolation. This is not a spoiler, don't worry it is pretty much hinted at for most of the novel. However, it is not nearly the end of the journey either. There is so much more to experience, so much more heartache back in the 14th century world that our main character has become so addicted to that the death of Magnus almost slips away in favour of somewhere the protagonist feels more at home now than ever before.

All in all, I thought this book was incredibly clever. There is something haunting about the way in which the character uses the drug in almost a Jekyll and Hyde manner. As you move towards the end of the book, you are constantly realising something that you are hoping won't be true: but the real question is actually about whether you will ever actually find out if you are right or not.