2021-10-23

Sabine BARING-GOULD : In the roar of the sea

Based on true events, the background of this striking story - one of the most popular of S Baring-Gould's many West-Country novels - is the wild and sinister Cornish Coast of two centuries ago, when its wreckers and smugglers and preventive men were constantly in conflict. Its main incidents are centred around the fearsome and lawless Captain 'Cruel' Coppinger whose life of crime and violence and whose passion for the gentle golden-haired Judith makes a truly absorbing and exciting tale with a tremendous climax.
 
 
 
Kate Howe (her video is below) said she adored this book on her Youtube channel, it was a freebie, a Victorian story taking place in Cornwall complete with shipwrecks and smugglers, so I had to give it a try.

It seems many other people loved this novel, but I just liked it, it was nice, I wasn't in a hurry to pick it up when I had to stop reading. The beginning was original, with the chapel progressively buried in the sand, but I could tell what was going to happen from a mile away. Except at the end - which made me wonder if the male author thought that women were that fickle and silly ?...

Anyway, it was nice, other readers really loved it though, so you may want to give it a try (or not, after what I just wrote !).
 
Kate's opinion :

 The real St Enodoc church (far from the sand) :
 


8 comments:

  1. Love the photo of the church! The book cover is alluring isn't is? But the tale perhaps not so much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love that picture too, I'd love to take a walk around there, such a lovely landscape. I could see how Cornish readers would love this story, but it felt too much like reading a children's book with versatile characters...

      Delete
  2. I've always been kinda fascinated with the wild coasts and wreckers / smugglers and that sorta thing..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too, probably all the Poldark, Daphne du Maurier novels I read - plus the "old" show Smugglers that I watched as a child :)

      Delete
  3. Reminds me of Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, a tale of smugglers, set on the Cornish coast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, exactly, I loved that novel !!!!

      Delete
  4. Yeah I guess the real church is not exactly in the sand but it's very cool. It would be nice to tour.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Building a church that near the sea would be weird, but I've seen pictures of villages really close, so... ^^

      Delete