Winston Graham · 1945 · exile

Winston Graham's 1945 novel, the first of the Poldark books. Ross Poldark comes home to Cornwall from the American war to find his father dead, the estate derelict, the mine drowned and the woman he expected to marry engaged to his cousin. He sets about restarting the mine with men nobody else will employ, and takes in a half-starved girl from a fairground brawl.

1. 1
   Virginia

   Ross Poldark serves out the American war on the losing side of a conflict he had no strong feelings about, is wounded, and comes home in 1783 to a country that has quietly rearranged itself in his absence.

2. 2
   Falmouth

   He lands in Cornwall expecting a homecoming and gets the news in stages on the road - his father dead and buried, the estate in the hands of servants who have stopped bothering, and Elizabeth promised to his cousin Francis.

3. 3
   Truro

   In Truro the county society that runs Cornwall - banks, mines, the Warleggan money that is buying its way in - takes stock of the returned soldier, and decides he is unlikely to amount to anything.

4. 4
   Nampara

   At Nampara he starts again: the fields put back in order, a copper mine reopened on borrowed money, and a girl called Demelza brought back from a fair to work in the kitchen, which the neighbourhood finds unforgivable.