Verity visits Ross a lot when he first returns to Cornwall and his land. Verity: Francis’s sister, good friend to Ross and Demelza Over the years (because this book really does cover a few years), Ross and Demelza become attracted to each other, and they end the book married. He takes Demelza back to his house (he has two servants, who are terrible and lazy) and turns Demelza into a jack-of-all-trades scullery maid and servant. When he stops her from whatever it was she was doing, she says her only option is to return to her Da, who will beat her. One day, Ross goes to the nearest village to purchase something or maybe sell something, and he meets Demelza, a young, teenaged waif who was getting into trouble in some way. Also he’s a gambler and nearly bankrupts the family.ĭemelza: The waif Ross adopts/conscripts into service as his maid quick to learn, devoted to Ross – becomes his wife. Elizabeth and Francis have a child, whom is doted on by Elizabeth but Francis either wants Elizabeth to have another child and she’s not ready, or Francis’s dickishness just explodes everywhere … I can’t remember, but he’s not cool.

He grew to be very jealous of the friendship between Elizabeth and Ross, even though Ross made no attempt to drive Elizabeth away from Francis. So Francis, if I remember correctly, was a bit of a dick. And because this is the late 1700s and women couldn’t be independent, she did the next best thing and get herself engaged to Ross’s cousin (because also, there aren’t a whole lot of people around).įrancis Poldark: Marries Elizabeth childhood friend of Ross gambler. Because remember, this is the Revolutionary War – there ain’t no telegrams or anything. I cannot remember if Poldark was an army or navy captain I think navy? And he didn’t just come back to run the farm – he came back because the war was over, he wanted to return to a normal life, and he hoped to wed his neighbor Elizabeth.Įlizabeth: Ross’s girlfriend before the war came back to find her engaged to his cousin.Įlizabeth thought Ross had died in the war. Ross Poldark: Captain from Cornwall, who fought in the Revolutionary War (for the British), came back to run his derelict farm. Here are the notes I made on the characters in the book: And one summer day, I was loading my arms up with books to read and saw one of the books on the shelf, and as luck would have it, the first book in the series was also there, so I checked it out. I had never read them or watched any episodes of the series, but I had put the TV show on my Prime watchlist. There is a BBC television series (currently airing on PBS) on the Poldark series of novels by Winston Graham. Oh, good – another book from the library where I only wrote down the characters’ names.

Demelza by Winston Graham