Ross Poldark (novel)

Ross Poldark

First edition
Author	Winston Graham
Language	English
Series	Poldark
Publisher	Ward Lock & Co
Publication date	1945
Publication place	Cornwall
Followed by	Demelza

Ross Poldark is the first of twelve novels in Poldark, a series of historical novels by Winston Graham. It was published in 1945.^[1] The novel has twice been adapted for television, first in 1975 and then again in 2015. Sales of the novel increased by 205% after the premiere of the 2015 television adaptation.^[2]

Ross Poldark is the protagonist of the novel. As the book opens, it is 1783. Poldark returns to Cornwall after serving with the British army in the American Revolutionary War. The war has left him with a prominent facial scar and a pronounced limp. When he returns, he discovers that his father has died, his family home has fallen into disrepair, the hard-drinking servants are selling off the household items, and the woman he loves is engaged to marry his cousin.^[3][4]

Poldark's character emerges throughout the book in a number of subplots involving his relatives, women with whom he has romantic entanglements, the local gentry, servants, tenants, miners, poachers and competitors. Poldark stands up for the impoverished and attempts to protect the vulnerable. While by virtue of his birth and land ownership, he is a member of the gentry, his attitudes about justice generally are at variance with those of his peers. Without concern for his social standing, he marries the daughter of an impoverished miner who has been working for him as a housemaid and kitchen assistant for several years. He is focused on rebuilding his farm and reopening a family mine, partly in order to ameliorate living conditions for his tenants and local families who rely on mine work for income.^[5]

The novel consists of three sections, with Book One covering October 1783 to April 1785 in eighteen chapters, Book Two covering April to May 1787 in eight chapters, and Book Three covering June to December 1787 in eleven chapters.