REVIEW: The House On the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier

This is a novel published in 1969 and set both then and in 14^th century Tywardwreath, a Cornish village, which translates to “The House on the Strand” in English.

The story is a curious mix of science fiction, historical romance, psychological thriller and horror. A drug that transports the taker’s mind to the past as a witness to actual historical events, while physically remaining in the present, is confusing, addictive and uncanny. As with other Du Maurier novels, the narrative is brilliant. Experiencing the present very actively through the mind of the narrator, Dick, who agrees to test the drug and his effects for its discoverer and his friend, Magnus, a London University professor, and passively in the past through the same mind gives the reader the sense of addiction, similar sleepless nights, as the protagonist.

The perfect balance between the exciting romance in the past, with the narrator almost a voyeur, and the sharp, crude, overwhelming reality of the present kept me hooked to the story till the end, if only to contest the whole idea of the drug. This magnetism was the result of an uncontrollable desire to find out how the drug worked, and not merely a fascination with the idea of being able to wander off into a livelier and more melodramatic world six centuries past, so far only spelled out in tedious literature. To every trip Dick took, I tagged along, felt stimulated with passion and was covered with goosebumps when I returned; such was the power of the narrative, spooky and thrilling.

Though telling tales of people in the past, drawing from current scientific research and psychological theories, putting together Virgil, Dante, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Edgar Allan Poe, Chaucer and more, it has elements of the supernatural and an originality that grips you.

Not Du Maurier’s best and most famous, but queer and intellectually stimulating enough to be definitely worth the sleepless hours. 

P.S: This review and other reviews and amazing articles also published in http://bluestockingsmh.wordpress.com/