Review of Castle Dor - Laura Varnam

The novel opens with a Prologue in which Doctor Carfax stands on Castle Dor, gazing at the stars, while the blacksmith's wife gives birth to her child. Carfax is overcome with the feeling that the earth-work possesses secrets and is charged with a primal energy which is in some way related to the events and persons of his present day life. He muses that the English landscape is 'scored over with writ of hate and love, begettings of children beneath the hazels, betrayals, appeals, curses, concealed travails' but that his premonition is 'different somehow. It had no dimensions, small or great. In a way it had escaped dimensions, to be universal; and yet just here - here, waiting...' (p.5).The blacksmith's wife is delivered of her child and Carfax departs.

Book I

Book I introduces the protagonists: Linnet, the blacksmith's daughter, lately married to Mark Lewarne, the publican at the Rose and Anchor in Troy and Amyot Trestane the Breton onion-seller who arrived on the schooner the Joile Brise. When Linnet and Amyot meet 'she had a strange sensation of something breaking out of the past to connect itself with something immediately to come' (p.10). The notary Ledru arrives and reprimands Amyot's master, Fouguereau, for beating him. Ledru arranges to stay at the Rose and Anchor and asks if Amyot might row him up the river later in the day. Meanwhile Linnet and Mark depart for the races as Linnet is due to present the winning cup. Ledru encourages Amyot to resign from his job with Fouguereau and when he does, Fouguereau snaps his fiddle and throws it overboard. Ledru promises Amyot a new fiddle and the pair row up the river as Ledru is eager to find an island where 'two knights fought centuries ago - the one for his master's gain, the other for a lady' (p.27). Amyot reacts strangely to the place, saying that 'it reminds me - [...] Of no place that I remember - and yet it reminds me.' (p.27). Amyot and Ledru arrive at Castle Dor and when Ledru muses that many years ago 'a queen came, making excuse to her husband but in truth for the first glimpse of her lover' (p.31) Amyot suddenly declares 'Lantyan!' (p.31). Ledru is astonished by this pronouncement as Amyot can have no previous knowledge of the place or its name but their discussion is interrupted by a runaway carriage from the races. The carriage is the Lewarne's and Amyot jumps into its path to stop the horses. Both Amyot and Linnet are injured and Doctor Carfax is summoned.

Ledru and Doctor Carfax discuss Amyot's remarkable outburst at Castle Dor. Amyot had never visited the place and yet he intuitively knew its name. In the medieval legend, Lantyan was the place where 'Tristan once trysted with Queen Iseult' (p.53) and Carfax and Ledru wonder whether 'a certain spot - a place, say, of waters, woodlands, old buildings - can hold a memory, a thought almost, and even utter it, once in a while, through human lips?' (p.54). Carfax and Ledru set out for Lantyan, where Amyot is recovering from his injuries at the farmhouse of the Bosanko family. Mrs Bosanko shows them a map of the local area and the doctor and notary begin to discover further places which relate to the Tristan and Iseult legend, such as the orchard where they met and the island where Tristan fought another knight called Morholt. Back at the Rose and Anchor, Ledru is given a cordial by the maid, Deborah Brangwyn, whose surname is coincidentally the same as the Christian name of Iseult's maid in the legend. Carfax and Ledru continue to meet, discussing the Tristan legend and investigating local maps in order to plot the major incidents of the legend, using the etymology of place names as clues. When they discuss the various medieval versions of the legend, such as those by the French poet Beroul and the German Gottfried von Strassburg, Ledru declares that 'it is a curious coincidence that no poet [...] has ever lived to conclude this particular story. His work has always been finished by another' (p.80). Ledru is to depart the following day but after he accepts another draft of cordial from Deborah, he has a heart attack and dies in his sleep.

Book II

At the hay harvest at the Bosanko's farm, Amyot plays his fiddle and tells stories to the Bosanko children, Mary and Johnny, in the manner of a medieval minstrel: 'he seemed to fetch them out of himself, out of fairyland, anywhere; not playing on his fiddle, but laying it across his knees and plucking at a string at times, as if to help his memory' (p.92). As the last load of hay is carried home and the harvest celebrated, Linnet climbs up onto the wagon and suddenly falls down into Amyot's arms: 'Linnet's cheeks were hot and flushed; Amyot's white as a man's who has just seen a ghost' (p.97). Linnet meets Amyot the next day and admits that she fell from the wagon deliberately and the two admit their sudden love for each other. Mrs Bosanko begins to worry about the affair as Linnet is a married woman and she talks to Amyot, urging him to leave before it is too late. Amyot packs his bags and leaves, to the great dismay of the Bosanko children, and resolves to meet Linnet on Castle Dor. Amyot has an inkling that their love affair is doomed: 'no story of love between man and woman at its highest could ever come but to a tragic end' (p.114). The two meet and Amyot tells Linnet that he must leave, and they part on the seashore as Amyot dives in and swims away, promising to return.

Amyot appears at the Custom-House to discover that the boat on which he was to be employed has already sailed. He then sees the Jolie Brise, and its skipper Fouguereau, whose employ he had left at the beginning of the novel, and Amyot strikes him three times until he lies on the ground. Amyot flees and when he awakes, Fouguereau goes to the Rose and Anchor to attempt to discover him. Meanwhile Johnny and Mary Bosanko set out to find their missing friend and they discover him in a ruined cottage in an orchard just as Linnet arrives to bring him provisions. Linnet tells Amyot that he might face prison for his attack on Fouguereau and the Bosanko children promise to keep his whereabouts a secret. [It is generally accepted by critics that du Maurier takes over the narrative here]. Mark Lewarne goes to visit Doctor Carfax, declaring 'it's the wife, she's breaking my heart' (p.140). Lewarne tells Carfax that he had confronted Linnet regarding her infidelity and her quick tongue bested him: 'of course I've lain in another man's arms. I fell off the hay wagon at Mr Bosanko's and if the farm-hand [Amyot] hadn't caught me I'd have broken my ribs, so I can't swear no one's touched me but you can I?' (p.143). After Lewarne leaves, Carfax muses: 'Did not a queen, centuries past cover her guilt in the self-same fashion?' (p.144). His suspicions that the Tristan legend is being replayed by Linnet and Amyot are then allayed when he decides that his patient and pupil Tregentil must have inadvertently discussed his researches at the Inn and given Linnet the idea of the deception.

Linnet and Amyot meet in the woods and Linnet ponders the strange quality of their love: 'Have you ever thought that you and I have lived before - perhaps many times, to be born again, to kiss, to drain one another's heart out through the lips, to possess, to die?' (p.149). Carfax approaches Tregentil but he denies sharing his researches with either lover or the cuckolded Mark and while out walking the two stumble across Linnet. On the return through the woods to Tregentil's cottage, Linnet waits outside while Tregentil informs the doctor of his discoveries regarding the Tristan legend, in particular that the major versions differ in important respects. When Tregentil discusses the lovers' betrayal by a servant, Linnet suddenly exclaims to Doctor Carfax: 'How dare you discuss my private affairs with Mr Tregentil?' (p.158). Carfax attempts to explain that they were discussing Queen Iseult but Linnet reacts angrily. When Carfax returns to home, he finds a police inspector waiting who informs him that Fouguereau died from the blows which he received from Amyot. Meanwhile Tregentil is reading of the legend of Tristan slaying the giant Urgan, receiving a magical dog which he gave to Iseult, and the banishment of the lovers by King Mark. Linnet goes to the forest to warn Amyot as the Bosanko children begin to look for him. Johnny discovers a small injured dog which Amyot then entrusts to Linnet just as Tristan gave to Iseult.

Book III

Amyot has to stand trial for the manslaughter of Fouguereau but he is acquitted and Bosanko stands surety for him. Tregentil takes tea at the Bosanko farmhouse and when discussing the Tristan legend further and a possible outing with the Bosanko children to Castle-an-Dinas, Amyot remarks that 'I could swear I knew a man called Dinas once, but who it was, and when it was, I cannot tell' (p.202). Linnet, who is to accompany Mark to a dinner for publicans at the Indian Queen, plans to sneak away and meet with Amyot. Doctor Carfax hears about the planned trip and worries about Amyot visiting Castle-an-Dinas; he resolves to go to meet the party.

When Amyot, the children, and Tregentil reach Castle-an-Dinas, Amyot again seems to know the geography, despite having never visited the spot. When Mary wonders about the folk who lived there previously, Amyot answers in a peculiar manner: 'Rough men, if you like, but all my friends, and Dinas the wisest and the best, bearing me here to die. The causeway's yonder, beneath the grass under the westward gate, and that was the way she rode when Dinas brought her to my side' (p.220). Doctor Carfax sets out for Castle-an-Dinas, determined to keep Amyot and Linnet apart. He worries that he, Tregentil, and Ledru 'had in some way set the appalling thing in motion' (p.224), in particular his own musings under the stars at Linnet's birth, 'dooming her to unwilling repetition of a story that was not hers' (p.224). He ponders over an alternative ending to the story from a French Romance in which Tristan is wounded by Mark and dies at the fortress of his friend Dinas. When Carfax arrives, Linnet and Amyot have given the others the slip. When Tregentil asks where they are, Carfax replies 'in some borderland of buried kings and lovers' (p.230).

As Mark prepares to set off for the Indian Queen, Linnet's servant Deborah betrays her and tells Mark about her planned meeting with Amyot. She then gives Mark a phial of liquid and he and Linnet set off through the fog for the Indian Queen. When they arrive, Mark slips the liquid into Linnet's drink, she falls suddenly asleep and he locks her in an upstairs bedroom. Amyot sets off to meet Linnet, despite Mary Bosanko's attempts to stop him, and when he gets there he pretends to be a musician and offers to play for the company of publicans who are gathered there. Mary waits nervously outside and sees Amyot joining in the games with the landlords. Finally when it is Mark's turn to play, he is blindfolded and has to choose from four bowls- uncannily he chooses the bowl containing dirty water, symbolising adultery and he lunges at Amyot. Mary shouts for help and Doctor Carfax appears.

Carfax and Tregentil have prepared to travel out to the Indian Queen and they again discuss the two endings to the Tristan legend. In one, Tristan, who had gone to Brittany and married King Hoel's daughter, had sent for Iseult as he lay dying but she arrived too late; his death had been hastened by his jealous wife who had tricked him into thinking that Iseult was not on board the ship. In the other, Iseult's maid Brangwyn betrays her mistress to Mark who wounds him with a poison-tipped spear. Mark locks Iseult in her chamber to prevent her following Tristan and he dies at the castle of his friend Dinas before she can say goodbye. Carfax asks Tregentil 'if we do find ourselves mixed up in a tragedy of some thirteen hundred years ago, who is to play the part of Dinas, you or I?' (p.254).

Carfax arrives at the Indian Queen as Amyot flees. He rushes in to see Linnet and when he discovers her drugged by the draught which Deborah gave to Mark, he remembers the notary Ledru's death from a heart attack the previous year after drinking Deborah's potions. Carfax urges Mark to take Linnet to Bodmin hospital but Carfax makes a detour to Castle-an-Dinas in search of Amyot. When they arrive, Carfax searches for Amyot in an abandoned mineshaft and 'it seemed to the doctor [...] that he hovered now in strange and sickening fashion on the threshold of another world. Whatever he said or did in the present time would only be repetition of a day gone by, and anyone who listened to his voice calling in the darkness would hear it as the voice of another, dead these thirteen hundred years' (p.263). He discovers Amyot and tells him that he is 'Dinas, your friend' (p.264) but Amyot, possessed by the spirit of Tristan, suspects a trap and the two struggle. Amyot draws Carfax's pocket knife and holds it to the doctor's throat and as Carfax pushes his assailant away, the knife is accidentally driven into Amyot's shoulder, 'thus playing, fatefully and ironically, the role of a long-vanished poisoned spear' (p.266).

Carfax drags Amyot from the mineshaft and returns to the Lewarnes who are in the carriage. Amyot cannot understand why he and Carfax were fighting: 'the lad was no longer a wanderer in time, caught up in a past that was no of his own seeking, but a simple Breton sailor, wounded through misadventure' (p.267). Carfax places Amyot in the barouche as Linnet, still unconscious, travels towards Bodmin with Mark. As Amyot is nursed by Mary Bosanko he tells her that 'we made a pact once, long ago, she and I. If I ever needed her she swore she'd come to me' (p.268). Mary does not tell him of Linnet's condition and when he hears wheels on the road she tries to reassure him by telling him that there is another carriage, 'painted black' like Tregentil's (p.268) but 'the lie, spoken on impulse to spare him distress, had failed in its purpose' (p.269) and Amyot whispers 'Dieu vous garde. Je ne vous verrai plus' (p.269).

Epilogue

Doctor Carfax is in his eighties and has retired from his practice. He thinks about the changes which the years have brought about. Johnny Bosanko has become a doctor, Mary a nurse and Tregentil has a new enthusiasm for astronomy. He regrets that he had not been able 'to stay a senseless repetition of one of the saddest love stories in the world':

'Senseless perhaps, yet not entirely so. The pleasure and pain of love, once breathed upon the air, rose but to fall again, like blossom or like rain, infecting all things living with pain and ecstasy. Because of this a boy now healed the sick. Because of this a girl brought consolation to the suffering. And he himself, an old man hear his time, uttered eternal thanks for that redemption that had swept him like a tide some years before, when the hapless Amyot laughed at the wound that killed him, and the dying Linnet stirred in her sleep and smiled.' (p.274).