House on the Strand

Summary

In this haunting tale, Daphne du Maurier takes a freshapproach to time travel. A secret experimental concoction, once imbibed, allowsyou to return to the fourteenth century. There is only one catch: if you happento touch anyone while traveling in the past you will be thrust instantaneouslyto the present.

Magnus Lane, a University of London chemical researcher,asks his friend Richard Young and Young’s family to stay at Kilmarth, anancient house set in the wilds near the Cornish coast. Here, Richard drinks apotion created by Magnus and finds himself at the same spot where he wasmoments earlier—though it is now the fourteenth century. The effects of thedrink wear off after several hours, but it is wildly addictive, and Richardcannot resist traveling back and forth in time. Gradually growing more involvedin the lives of the early Cornish manor lords and their ladies, he finds thepresence of his wife and stepsons a hindrance to his new-found experience.Richard eventually finds emotional refuge with a beautiful woman of the pasttrapped in a loveless marriage, but when he attempts to intervene on her behalfthe results are brutally terrifying for the present.

Echoing the great fantastic stories of H. P. Lovecraft andEdgar Allan Poe, The House on the Strandis a masterful yarn of history, romance, horror, and suspense that will gripthe reader until the last surprising twist.