The Maid of Sker

Having been invalided out of the British navy, Davy Llewellyn plies his trade as a fisherman on the south coast of Wales. Investigating the wreck of a boat during a wild storm, he discovers an infant girl—the eponymous “maid of Sker”—whom he adopts. Her beauty and wit win a place in his heart that his own orphaned granddaughter can’t compete with. Llewellyn’s maritime activities also bring him to the Devonshire coast opposite his home, where he becomes embroiled with a corrupt parson. Years pass, during which Davy finds himself once again enlisted into the navy and involved in many adventures, some of which edge him closer to finding out the truth of the maid of Sker’s identity—but it’s almost twenty years before her full story is finally revealed.

R. D. Blackmore had written The Maid of Sker years before his most successful novel, Lorna Doone, and it was his personal favorite. After the success of Lorna Doone left the public wanting more of his fiction, he was able to re-draft The Maid of Sker for serialization. It shares much with Lorna Doone: a historical setting, first-person narration from a key protagonist, and evocative local environments.

Later readers have tended not to share Blackmore’s preference for The Maid of Sker; still, for all that Davy Llewellyn is something of a rogue and a less reliable, or even less likable, narrator than John Ridd, his storytelling has its own humor, charm, drama, and memorable moments.