The House on the Strand

by Daphne du Maurier

First published 2013

Professor Richard Young volunteers for a radical pharmaceutical experiment that allows him to mentally travel through time. Using an experimental drug developed by his biochemist friend, Richard repeatedly slips back to 14th-century Cornwall, experiencing the raw, visceral world of medieval peasants and nobility. With each transported journey, the drug's side effects intensify: disorientation, physical destabilization, and an increasingly dangerous addiction to the past. As Richard becomes more entangled in the medieval landscape, the boundaries between past and present blur, threatening his grip on reality and his very survival. His wife watches helplessly as he becomes consumed by these time-traveling episodes, risking everything for the seductive pull of historical immersion.

Genres: science-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure

Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator

Setting: England

Period: 20th-Century

316 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company

Content warnings: addiction, mental-illness

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