Daphne du Maurier

His first instinct was to stretch out his hands to the sky. The white clouds seemed so near to him, surely they were easy to hold and to caress, strange-moving things belonging to the wide blue space of heaven . . . 'Julius Levy grows up in a peasant family in a village on the banks of the Seine. A quick-witted urchin …

Castle Dor is a 1961 historical novel by Daphne du Maurier, set in 19th century Cornwall.