Daphne du Maurier
Encyclopedia
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE
(icon; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was a British author and playwright.
Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca
(which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941) and Jamaica Inn
and the short stories "The Birds
" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock
.
Her elder sister was the writer Angela du Maurier
. Her father was the actor Gerald du Maurier
. Her grandfather was the writer George du Maurier
.
and actress Muriel Beaumont
(maternal niece of William Comyns Beaumont
). Her grandfather was the author and Punch
cartoonist
George du Maurier
, who created the character of Svengali
in the novel Trilby
.
These connections helped her in establishing her literary career, and du Maurier published some of her very early work in Beaumont's Bystander
magazine. Her first novel, The Loving Spirit
, was published in 1931.
Du Maurier was also the cousin of the Llewelyn Davies boys
, who served as J.M. Barrie's inspiration for the characters in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. As a young child, she met many of the brightest stars of the theatre, thanks to the celebrity of her father. On meeting Tallulah Bankhead
, she was quoted as saying that the actress was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen.
or Iris Murdoch
. By the 1950s, when the socially and politically critical "angry young men" were in vogue, her writing was felt by some to belong to a bygone age. Today, she has been reappraised as a first-rate storyteller, a mistress of suspense. Her ability to recreate a sense of place is much admired, and her work remains popular worldwide. For several decades she was the most popular author for library book borrowings.
The novel Rebecca
, which has been adapted for stage and screen on several occasions, is generally regarded as her masterpiece. One of her strongest influences here was Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
. Her fascination with the Brontë
family is also apparent in The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë
, her biography of the troubled elder brother to the Brontë girls. The fact that their mother had been Cornish no doubt added to her interest.
Other notable works include The Scapegoat
, The House on the Strand
, and The King's General
. The latter is set in the middle of the first
and second English Civil War
s. Though written from the Royalist
perspective of her adopted Cornwall, it gives a fairly neutral view of this period of history.
Several of her other novels have also been adapted for the screen, including Jamaica Inn
, Frenchman's Creek, Hungry Hill
, and My Cousin Rachel
(1951). The Hitchcock film The Birds
(1963) is based on a treatment of one of her short stories, as is the film Don't Look Now
(1973). Of the films, du Maurier often complained that the only ones she liked were Alfred Hitchcock
's Rebecca and Nicolas Roeg
's Don't Look Now. Hitchcock's treatment of Jamaica Inn
involved a complete rewrite of the ending to accommodate the ego of its star, Charles Laughton
. Du Maurier also felt that Olivia de Havilland
was wrongly cast as the anti-heroine of My Cousin Rachel
. Frenchman's Creek fared rather better with its lavish Technicolor sets and costumes. Du Maurier later regretted her choice of Alec Guinness
as the lead in the film of The Scapegoat, which she partly financed.
Du Maurier was often categorised as a "romantic novelist" (a term she deplored), though most of her novels, with the notable exception of Frenchman's Creek, are quite different from the stereotypical format of a Georgette Heyer
or a Barbara Cartland
novel. Du Maurier's novels rarely have a happy ending, and her brand of romanticism is often at odds with the sinister overtones and shadows of the paranormal she so favoured. In this light, she has more in common with the "sensation novel
s" of Wilkie Collins
and others, which she admired.
Du Maurier's novel Mary Anne
(1954) is a fictionalised account of the real-life story of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke
née Thompson (1776–1852). From 1803 to 1808, Mary Anne Clarke was mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827). He was the "Grand Old Duke of York" of the nursery rhyme, a son of King George III and brother of the later King George IV.
In Ken Follett
's thriller The Key to Rebecca
, du Maurier's novel Rebecca is used as the key for a code used by a German spy in World War II Cairo
. Neville Chamberlain
is reputed to have read Rebecca on the plane journey that led to Adolf Hitler
signing the Munich Agreement
.
The central character of her last novel, Rule Britannia, is an aging and eccentric actress who was based on Gertrude Lawrence and Gladys Cooper
(to whom it is dedicated). However, the character is most recognisably du Maurier herself.
Indeed, it was in her short stories that she was able to give free rein to the harrowing and terrifying side of her imagination; "The Birds
", "Don't Look Now", "The Apple Tree" and "The Blue Lenses" are exquisitely crafted tales of terror that shocked and surprised her audience in equal measure. As her biographer Margaret Forster wrote: 'She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied too the exacting requirements of "real literature".' Her stories read like classic tales of terror and suspense but written with a sure
touch for character, imagery and suggestive meaning. They are a borderline case of where pop becomes art.
A more recent discovery of a collection of du Maurier's forgotten short stories, written when the author was 21, provides an intriguing insight into the writer she was to become. One of them, "The Doll", is a suspense-driven gothic tale about a young woman's obsession with a mechanical male sex doll; it has been deemed by du Maurier's son Kit Browning as being "quite ahead of its time".
Perhaps more than at any other time, du Maurier was anxious as to how her bold new writing style would be received, not just by her readers (and to some extent her critics, though by then she had grown wearily accustomed to their often lukewarm reviews) but also by her immediate circle of family and friends.
In later life, she wrote nonfiction, including several biographies that were well received. This, no doubt, came from a deep-rooted desire to be accepted as a serious writer, comparing herself to her neighbour, A. L. Rowse
, the celebrated historian and essayist, who lived a few miles away from her house near Fowey
.
Also of interest are the "family" novels/biographies that du Maurier wrote of her own ancestry, of which Gerald
, the biography of her father, was most lauded. Later she wrote The Glass-Blowers, which traces her French ancestry and gives a vivid depiction of the French Revolution
. The du Mauriers is a sequel of sorts describing the somewhat problematic ways in which the family moved from France to England in the 19th century and finally Mary Anne, the novel based on the life of a notable, and infamous, English ancestor—her great-grandmother Mary Anne Clarke
, former mistress of Frederick, Duke of York
.
Her final novels reveal just how far her writing style had developed. The House on the Strand (1969) combines elements of "mental time-travel", a tragic love affair in 14th century Cornwall, and the dangers of using mind-altering drugs. Her final novel, Rule Britannia, written post-Vietnam
, plays with the resentment of English people in general and Cornish people in particular at the increasing dominance of the U.S.
In late 2006, a previously unknown work titled And His Letters Grew Colder was discovered by Ann Willmore of Bookends of Fowey. This was estimated to have been written in the late 1920s and takes the form of a series of letters tracing an adulterous, passionate affair from initial ardour to deflated acrimony.
and Owen Nares
as the De Winters and Margaret Rutherford
as Mrs. Danvers. At the end of May, following a run of 181 performances, the production transferred to the Strand Theatre
, with Jill Furse taking over as Mrs. De Winter and Mary Merrall
as Danvers, with a further run of 176 performances.
In the summer of 1943, she began writing the autobiographically inspired drama The Years Between about the unexpected return of a senior officer, thought killed in action, who finds that his wife has taken his seat as Member of Parliament
and has started a romantic relationship with a local farmer. It was first staged at the Manchester Opera House
in 1944 and then transferred to London, opening at Wyndham's Theatre
on 10 January 1945, starring Nora Swinburne
and Clive Brook. The production, directed by Irene Hentschel, became a long-running hit, completing 617 performances. After 60 years of neglect, it was revived by Caroline Smith
at the Orange Tree Theatre
in Richmond upon Thames
on 5 September 2007, starring Karen Ascoe
and Mark Tandy.
Better known is her third play, September Tide, about a middle-aged woman whose bohemian
artist son-in-law falls for her. The central character of Stella was originally based on Ellen Doubleday and was merely what Ellen might have been in an English setting and in a different set of circumstances. Again directed by Irene Hentschel, it opened at the Aldwych Theatre
on 15 December 1948 with Gertrude Lawrence
as Stella, enjoying a run of 267 performances before closing at the beginning of August 1949. It was to lead to a close personal and social relationship between Daphne and Gertrude.
Since then, September Tide has received occasional revivals, most recently at the Comedy Theatre in London in January 1994, starring film and stage actress Susannah York
as Stella with Michael Praed
as the saturnine young artist. Reviewing the production for the Richmond & Twickenham Times, critic John Thaxter wrote: "The play and performances delicately explore their developing relationship. And as the September gales batter the Cornish coast, isolating Stella's cottage from the outside world, she surrenders herself to the truth of a moment of unconventional tenderness."
In 2005, "September Tide" adapted by Moya O'Shea and Produced/Directed by Tracey Neale was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and starred Paula Wilcox
as Stella and Jonathan Firth
as Evan. It has since been repeated on BBC 7.
, she was Lady Browning; Dame Daphne du Maurier DBE (1969–1989).
When in the Queen's Birthday Honours
List for June 1969 Daphne du Maurier was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
, she accepted but never used the title. According to Margaret Forster
, she told no one about the honour, so that even her children only learned of it from the newspapers. "She thought of pleading illness for the investiture, until her children insisted it would be a great day for the older grandchildren. So she went through with it, though she slipped out quietly afterwards to avoid the attention of the press".
(The Successor) has a main plot similar to Rebecca, including a young woman marrying a widower and the strange presence of the first wife—plot features also shared with the far older Jane Eyre. Nina Auerbach claimed in her book Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress that du Maurier had read the Brazilian book when the first drafts were sent to be published in England and based her famous bestseller on it. "Ms. Nabuco had translated her novel into French and sent it to a publisher in Paris, who she learned was also Ms. du Maurier's".
The controversy reached The New York Times Book Review
, which exhaustively compared excerpts from both books. According to Nabuco's memoirs, when Hitchcock's movie Rebecca was first shown in Brazil, United Artists wanted her to sign a document saying that all the similarities were merely a coincidence. The Brazilian writer refused to sign it.
According to the New York Times Book Review, in an article published in November 5, 2002, these were the words on Nabuco's memoirs, on this episode: "When the film version of 'Rebecca' came to Brazil, the producers' lawyer sought out my lawyer to ask him that I sign a document admitting the possibility of there having been a mere coincidence. I would be compensated with a quantity described as 'of considerable value.' I did not consent, naturally.
Du Maurier denied having copied Nabuco's book, as did her publisher, claiming that the plot used in Rebecca was quite common.
According to Nabuco and her editor, not only the main plot, but also situations and entire dialogues had been copied. More recently, the NY Times Book Review brought the issue back to attention on the subject of the book The Life of Pi, allegedly plagiarised from a short story by Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar
.
The author Frank Baker
also believed that du Maurier had plagiarised his novel The Birds (1936) in her short story The Birds
. Du Maurier had been working as a reader for Baker's publisher Peter Davies at the time he submitted the book. When Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
was released in 1963, based on du Maurier's story, Baker considered, but was advised against, pursuing costly litigation against Universal Studios
.
, with whom she had two daughters, Tessa and Flavia, and a son, Christian. Tessa Browning (b. 1933) married Major Peter de Zulueta, whom she divorced and married David Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
in 1970. Flavia (b. 1937) married Captain Alastair Tower, whom she divorced, before marrying General Sir Peter Leng
. Christian (b. 1940) became a photographer and film-maker. He married Olive White who was Miss Ireland 1962. She co-presented a quiz show with Terry Wogan on RTE during 1962-63 (Irish national television).
Biographers have noted that the marriage was at times somewhat chilly and that du Maurier could be aloof and distant to her children, especially the girls, when immersed in her writing. "Boy" died in 1965 and soon after Daphne moved to Kilmarth, near Par
, which became the setting for The House on the Strand
.
Du Maurier has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews. An exception to this came after the release of the film A Bridge Too Far, in which her late husband was portrayed in a less-than-flattering light. Du Maurier, incensed, wrote to the national newspapers, decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment. Once out of the glare of the public spotlight, however, many remembered her as a warm and immensely funny person who was a welcoming hostess to guests at Menabilly
, the house she leased for many years (from the Rashleigh family) in Cornwall. Letters from Menabilly contains the letters from du Maurier to Oriel Malet
over 30 years, with Malet's commentary. (Malet's real name is Auriel Malet Vaughan.)
Daphne du Maurier was a member of the Cornish nationalist pressure group/political party Mebyon Kernow
. She was spoofed by her slightly older fellow writer P. G. Wodehouse
as "Daphne Dolores Morehead".
, as well as her attraction for Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her American publisher, were cited. Du Maurier stated in her memoirs that her father had wanted a son; and, being a tomboy, she had naturally wished to have been born a boy. Her father, unusually for such a prominent theatre personality, was vociferously anti-homosexual. There is some evidence to suggest that Daphne's relationship with her father may have bordered on incest
.
In correspondence released by her family for the first time to her biographer, Margaret Forster
, du Maurier explained to a trusted few her own unique slant on her sexuality: her personality, she explained, comprised two distinct people—the loving wife and mother (the side she showed to the world) and the lover (a decidedly male energy) hidden to virtually everyone and the power behind her artistic creativity. According to the biography, du Maurier believed the male energy was the demon that fuelled her creative life as a writer. Forster maintains that it became evident in personal letters revealed after her death, however, that du Maurier's denial of her bisexuality unveiled a homophobic fear of her true nature.
created controversy in June 2008 when they rejected an application to commemorate her home in Hampstead with a Blue Plaque.
Daphne du Maurier was one of five "Women of Achievement" selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996. The others were Dorothy Hodgkin (scientist), Margot Fonteyn
(ballerina), Elizabeth Frink (sculptor), and Marea Hartman (sports administrator).
The British folk-band Erland the Carnival are using the first line of "Rebecca" as opening line in their song "Trouble in Time".
:Category:Novels by Daphne du Maurier
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(icon; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was a British author and playwright.
Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca
Rebecca (novel)
Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
(which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941) and Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn (novel)
Jamaica Inn is a novel by the English writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1936. It was later made into a film, also called Jamaica Inn, by Alfred Hitchcock...
and the short stories "The Birds
The Birds (story)
"The Birds" is a famous novelette by Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree. It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community, who are attacked by flocks of seabirds who have organized themselves into avian suicide warriors. The story is set in...
" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
.
Her elder sister was the writer Angela du Maurier
Angela du Maurier
Angela du Maurier was a novelist who had eleven books published in total, including two volumes of autobiography, It's Only the Sister and Old Maids Remember....
. Her father was the actor Gerald du Maurier
Gerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
. Her grandfather was the writer George du Maurier
George du Maurier
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
.
Early life
Daphne du Maurier was born in London, the second of three daughters of the prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du MaurierGerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
and actress Muriel Beaumont
Muriel Beaumont
Muriel Beaumont, Lady du Maurier was an English stage actress. She was the wife of the actor Gerald du Maurier and mother of the writer Daphne du Maurier. She retired from the stage in 1910.-Biography:...
(maternal niece of William Comyns Beaumont
William Comyns Beaumont
William Comyns Beaumont, also known as Comyns Beaumont, was a British journalist, author, and lecturer. Beaumont was a staff writer for the Daily Mail and eventually became editor of the Bystander in 1903 and then The Graphic in 1932.Beaumont was an eccentric with several unusual beliefs, many of...
). Her grandfather was the author and Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
George du Maurier
George du Maurier
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
, who created the character of Svengali
Svengali
Svengali is a fictional character of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. Svengali "would either fawn or bully and could be grossly impertinent. He had a kind of cynical humour that was more offensive than amusing and always laughed at the wrong thing, at the wrong time, in the wrong place...
in the novel Trilby
Trilby (novel)
Trilby is a novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Published serially in Harper's Monthly in 1894, it was published in book form in 1895 and sold 200,000 copies in the United...
.
These connections helped her in establishing her literary career, and du Maurier published some of her very early work in Beaumont's Bystander
Bystander (magazine)
Bystander, a British weekly tabloid magazine, featured reviews, topical sketches, and short stories. Published from Fleet Street, it was established in 1903 by George Holt Thomas...
magazine. Her first novel, The Loving Spirit
The Loving Spirit
The Loving Spirit is Daphne du Maurier's first published novel from 1931, a saga which spans the lives of three generations of Cornish folk....
, was published in 1931.
Du Maurier was also the cousin of the Llewelyn Davies boys
Llewelyn Davies boys
The Davies boys were the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies . They served as the inspiration for the characters of Peter Pan and the other boys of J. M...
, who served as J.M. Barrie's inspiration for the characters in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. As a young child, she met many of the brightest stars of the theatre, thanks to the celebrity of her father. On meeting Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...
, she was quoted as saying that the actress was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen.
Novels, short stories and biographies
Literary critics have sometimes berated du Maurier's works for not being "intellectually heavyweight" like those of George EliotGeorge Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
or Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch
Dame Iris Murdoch DBE was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about political and social questions of good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious...
. By the 1950s, when the socially and politically critical "angry young men" were in vogue, her writing was felt by some to belong to a bygone age. Today, she has been reappraised as a first-rate storyteller, a mistress of suspense. Her ability to recreate a sense of place is much admired, and her work remains popular worldwide. For several decades she was the most popular author for library book borrowings.
The novel Rebecca
Rebecca (novel)
Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
, which has been adapted for stage and screen on several occasions, is generally regarded as her masterpiece. One of her strongest influences here was Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
by Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
. Her fascination with the Brontë
Brontë
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte , Emily , and Anne , are well-known as poets and novelists...
family is also apparent in The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë
Branwell Brontë
Patrick Branwell Brontë was a painter and poet, the only son of the Brontë family, and the brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne.-Youth:...
, her biography of the troubled elder brother to the Brontë girls. The fact that their mother had been Cornish no doubt added to her interest.
Other notable works include The Scapegoat
The Scapegoat (Daphne du Maurier)
The Scapegoat is a 1957 novel by Daphne du Maurier. In 1959, it was made into a film of the same name, starring Sir Alec Guinness. A new film version, to be directed by Charles Sturridge, is currently in production.-Plot introduction:...
, The House on the Strand
The House on the Strand
The House on the Strand is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. First published in 1969 by Victor Gollancz, it is one of her later works. The US edition was published by Doubleday....
, and The King's General
The King's General
The King's General is a novel, published in 1946, by English author and playwright Daphne du Maurier.-Background:It was the first novel Du Maurier wrote while living at Menabilly, the setting for an earlier novel Rebecca, where it is called 'Manderley'...
. The latter is set in the middle of the first
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
and second English Civil War
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
s. Though written from the Royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
perspective of her adopted Cornwall, it gives a fairly neutral view of this period of history.
Several of her other novels have also been adapted for the screen, including Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn (novel)
Jamaica Inn is a novel by the English writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1936. It was later made into a film, also called Jamaica Inn, by Alfred Hitchcock...
, Frenchman's Creek, Hungry Hill
Hungry Hill (novel)
Hungry Hill is a novel by prolific British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1943. There have been 33 editions of the book printed.This family saga is based on the Irish ancestors of Daphne du Maurier’s friend Christopher Puxley...
, and My Cousin Rachel
My Cousin Rachel
My Cousin Rachel is a novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1951. Like the earlier Rebecca, it is a mystery-romance, largely set on a large estate in Cornwall.-Plot overview:...
(1951). The Hitchcock film The Birds
The Birds (film)
The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...
(1963) is based on a treatment of one of her short stories, as is the film Don't Look Now
Don't Look Now
Don't Look Now is a 1973 thriller film directed by Nicolas Roeg. Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland star as a married couple whose lives become complicated after meeting two elderly sisters in Venice, one of whom claims to be clairvoyant and informs them that their recently deceased daughter is...
(1973). Of the films, du Maurier often complained that the only ones she liked were Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Rebecca and Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...
's Don't Look Now. Hitchcock's treatment of Jamaica Inn
Jamaica Inn (film)
Jamaica Inn is a 1939 film made by Alfred Hitchcock adapted from Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name, the first of three of du Maurier's works that Hitchcock adapted ....
involved a complete rewrite of the ending to accommodate the ego of its star, Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
. Du Maurier also felt that Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
was wrongly cast as the anti-heroine of My Cousin Rachel
My Cousin Rachel
My Cousin Rachel is a novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1951. Like the earlier Rebecca, it is a mystery-romance, largely set on a large estate in Cornwall.-Plot overview:...
. Frenchman's Creek fared rather better with its lavish Technicolor sets and costumes. Du Maurier later regretted her choice of Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
as the lead in the film of The Scapegoat, which she partly financed.
Du Maurier was often categorised as a "romantic novelist" (a term she deplored), though most of her novels, with the notable exception of Frenchman's Creek, are quite different from the stereotypical format of a Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer
Georgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...
or a Barbara Cartland
Barbara Cartland
Dame Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ , was an English author, one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century...
novel. Du Maurier's novels rarely have a happy ending, and her brand of romanticism is often at odds with the sinister overtones and shadows of the paranormal she so favoured. In this light, she has more in common with the "sensation novel
Sensation novel
The sensation novel was a literary genre of fiction popular in Great Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, following on from earlier melodramatic novels and the Newgate novels, which focused on tales woven around criminal biographies, also descend from the gothic and romantic genres of fiction...
s" of Wilkie Collins
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
and others, which she admired.
Du Maurier's novel Mary Anne
Mary Anne
Daphne du Maurier's novel Mary Anne is a fictionalised account of the real-life story of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke née Thompson ....
(1954) is a fictionalised account of the real-life story of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke
Mary Anne Clarke
Mary Anne Clarke was the mistress of Frederick, Duke of York. Their relationship began in 1803, while he was Commander-in-Chief of the army. Later in 1809, she wrote her memoirs which were published...
née Thompson (1776–1852). From 1803 to 1808, Mary Anne Clarke was mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827). He was the "Grand Old Duke of York" of the nursery rhyme, a son of King George III and brother of the later King George IV.
In Ken Follett
Ken Follett
Ken Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
's thriller The Key to Rebecca
The Key to Rebecca
The Key to Rebecca is a novel by British author Ken Follett. Published in 1980 by Pan Books , it was a noted bestseller that achieved popularity both in the United Kingdom and worldwide...
, du Maurier's novel Rebecca is used as the key for a code used by a German spy in World War II Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
is reputed to have read Rebecca on the plane journey that led to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
signing the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
.
The central character of her last novel, Rule Britannia, is an aging and eccentric actress who was based on Gertrude Lawrence and Gladys Cooper
Gladys Cooper
Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, DBE was an English actress whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television....
(to whom it is dedicated). However, the character is most recognisably du Maurier herself.
Indeed, it was in her short stories that she was able to give free rein to the harrowing and terrifying side of her imagination; "The Birds
The Birds (story)
"The Birds" is a famous novelette by Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree. It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community, who are attacked by flocks of seabirds who have organized themselves into avian suicide warriors. The story is set in...
", "Don't Look Now", "The Apple Tree" and "The Blue Lenses" are exquisitely crafted tales of terror that shocked and surprised her audience in equal measure. As her biographer Margaret Forster wrote: 'She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied too the exacting requirements of "real literature".' Her stories read like classic tales of terror and suspense but written with a sure
touch for character, imagery and suggestive meaning. They are a borderline case of where pop becomes art.
A more recent discovery of a collection of du Maurier's forgotten short stories, written when the author was 21, provides an intriguing insight into the writer she was to become. One of them, "The Doll", is a suspense-driven gothic tale about a young woman's obsession with a mechanical male sex doll; it has been deemed by du Maurier's son Kit Browning as being "quite ahead of its time".
Perhaps more than at any other time, du Maurier was anxious as to how her bold new writing style would be received, not just by her readers (and to some extent her critics, though by then she had grown wearily accustomed to their often lukewarm reviews) but also by her immediate circle of family and friends.
In later life, she wrote nonfiction, including several biographies that were well received. This, no doubt, came from a deep-rooted desire to be accepted as a serious writer, comparing herself to her neighbour, A. L. Rowse
A. L. Rowse
Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...
, the celebrated historian and essayist, who lived a few miles away from her house near Fowey
Fowey
Fowey is a small town, civil parish and cargo port at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,273.-Early history:...
.
Also of interest are the "family" novels/biographies that du Maurier wrote of her own ancestry, of which Gerald
Gerald
Gerald is a masculine German given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ger- and suffix -wald . Variants include the English given name Jerrold, and the feminine nickname Jeri. Gerald is less common as a surname...
, the biography of her father, was most lauded. Later she wrote The Glass-Blowers, which traces her French ancestry and gives a vivid depiction of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. The du Mauriers is a sequel of sorts describing the somewhat problematic ways in which the family moved from France to England in the 19th century and finally Mary Anne, the novel based on the life of a notable, and infamous, English ancestor—her great-grandmother Mary Anne Clarke
Mary Anne Clarke
Mary Anne Clarke was the mistress of Frederick, Duke of York. Their relationship began in 1803, while he was Commander-in-Chief of the army. Later in 1809, she wrote her memoirs which were published...
, former mistress of Frederick, Duke of York
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany was a member of the Hanoverian and British Royal Family, the second eldest child, and second son, of King George III...
.
Her final novels reveal just how far her writing style had developed. The House on the Strand (1969) combines elements of "mental time-travel", a tragic love affair in 14th century Cornwall, and the dangers of using mind-altering drugs. Her final novel, Rule Britannia, written post-Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, plays with the resentment of English people in general and Cornish people in particular at the increasing dominance of the U.S.
In late 2006, a previously unknown work titled And His Letters Grew Colder was discovered by Ann Willmore of Bookends of Fowey. This was estimated to have been written in the late 1920s and takes the form of a series of letters tracing an adulterous, passionate affair from initial ardour to deflated acrimony.
Plays
Daphne du Maurier wrote three plays. Her first was a successful adaptation of her novel Rebecca, which opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 5 March 1940 in a production by George Devine, starring Celia JohnsonCelia Johnson
Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson DBE was an English actress.She began her stage acting career in 1928, and subsequently achieved success in West End and Broadway productions. She also appeared in several films, including the romantic drama Brief Encounter , for which she received a nomination for the...
and Owen Nares
Owen Nares
Owen Ramsay Nares had a long stage and film career and, for most of the 1920s, was Britain's favourite matinée idol and silent film star...
as the De Winters and Margaret Rutherford
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...
as Mrs. Danvers. At the end of May, following a run of 181 performances, the production transferred to the Strand Theatre
Novello Theatre
The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster.-History:The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W. G. R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on 22 May 1905, and was...
, with Jill Furse taking over as Mrs. De Winter and Mary Merrall
Mary Merrall
Mary Merrall , born Elsie Lloyd, was an English actress whose career of over 60 years encompassed stage, film and television work.-Stage career:...
as Danvers, with a further run of 176 performances.
In the summer of 1943, she began writing the autobiographically inspired drama The Years Between about the unexpected return of a senior officer, thought killed in action, who finds that his wife has taken his seat as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
and has started a romantic relationship with a local farmer. It was first staged at the Manchester Opera House
Manchester Opera House
The Opera House in Quay Street, Manchester, England is a 1,920 seater commercial touring theatre which plays host to touring musicals, ballet, concerts and a Christmas pantomime. It is the sister to the Palace Theatre which is a similar venue in nearby Oxford Street at its junction with Whitworth...
in 1944 and then transferred to London, opening at Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
on 10 January 1945, starring Nora Swinburne
Nora Swinburne
Nora Swinburne was a British actress, born Leonora Mary Johnson in Bath, Somerset, daughter of Henry Swinburne Johnson and his wife Leonora Tamar ....
and Clive Brook. The production, directed by Irene Hentschel, became a long-running hit, completing 617 performances. After 60 years of neglect, it was revived by Caroline Smith
Caroline Smith
Caroline Smith was an American diver who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics.In 1924 she won the gold medal in the 10 metre platform competition.-External links:*...
at the Orange Tree Theatre
Orange Tree Theatre
The Orange Tree Theatre is a 172-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south west London, built specifically as a theatre in the round....
in Richmond upon Thames
Richmond upon Thames
Richmond is a town in southwest London, England and is part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is located west-southwest of Charing Cross....
on 5 September 2007, starring Karen Ascoe
Karen Ascoe
Karen Ascoe is a British actress of the stage and screen. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has appeared in numerous plays on the London stage...
and Mark Tandy.
Better known is her third play, September Tide, about a middle-aged woman whose bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
artist son-in-law falls for her. The central character of Stella was originally based on Ellen Doubleday and was merely what Ellen might have been in an English setting and in a different set of circumstances. Again directed by Irene Hentschel, it opened at the Aldwych Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
on 15 December 1948 with Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
as Stella, enjoying a run of 267 performances before closing at the beginning of August 1949. It was to lead to a close personal and social relationship between Daphne and Gertrude.
Since then, September Tide has received occasional revivals, most recently at the Comedy Theatre in London in January 1994, starring film and stage actress Susannah York
Susannah York
Susannah York was a British film, stage and television actress. She was awarded a BAFTA as Best Supporting Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the same film. She won best actress for Images at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival...
as Stella with Michael Praed
Michael Praed
Michael Praed born Michael David Prince, 1 April 1960 in Berkeley, Gloucestershire) is a British actor, is probably best known for his role as Robin of Loxley in the British television series Robin of Sherwood, which attained cult status worldwide in the 1980s...
as the saturnine young artist. Reviewing the production for the Richmond & Twickenham Times, critic John Thaxter wrote: "The play and performances delicately explore their developing relationship. And as the September gales batter the Cornish coast, isolating Stella's cottage from the outside world, she surrenders herself to the truth of a moment of unconventional tenderness."
In 2005, "September Tide" adapted by Moya O'Shea and Produced/Directed by Tracey Neale was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and starred Paula Wilcox
Paula Wilcox
Paula Wilcox is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Chrissy in the British comedy Man About the House .-Early sitcom fame:...
as Stella and Jonathan Firth
Jonathan Firth
Jonathan Firth is a British actor best known for his roles in such noted British television productions as Middlemarch, Far from the Madding Crowd, and Victoria & Albert.-Early life:Jonathan Firth was born in Essex, England...
as Evan. It has since been repeated on BBC 7.
Personal names, titles and honours
She was known as Daphne du Maurier from 1907 to 1932 when she became Mrs Frederick Browning while writing as Daphne du Maurier (1932–1946). She was titled Lady Browning; Daphne du Maurier (1946–1969). Later, on receiving the honorific Dame Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, she was Lady Browning; Dame Daphne du Maurier DBE (1969–1989).
When in the Queen's Birthday Honours
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Queen's Birthday Honours is a part of the British honours system, being a civic occasion on the celebration of the Queen's Official Birthday in which new members of most Commonwealth Realms honours are named. The awards are presented by the reigning monarch or head of state, currently Queen...
List for June 1969 Daphne du Maurier was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, she accepted but never used the title. According to Margaret Forster
Margaret Forster
Margaret Forster is a British author. She was born in Carlisle, England, where she attended Carlisle and County High School for Girls , and then won an Open Scholarship to read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, from where she graduated in 1960.After a short period as a teacher at...
, she told no one about the honour, so that even her children only learned of it from the newspapers. "She thought of pleading illness for the investiture, until her children insisted it would be a great day for the older grandchildren. So she went through with it, though she slipped out quietly afterwards to avoid the attention of the press".
Plagiarism accusations
Shortly after Rebecca was published in Brazil, critic Álvaro Lins and other readers pointed out many resemblances between du Maurier's book and the work of Brazilian writer Carolina Nabuco. Nabuco's A sucessoraA sucessora
A Sucessora is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Carolina Nabuco. It was first published in 1934. In addition, there are a popular TV series which is called A Sucessora, and which used this book....
(The Successor) has a main plot similar to Rebecca, including a young woman marrying a widower and the strange presence of the first wife—plot features also shared with the far older Jane Eyre. Nina Auerbach claimed in her book Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress that du Maurier had read the Brazilian book when the first drafts were sent to be published in England and based her famous bestseller on it. "Ms. Nabuco had translated her novel into French and sent it to a publisher in Paris, who she learned was also Ms. du Maurier's".
The controversy reached The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, which exhaustively compared excerpts from both books. According to Nabuco's memoirs, when Hitchcock's movie Rebecca was first shown in Brazil, United Artists wanted her to sign a document saying that all the similarities were merely a coincidence. The Brazilian writer refused to sign it.
According to the New York Times Book Review, in an article published in November 5, 2002, these were the words on Nabuco's memoirs, on this episode: "When the film version of 'Rebecca' came to Brazil, the producers' lawyer sought out my lawyer to ask him that I sign a document admitting the possibility of there having been a mere coincidence. I would be compensated with a quantity described as 'of considerable value.' I did not consent, naturally.
Du Maurier denied having copied Nabuco's book, as did her publisher, claiming that the plot used in Rebecca was quite common.
According to Nabuco and her editor, not only the main plot, but also situations and entire dialogues had been copied. More recently, the NY Times Book Review brought the issue back to attention on the subject of the book The Life of Pi, allegedly plagiarised from a short story by Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar
Moacyr Scliar
Moacyr Jaime Scliar was a Brazilian writer and physician.Scliar is best known outside Brazil for his 1981 novel Max and the Cats , the story of a young man who flees Berlin after he comes to the attention of the Nazis for having had an affair with a married woman...
.
The author Frank Baker
Frank Baker (author)
Frank Baker was an English author, actor, musician and television scriptwriter.Baker was born in London in 1908 and was educated at Wincester Cathedral School. He worked for five years in his father's marine insurance business in the City of London, before leaving to work for a year at the School...
also believed that du Maurier had plagiarised his novel The Birds (1936) in her short story The Birds
The Birds (story)
"The Birds" is a famous novelette by Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree. It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community, who are attacked by flocks of seabirds who have organized themselves into avian suicide warriors. The story is set in...
. Du Maurier had been working as a reader for Baker's publisher Peter Davies at the time he submitted the book. When Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds
The Birds (film)
The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...
was released in 1963, based on du Maurier's story, Baker considered, but was advised against, pursuing costly litigation against Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
.
Personal life
She married Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick "Boy" BrowningFrederick Browning
Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Arthur Montague Browning GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO was a British Army officer who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He is best known as the commander of the I Airborne Corps and deputy commander of First Allied Airborne Army during Operation...
, with whom she had two daughters, Tessa and Flavia, and a son, Christian. Tessa Browning (b. 1933) married Major Peter de Zulueta, whom she divorced and married David Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
David Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
David Bernard Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein CMG, CBE is a British politician, businessman, and promoter of good relations with South America...
in 1970. Flavia (b. 1937) married Captain Alastair Tower, whom she divorced, before marrying General Sir Peter Leng
Peter Leng
General Sir Peter John Hall Leng, KCB, MBE, MC was a British Army General & Master-General of the Ordnance & Counter Terrorism Expert in Northern Ireland.-Military service:...
. Christian (b. 1940) became a photographer and film-maker. He married Olive White who was Miss Ireland 1962. She co-presented a quiz show with Terry Wogan on RTE during 1962-63 (Irish national television).
Biographers have noted that the marriage was at times somewhat chilly and that du Maurier could be aloof and distant to her children, especially the girls, when immersed in her writing. "Boy" died in 1965 and soon after Daphne moved to Kilmarth, near Par
Par, Cornwall
Par is a town and fishing port with a harbour on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town is situated in the civil parish of Tywardreath and Par and is approximately east of St Austell. Par has a population of around 1,400.....
, which became the setting for The House on the Strand
The House on the Strand
The House on the Strand is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. First published in 1969 by Victor Gollancz, it is one of her later works. The US edition was published by Doubleday....
.
Du Maurier has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews. An exception to this came after the release of the film A Bridge Too Far, in which her late husband was portrayed in a less-than-flattering light. Du Maurier, incensed, wrote to the national newspapers, decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment. Once out of the glare of the public spotlight, however, many remembered her as a warm and immensely funny person who was a welcoming hostess to guests at Menabilly
Menabilly
Menabilly is an Elizabethan house on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the Rashleigh Estate, seat of the Rashleigh family. Menabilly is situated on the Gribben peninsula about west of Fowey...
, the house she leased for many years (from the Rashleigh family) in Cornwall. Letters from Menabilly contains the letters from du Maurier to Oriel Malet
Oriel Malet
Lady Auriel Rosemary Malet Vaughan is an author of literary fiction and biographies who wrote under the name of Oriel Malet. Her parents were Ernest Edmund Henry Malet Vaughan, 7th Earl of Lisburne and Maria Isabel Regina Aspasia de Bittencourt...
over 30 years, with Malet's commentary. (Malet's real name is Auriel Malet Vaughan.)
Daphne du Maurier was a member of the Cornish nationalist pressure group/political party Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow is a left-of-centre political party in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It primarily campaigns for devolution to Cornwall in the form of a Cornish Assembly, as well as social democracy and environmental protection.MK was formed as a pressure group in 1951, and contained as members activists...
. She was spoofed by her slightly older fellow writer P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
as "Daphne Dolores Morehead".
Secret sexual relationships
After her death in 1989, numerous references were made to her secret bisexuality; an affair with Gertrude LawrenceGertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
, as well as her attraction for Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her American publisher, were cited. Du Maurier stated in her memoirs that her father had wanted a son; and, being a tomboy, she had naturally wished to have been born a boy. Her father, unusually for such a prominent theatre personality, was vociferously anti-homosexual. There is some evidence to suggest that Daphne's relationship with her father may have bordered on incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
.
In correspondence released by her family for the first time to her biographer, Margaret Forster
Margaret Forster
Margaret Forster is a British author. She was born in Carlisle, England, where she attended Carlisle and County High School for Girls , and then won an Open Scholarship to read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, from where she graduated in 1960.After a short period as a teacher at...
, du Maurier explained to a trusted few her own unique slant on her sexuality: her personality, she explained, comprised two distinct people—the loving wife and mother (the side she showed to the world) and the lover (a decidedly male energy) hidden to virtually everyone and the power behind her artistic creativity. According to the biography, du Maurier believed the male energy was the demon that fuelled her creative life as a writer. Forster maintains that it became evident in personal letters revealed after her death, however, that du Maurier's denial of her bisexuality unveiled a homophobic fear of her true nature.
Death
Du Maurier died aged 81 at her home in Cornwall, which had been the setting for many of her books. Her body was cremated and her ashes scattered at Kilmarth.Cultural references
English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
created controversy in June 2008 when they rejected an application to commemorate her home in Hampstead with a Blue Plaque.
Daphne du Maurier was one of five "Women of Achievement" selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996. The others were Dorothy Hodgkin (scientist), Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
(ballerina), Elizabeth Frink (sculptor), and Marea Hartman (sports administrator).
The British folk-band Erland the Carnival are using the first line of "Rebecca" as opening line in their song "Trouble in Time".
Fiction
- The Loving SpiritThe Loving SpiritThe Loving Spirit is Daphne du Maurier's first published novel from 1931, a saga which spans the lives of three generations of Cornish folk....
(1931) - I'll Never Be Young Again (1932)
- The Progress of Julius (1933) (later re-published as Julius)
- Jamaica InnJamaica Inn (novel)Jamaica Inn is a novel by the English writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1936. It was later made into a film, also called Jamaica Inn, by Alfred Hitchcock...
(1936) - RebeccaRebecca (novel)Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
(1938) - RebeccaRebeccaRebecca a biblical matriarch from the Book of Genesis and a common first name. In this book Rebecca was said to be a beautiful girl. As a name it is often shortened to Becky, Becki or Becca; see Rebecca ....
(1940) (play—du Maurier's own stage adaptation of her novel) - Happy Christmas (1940) (short story)
- Come Wind, Come Weather (1940) (short story collection)
- Frenchman's Creek (1941)
- Hungry HillHungry Hill (novel)Hungry Hill is a novel by prolific British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1943. There have been 33 editions of the book printed.This family saga is based on the Irish ancestors of Daphne du Maurier’s friend Christopher Puxley...
(1943) - The Years Between (1945) (play)
- The King's General (1946)
- September Tide (1948) (play)
- The ParasitesThe ParasitesThe Parasites is a novel by Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1949.-Plot:In this novel, Miss du Maurier tells the story of the Delaney family...
(1949) - My Cousin RachelMy Cousin RachelMy Cousin Rachel is a novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1951. Like the earlier Rebecca, it is a mystery-romance, largely set on a large estate in Cornwall.-Plot overview:...
(1951) - The Apple TreeThe Apple Tree (anthology)The Apple Tree is a collection of short stories by Daphne du Maurier published in 1952 by Gollancz in the UK, and under the title Kiss Me Again, Stranger by Doubleday in the US...
(1952) (short story collection, AKA Kiss Me Again, Stranger) - Mary Anne (1954)
- The ScapegoatThe Scapegoat (Daphne du Maurier)The Scapegoat is a 1957 novel by Daphne du Maurier. In 1959, it was made into a film of the same name, starring Sir Alec Guinness. A new film version, to be directed by Charles Sturridge, is currently in production.-Plot introduction:...
(1957) - Early Stories (1959) (short story collection, stories written between 1927–1930)
- The Breaking PointThe Breaking Point (anthology)The Breaking Point is a collection of eight short stories by Daphne Du Maurier first published in 1959 by Victor Gollancz in the UK and Doubleday in the US. It has also been published under the title The Blue Lenses and Other Stories...
(1959) (short story collection, AKA The Blue Lenses) - Castle DorCastle Dor (novel)Castle Dor is a 1961 historical novel by Daphne du Maurier Set in 19th Century Cornwall-Plot introduction:...
(1961) (with Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) - The Birds and Other Stories (1963) (republication of The Apple Tree)
- The Glass-Blowers (1963)
- The Flight of the Falcon (1965)
- The House on the StrandThe House on the StrandThe House on the Strand is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. First published in 1969 by Victor Gollancz, it is one of her later works. The US edition was published by Doubleday....
(1969) - Not After Midnight (1971) (short story collection, AKA Don't Look Now)
- Rule Britannia (1972)
- "The Rendezvous and Other Stories" (1980) (short story collection)
Non-fiction
- Gerald (1934)
- The du Mauriers (1937)
- The Young George du Maurier (1951)
- The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë (1960)
- Vanishing Cornwall (includes photographs by her son Christian)(1967)
- Golden Lads (1975)
- The Winding Stairs (1976)
- Growing Pains -— the Shaping of a Writer (1977) (a.k.a. Myself When Young -— the Shaping of a Writer)
- Enchanted Cornwall (1989)
Translations
- Hungry HillHungry Hill (novel)Hungry Hill is a novel by prolific British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1943. There have been 33 editions of the book printed.This family saga is based on the Irish ancestors of Daphne du Maurier’s friend Christopher Puxley...
(1943) was translated into DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and published under the title 'De kopermijn. De geschiedenis van de familie Brodrick' (literally: The coppermine. The history of the family Brodrick).
See also
- The Queen's Book of the Red CrossThe Queen's Book of the Red CrossThe Queen's Book of the Red Cross was published in November 1939 in afundraising effort to aid the Red Cross during World War II.The book was sponsored by Queen Elizabeth, and itscontents were contributed by fifty British authors and artists....
:Category:Novels by Daphne du Maurier
Further reading and other sources
- Obituary in The Independent 21 April 1989
- Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, London, 1887– : Du Maurier, Dame Daphne (1907–1989); Browning, Sir Frederick Arthur Montague (1896–1965); Frederick, Prince, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827); Clarke, Mary Anne (1776?–1852).
- Du Maurier, Daphne, Mary Anne, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1954.
External links
- www.dumaurier.org – site promoting the annual The Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts & Literature, held during May at Fowey, Cornwall.
- Official Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts & Literature website. Full information about the Festival held in May each year in Fowey and the surrounding area of Cornwall.
- Author's Calendar biography of Daphne du Maurier
- Website of The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire
- Web news magazine of the Brontë Parsonage Museum
- Du Maurier Festival 2007
- Online reviews of du Maurier books
- Fan site
- BBC Archive Interview from 1971
- Estate representation and published works