Daphne du Maurier
(1907-1989)
Daphne du Maurier’s official webpage
Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) was born in London, and she was the second daughter of the highly acclaimed professional actor, Sir Gerald du Maurier, and actress Muriel Beaumont. She was also the granddaughter of the Victorian Punch cartoonist and writer, George du Maurier, who was the author of the novel Trilby. Likewise, she was also cousin of the Llewellyn Davies boys, who inspired J.M.Barrie to write his famous play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. In 1932, she married professional soldier Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning with whom she had three children, all of them named after a literary character: Tessa (from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles), Flavia (from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda), and Christian (from John Milton’s Paradise Lost). Biographers claim Daphne du Maurier often indulged in solitude to write her literary works in her beloved house Menabilly, which she would always consider a great source of inspiration. She would often remain aloof and distant to her husband and children, and she hardly ever mixed in society or gave interviews. Her literary works have often been regarded as belonging to a bygone age.
She acquired enormous popularity after the publication of her bestselling novel Rebecca (1938), especially when cinema director Alfred Hitchcock immortalised it in his eponymous film. For long, she has been underrated as a writer, and most critics have catalogued her as a writer of romance novels, even if Daphne du Maurier always deplored such appellative. In comparison with her novels, it is in her short-stories that Daphne du Maurier revealed the most haunting aspects of her imagination. She has recently been reappraised by critics and biographers alike, thus becoming one of the most highly esteemed 20th century English women writers. In 1969, she was made Dame Commander (Order of the British Empire). She died at the age of 81 in Cornwall in 1989. Soon after her death, biographers made reference to her alleged bisexuality, given her relationships with actress Gertrude Lawrence and Ellen Doubleday, who was the wife of her American publisher, Doubleday.
Novels: The Loving Spirit (1931), I’ll Never Be Young Again (1932), The Progress of Julius (1933), Jamaica Inn (1936), Rebecca (1938), Frenchman’s Creek (1941), Hungry Hill (1943), The King’s General (1946), The Parasites (1949), My Cousin Rachel (1951), Mary Anne (1954), The Scapegoat (1957), Castle Dor (1961), The Glass Blowers (1963), The Flight of the Falcon (1965), The House on the Strand (1969), Rule Britannia (1972).
Plays: The Years Between (1945), September Tide (1948).
Non-fiction works: Gerald – A Portrait (1934), The Du Mauriers (1937), The Young George du Maurier (1951), The Infernal World of Branwell Brontė (1960), Vanishing Cornwall (1967), Golden Lads: Sir Francis Bacon, Anthony Bacon, and Their Friends (1975), The Winding Stair: Francis Bacon, His Rise and Fall (1976), Enchanted Cornwall (1989).
PRIMARY SOURCES
Daphne du Maurier’s published collections of short-stories
Du Maurier, Daphne. The Birds and Other Stories [AKA The Apple Tree; AKA Kiss Me Again Stranger] 1952. London: Virago, 2011.
Du Maurier, Daphne. Early Stories. London: Todd, 1959.
Du Maurier, Daphne. The Breaking Point: Short Stories. [AKA The Blue Lenses] 1959. London: Virago, 2011.
Du Maurier, Daphne. Don’t Look Now and Other Stories [AKA Not After Midnight] 1971. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2006.
Du Maurier, Daphne. The Rendez-vous and Other Stories. 1980. London: Virago, 2007.
Du Maurier, Daphne. The Doll and Other Stories. London: Virago, 2011. (published posthumously)
SECONDARY SOURCES
Bibliography on Daphne du Maurier
Autobiography
Du Maurier, Daphne. Myself when young: the shaping of a writer. 1977. London: Pan Books, 1978.
Biographies
Cook, Judith. A portrait of Daphne du Maurier. Corgi: 1992.
Forster, Margaret. Daphne du Maurier. London: Arrow Books, 1993.
Leng, Flavia. Daphne du Maurier: a daughter’s memoir. 1994. Edinburgh and London: Mainstream Publishing, 1999.
Shallcross, Martin. The private world of Daphne du Maurier. London: Robson Books, 1991.
Personal documents and letters
Du Maurier, Daphne. The Rebecca notebook and other memories. London: Victor Gollancz, 1981.
Malet, Oriel, ed. Letters from Menabilly: Portrait of a Friendship. London: Victor Gollancz, 1993.
Critical Works
Auerbach, Nina. Daphne du Maurier. Haunted Heiress. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Horner, Avril and Sue Zlosnik. Daphne du Maurier: writing, identity and the gothic imagination. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1998.
Kelly, Richard. Daphne du Maurier. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
Taylor, Helen, ed. The Daphne du Maurier Companion. London: Virago, 2007.
Vickers, Stanley. The Du Maurier Companion. Fowey Rare Books, 1997.
Westland, Ella. Reading Daphne: a guide to the writing of Daphne du Maurier for readers and book groups. Truran, 2007.
CHRONOLOGY OF DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S SHORT-STORIES |
| 1. “East Wind” (1926 - 19 years old) |
| 2. “The Doll” (1927 – 20 years old) |
| 3. “And Now to God the Father” (1929 – 22 years old) |
| 4. “A Difference in Temperament” (1929 – 22 years old) |
| 5. “Frustration” (1927-1930, 20-23 years old) |
| 6. “Piccadilly” (1927-1930, 20-23 years old) |
| 7. “Tame Cat” (1927-1930, 20-23 years old) |
| 8. “Maizie” (1927-1930, 20-23 years old) |
| 9. “Nothing Hurts for Long” (1927-1930, 20-23 years old) |
| 10. “Week-end” (1927-1930, 20-23 years old) |
| 11. “Panic” (1937-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 12. “The Supreme Artist” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 13. “Adieu Sagesse” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 14. “Fairy Tale” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 15. “La Sainte-Vierge” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 16. “Leading Lady” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 17. “The Lover” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 18. “The Closing Door” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 19. “Indiscretion” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 20. “Angels and Archangels” (1927-1947, under 23 years old) |
| 21. “And His Letters Grew Colder” (1931 – 24 years old) |
| 22. “The Happy Valley” (1932 – 25 years old) |
| 23. “No Motive” (1937 – 1947, in her 30s) |
| 24. “The Rendezvous” (1937 – 1947, in her 30s) |
| 25. “Escort” (1937 – 1947, in her 30s) |
| 26. “Split Second” (1937 – 1947, in her 30s) |
| 27. “The Birds” (1952 – 45 years old) |
| 28. “Monte Veritą” (1952 – 45 years old) |
| 29. “The Apple Tree” (1952 – 45 years old) |
| 30. “The Little Photographer” (1952 – 45 years old) |
| 31. “Kiss Me Again Stranger” (1952 – 45 years old) |
| 32. “The Old Man” (1952 – 45 years old) |
| 33. “The Alibi” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 34. “The Blue Lenses” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 35. “Ganymede” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 36. “The Pool” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 37. “The Archduchess” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 38. “The Menace” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 39. “The Chamois” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 40. “The Lordly Ones” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 41. “The Limpet” (1959 – 52 years old) |
| 42. “The Breakthrough” (1966 – 59 years old) |
| 43. “Don’t Look Now” (1971 – 64 years old) |
| 44. “Not After Midnight” (1971 – 64 years old) |
| 45. “A Border-Line Case” (1971 – 64 years old) |
| 46. “The Way of the Cross” (1971 – 64 years old) |