April 2021: Daphne du Maurier

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April 2021: Daphne du Maurier

1AnnieMod
Mar 29, 2021, 4:02 pm

In April 2021, we are going to discuss Daphne du Maurier - an English author whose career started in 1931 (when she was 24) and finished in 1989 with her death.

Only one of her novels, Rebecca (1938), made it on the 1001 list.

She published fiction for a bit over 40 years (from 1931 to 1972) and non-fiction for even longer (her last non-fiction book came out in the year of her death). In all those years, she published 17 novels (one with a co-author), quite a few short stories - most of them collected, including a collection in 2011 of her previously lost early short stories, 3 plays (one of them being the stage adaptation of Rebecca) and 10 books of non-fiction.

Apparently she never tried her hand in poetry (or never published any that I am aware of anyway)...

The rest of her novels:
The Loving Spirit (1931) - her first novel
I'll Never Be Young Again (1932)
The Progress of Julius (republished as Julius) (1933)
Jamaica Inn (1936)
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) (with Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch)
The Glass-Blowers (1963)
The Flight of the Falcon (1965)
The House on the Strand (1969)
Rule Britannia (1972)

Her collections include:
The Apple Tree which got republished as Kiss Me Again, Stranger (adding two stories) and The Birds and Other Stories (in its original form).
Don't Look Now and Other Stories

Tatiana de Rosnay's Manderley Forever (2015 in French, 2017 in English) and Margaret Forster's Daphne du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller (1993) appear to be the two most mentioned biographies.

Sally Beauman's Rebecca's Tale and Susan Hill's Mrs. de Winter tried to continue du Maurier's most popular novel.

What do you plan to read? And as she is one of the authors whose novels and stories are often adapted for the big and small screen, had you watched any of the adaptions (or do you plan to)? And what do you think about continuations - do you enjoy revisiting the characters you love when other authors try their hand at them?

2lilisin
Edited: Mar 29, 2021, 7:42 pm

I read my first du Maurier last year: My Cousin Rachel. I absolutely loved it and having seen the movie first didn't affect my enjoyment at all. It was just as suspenseful.

And the adaptation with Rachel Weicz was superb. The movie was incredibly faithful only changing the scenery of two scenes to make them more cinematographic-ly more appealing but while keeping the content of the scene intact. Also, some of the additional letters were omitted from the movie but nothing that truly affects the plot.

And while I usually don't like movie adaptation covers on my books, Rachel Weicz was so superb in her role that I very much love the cover with her on it.

The next book I have on my du Maurier TBR is Rebecca although I wasn't planning on reading it so soon.

3john257hopper
Mar 30, 2021, 5:26 am

I read Rebecca years ago and have also seen the film. I also have Susan Hill's continuation novel, but haven't yet read it.

Of her others, I really liked House on the Strand and The Glassblowers and quite like Jamaica Inn. Many of her short stories are also really good, esp. in The Birds and Other Stories.

I will have a think what to read in April of hers. All of these were quite a long time ago (over 10 years) so I may re-read one of them instead of tackling a new one.

4dianelouise100
Mar 30, 2021, 8:48 am

I think I read some of Du Maurier as a teenager, but the only novel I remember at all is Rebecca. I spent some time last night reading Kindle samples, and the two books that appealed the most were My Cousin Rachel and The Scapegoat. Both are longer, so I think I may start with My Cousin Rachel (which is available from my library), then go from there. Jamaica Inn and Frenchman’s Creek have also been added to my TBR.

5elenchus
Mar 30, 2021, 9:36 am

I very much enjoyed both Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, along with a few short stories. I have Frenchman's Creek on my shelves, and I'll have to think about cracking that!

6AnnieMod
Mar 30, 2021, 11:57 am

I read Rebecca some time in the 90s in my teens (and in Bulgarian). I don't remember much - I know I did not hate it but that is about it. :)

I don't have any of hers in my own library so I will raid the library and see what they have.

7Bookmarque
Mar 30, 2021, 12:50 pm

I will read Jamaica Inn since it's been a long time since I have (25+ years) or maybe The King's General since I never have read it.

Can highly recommend -

The Scapegoat (suspend your disbelief and go with it and you will be rewarded!)

The Flight of the Falcon - a bit opaque and wandering, but I like it

My Cousin Rachel - terrific story (is she a villain or not?) and I especially like the audio narrated by Jonathan Pryce

Frenchman's Creek - a bit of a swashbuckling romance, but fun - a historical romp really

Cannot recommend -

The Parasites - I just hated it and the characters from the start - DNF

Cannot remember but recall or reviewed favorably -

House on the Strand or Jamaica Inn

8dianelouise100
Apr 6, 2021, 5:39 pm

After ordering The Scapegoat, I went to the library to see what I could read while waiting for it to arrive. The only DuMaurier on the shelf was Jamaica Inn, which I checked out. It proved to be a quick and entertaining historical romance, very atmospheric, some beautiful descriptive language, though a very predictable plot. I enjoyed it a lot.

All the novel’s male characters have low opinions of women, seeing them as weak, stupid, unreliable, often in the way. The heroine herself frequently wishes she were a man, although she proves herself resourceful, courageous, loyal, and tenacious, as she attempts to protect herself and her aunt from her domineering and brutal uncle. I was disappointed by the ending, hoping to see her resolve some of her conflicts in a different way. This is probably an anachronism on my part: wrong genre, wrong era. However, Jamaica Inn has made me curious about the female characters in DuMaurier’s other novels. I hope to have time to read either My Cousin Rachel or Rebecca, as well as The Scapegoat, which has now arrived.

9john257hopper
Apr 6, 2021, 6:14 pm

I bought A Loving Spirit as I love novels, especially sagas, set in Cornwall and the west country. Will start reading it in a few days after a couple more immediate ones.

10Yells
Edited: Apr 6, 2021, 6:48 pm

I’ve got a copy of Loving Spirit as well. I’ve read a few of hers but thought it would be nice to start at the beginning.

11BookConcierge
Apr 12, 2021, 11:09 am

I'm hoping I'll get Jamaica Inn by around month-end. There's only one e-audio copy in my state library system and apparently it's quite popular. I'm # 4 on the list.

12john257hopper
Edited: Apr 16, 2021, 4:19 pm

I just started The Loving Spirit this morning, enjoying it so far, so evocative of a time and place (1830s Cornwall)

13dianelouise100
Apr 12, 2021, 6:05 pm

I’m now about halfway through The Scapegoat and enjoying it a lot. The plot is certainly far-fetched but DuMaurier develops it skillfully, and I am eager to know how things will work out.

14AnnieMod
Apr 14, 2021, 4:43 pm

I decided to do the opposite of what I usually do and go for her last novel Rule Britannia. I hope to manage to get it this month though - it had been a bit busy around me so not much reading this month :(

15bell7
Apr 14, 2021, 7:38 pm

I'm hoping to fit in Frenchman's Creek this month.

16dianelouise100
Edited: Apr 16, 2021, 7:38 am

I had a good bit of free time yesterday and was able to finish The Scapegoat. What a great read! Mostly sympathetic characters and a fascinating plot, set in a village in France some years after World War II, this novel quickly drew me in, setting up the main character’s extraordinary plight and sending him on his way. I agree with Bookmarque’s comment: “suspend your disbelief and go with it.”

17john257hopper
Apr 16, 2021, 4:18 pm

Just posted my review of The Loving Spirit:

This was du Maurier's first novel, published in 1931 when she was just 24, and epitomises her love of Cornwall. This is a family saga describing the lives of four generations of the Coombe family, from Thomas and Janet, living and raising their family of several sons and daughters in the simple town of Plyn in the 1830s. Time follows through one of their sons, the dark and brooding Joseph, and his son Christopher, who initially rejects the quiet Cornish life for London, and his independent-minded daughter Jennifer who rejects her London family to return to Plyn in the 1920s. The spirit of Janet Coombe dominates the following generations, with her almost incestuous spiritual relationship with her son Joseph, and reverberating down the generations through her representation as the figurehead in an eponymous boat constructed by her family. The sea and sailing is as much of a character as the people throughout the narrative. Much of it is a very evocative and atmospheric, but with a slightly bittersweet feeling throughout, as in other du Maurier novels. A lovely read.

18kac522
Edited: Apr 28, 2021, 12:30 pm

I finished My Cousin Rachel. Not quite as suspenseful as Rebecca, but still kept me turning pages. Du Maurier has a great talent for putting the reader completely in the mind of the main character, even when that character is not likable and we distrust their judgment. Very atmospheric and lush descriptions of Cornwall, and of course, an ambiguous ending.

One thing that bothered me at first was that the time frame was unclear--probably mid to late 19th century. I didn't always feel, either by description or dialogue, that I was in the late 19th century. However, by the end, it felt as if it could have been from any time period--almost a universal tale.

This website has some interesting information about du Maurier's life and work:

https://www.dumaurier.org/

On the review page for My Cousin Rachel, is this background material (with spoilers) from Ann Willmore:

From the day "My Cousin Rachel" was published, the question on everyone's lips has always been - was Rachel innocent or guilty of murdering Ambrose? When asked, Daphne du Maurier always said that she simply did not know. The character of Philip had narrated the story and as Daphne wrote she became Philip and so shared his doubts as to the truth about Rachel.

Daphne du Maurier was an extremely talented writer, whose creativity enabled her to experience many emotions, ideas and view points which manifested themselves through her writing. She had a very close relationship with her father and she surely drew on this when she created Ambrose, who was older, much loved and enormously important to Philip. Since Daphne's death, much has been written about her sexuality and in particular her relationships with Ellen Doubleday and Gertrude Lawrence. Whatever the truth, there are records of letters that Daphne wrote to both Oriel Malet and Maureen Baker-Munton, in which she refers to these relationships and suggests that the way she moved forward from the feelings she had for these women was to turn them both into Rachel and then, in her role as Philip, to end Rachel's life thus breaking the emotional link that she had with them. What is known is that Daphne du Maurier loved Menabilly, possibly above everything else and it is interesting that at the end of "My Cousin Rachel", Philip/Daphne may have lost Ambrose/Gerald and Rachel/Ellen & Gertrude, but they still had Menabilly.


from https://www.dumaurier.org/menu_page.php?id=108

19BookConcierge
May 23, 2021, 11:43 am


Jamaica Inn – Daphne du Maurier
Digital audiobook narrated by Toni Britton
4****

From the book jacket: The coachman tried to warn young Mary Yellan away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But Mary chose instead to honor her mother’s dying request that she join her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn’s dark power.

My reactions
What a wonderfully atmospheric, dark, sinister tale! I shivered with the damp, cold fog, strained to see by faint candle or lamp light, listened to the whistling wind, the baying hounds, and the alternating whispers and shouts of a rabble of men up to no good.

Mary Yellan is a marvelous heroine. Young and somewhat naïve, she is still a strong woman, resolute and determined to make the best of her situation. As many have told her, she is too young and pretty to live alone, so she goes to her Aunt Patience. But instead of finding a happy woman with ribbons on her bonnet (Mary’s memory of her Aunt’s only visit some twelve years previous), she finds a frightened, dispirited woman clearly afraid of her own husband. And Uncle Josh? He’s a foreboding hulk of a man who rules his establishment with an iron fist and is unusually secretive about his business.

As Mary struggles to make sense of her situation and determine what, if anything, she can do about it, she meets two men who will become intricately involved: Jem Merlyn (her Uncle’s brother, and a horse thief) and Francis Davey (vicar of the local parish). They could not be more different, and yet each will help – and hinder – her in unexpected ways.

Du Maurier’s plot is intricate and complex and had several twists & turns in it. I wish there were a sequel so I could find out what Mary Yellen is like as an older woman!

Toni Britton does a fine job of narrating the audio version. She has a good pace and differentiates the characters sufficiently, so I had no trouble keeping track of who is speaking.

20guppyfp
May 23, 2021, 5:32 pm

I "read" My Cousin Rachel as an audiobook. I was engrossed, though of course when workers warn the narrator not to step on the scaffolding of the sunken garden, the denouement is to be expected. I did like the moral ambiguity of that, however. Usually protagonist/beneficiary of the fortunate plot twist is entirely blameless; in this case, not so much.

21sparemethecensor
May 23, 2021, 9:06 pm

>18 kac522: Wow! I had never heard that speculation about the source / amalgamation of people into Rachel's character. Interesting.

While I continue to think Rebecca is her masterpiece, du Maurier did truly wonders with My Cousin Rachel as well.