The Breaking Point: Short Stories

Another excellent collection of short stories by Daphne du Maurier. Every story demonstrates an excellent understanding of what makes people tick, and most of the stories have some element of the strange or surreal. My particular favourites were “The Blue Lenses” and “The Menace”. “The Blue Lenses” creeped me out the most, because it was about eye surgery and I’m squeamish about eye things to begin with. “The Menace” was actually a sweet story, in a way, with only a touch of the strange (the “feelies” being a new development in motion pictures that smacked of Brave New World).

I also liked “Ganymede”, the story set in Venice; du Maurier and Patricia Highsmith do an excellent job of bringing Venice to life show more whenever they set stories there. And “The Alibi” set the tone at the beginning of the collection, with a man planning to defeat suburban boredom by randomly choosing a house whose occupants he will murder.

“The Pool” made me think of Narnia for some reason, and as an older sister myself I appreciated the interactions between the girl and her younger brother. This one made me nostalgic for summers we spent with our own grandparents (although I never discovered a secret world). “The Archduchess” was well constructed and I thought very on point with some of its observations, particularly of how depressingly easy it could be for people to sow the seeds of anarchy in a normally peace-loving society. In today’s era of spreading misinformation online, Ronda would have succumbed to revolution that much sooner.

The last two stories in the collection, “The Chamois” and “The Lordly Ones”, I didn’t get as much out of, possibly because I was trying to read this one to a deadline. Of the two, “The Chamois” had stronger characterization for me (the husband was a total jerk). “The Lordly Ones” was one I’d have to think about some more, although I don’t doubt that it achieved the effect it was after.

If you haven’t read any of du Maurier’s short stories, do yourself a favour and pick up one of her collections. show less

“The Breaking Point” is a collection of nine short stories published in 1959; the short preface notes that there “comes a moment in the life of every individual when reality must be faced. When this happens, it is as though a link between emotion and reason is stretched to the limit of endurance, and sometimes snaps.” This point is reached in each of these stories, by individuals and, in one tale, by an entire country. Obviously different readers will have different responses to these well-crafted, atmospheric stories; my favourite was “The Blue Lenses,” in which eye surgery to replace faulty lenses has unusual results - I don’t want to say more, except that it’s quite brilliant. I also loved “The Archduchess,” in show more which a fictional European country has a revolution that changes its leadership from 700 years of autocratic rule by one family to a delicious system called “Popular Front Ltd.,” a combination of big business and communism - I had never thought of Du Maurier as being politically engaged or as writing satire, but this is a terrific example of both! All of the stories are compelling, however, and showcase the author’s remarkable talent as a writer; there’s a reason she’s still read some 60 years (in the case of this book) later. Highly recommended! show less

Quite an uneven collection of stories. The very best are those that concern children and their development, notably The pool, in which the ''other world'' shuts its gates forever, due to the first menstruation of the protagonist girl. And also The lordly ones, where a mute boy escapes from his cruel parents by joining a flock of roaming animals (or whatever they are, faeries?) on the moors, the lordly ones, only to be abandoned by them shortly after. These two stories border on the edge of what today is called ''fantasy'', but are written in a sober style to great effect. Of the stories about grown-ups The alibi stands out, even though the idea of a perfectly normal citizen freaking out in secret while no one notices is not very show more original. The execution of this particular story is excellent. On the minus side, there is Ganymede', completely filled with commonplace and The menace, whose protagonist is an unlikely caricature without the writer knowing so. All in all, certainly worthwhile for the 3-4 excellent stories this contains. show less

This collection of short stories is at times bizarre, and at times fascinating. The opening story is about James Fenton who on a Sunday walk with his family suddenly decides he must change his life. The solution he chooses is to murder someone.

The second story concerns the consequences when a young woman has an eye operation and suffers post op illusions. The story "Ganymede" describes the consequences when a man on holidays in Venice shows too much interest in a young boy and the boy's family make him pay for his indescretion.

Another story covered how citizens can be turned into a mob when manipulated by people and other citizens who know better do not risk their lives to stop the mob. "The Limpet" concerns a woman who destroys the show more lives around her by her indescretions and manipulation yet seems to be clueless about why those people try to avoid her or if they cannot, wither away. show less

This collection of short stories is riveting. Clearly in the author's haunting style. The characters are all wonderful.

In Ganymede, A tourist is transfixed by a fifteen-year-old boy who is small for his age. He befriends the boy, daydreams of whisking him back to London from Venice, but the boy dies an untimely death in a boating acident. Also publ. in The Blue Lenses and Other Stories.

Una scrittrice la Du Maurier con una spiccata predilezione per le tinte fosche. I suoi personaggi vivono costantemente in bilico tra ragione e spietatezza, talvolta sono travolti in modo inesorabile da onde emotive e violente o da forme di follia visionaria.