Daphne du Maurier
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2008-07-11T07:36:50Z
151.204.252.196
{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
| name = Daphne du Maurier
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birthname =
| birthdate = [[13 May]] [[1907]]
| birthplace = [[London]], [[England]]
| deathdate = [[19 April]] [[1989]] (aged 81)
| deathplace =
| occupation = [[Novelist]]
| nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]
| period =
| genre = [[Thriller (genre)|Thriller/Suspense]]
| movement =
| notableworks =
| influences = [[Brontë|The Brontë sisters]],<br>[[Wilkie Collins]]
| influenced = [[Stephen King]], [[Stephenie Meyer]]
| signature =
| website = http://www.dumaurier.org/index.html
}}
'''Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning''' [[Order of the British Empire|DBE]] ([[13 May]], [[1907]]–[[19 April]], [[1989]]) ({{IPA2|ˈdæfnɪ du ˈmɒɹieɪ}}) was a famous [[United Kingdom|British]] [[author]] of [[plays]], [[novels]] and [[short stories]]. Many of her works were adapted into films, such as one of her most famous books, [[Rebecca (film)|Rebecca]], which won the [[Best Picture]] [[Academy Award|Oscar]] in 1940 for director [[Alfred Hitchcock]], who would later bring her short story, [[The Birds (film)|The Birds]], onto the big screen.
==Personal life==
{{Original research|date=April 2008}}
Daphne du Maurier was born in [[London]] (although she spent most of her life in her beloved [[Cornwall]]), the second of three daughters of the famous actor-manager Sir [[Gerald du Maurier]] and actress [[Muriel Beaumont]] (maternal niece of [[William Comyns Beaumont]]).<ref>[http://www.enotes.com/short-story-criticism/du-maurier-daphne/richard-kelly-essay-date-1987 ''du Maurier, Daphne | Richard Kelly (essay date 1987)''], "The World of the Macabre: The Short Stories," in ''Daphne du Maurier'', [[Twayne Publishers]], 1987, pp. 123-40.</ref> Her grandfather was the [[author]] and ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' [[cartoonist]] [[George du Maurier]], who created the character of [[Svengali]] in the novel ''[[Trilby (novel)|Trilby]]''. These connections gave her a head start in her literary career; Du Maurier published some of her very early work in his ''[[Bystander (magazine)|Bystander]]'' magazine, and 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 was introduced to many of the brightest stars of the theatre thanks to the celebrity of her father; notably, on meeting [[Tallulah Bankhead]] she was quoted as saying that the actress was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen.
She married [[Lieutenant-General]] [[Frederick Browning|Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning]] and had two daughters and a son (Tessa, Flavia and Christian). Biographers have drawn attention to the fact 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.<ref>Margaret Forster, ''Daphne du Maurier'', Chatto & Windus.</ref> However, as a product of well-to-do Edwardian society in which the nanny dealt with the children, this is hardly surprising.
Indeed, she has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews.<ref>Margaret Forster, ''Daphne du Maurier''.</ref> A notable exception to this came after the release of the film ''[[A Bridge Too Far (film)|A Bridge Too Far]]'' in which her late husband was portrayed in a less-than-flattering light. Du Maurier was incensed and wrote to the national newspapers decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment.<ref>Judith Cook, ''Daphne'', Bantam Press.</ref> 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,<ref>Oriel Mallet, ''Letters from Menabilly'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson.</ref> the house she leased for many years (from the [[Rashleigh]] family) in Cornwall. "Boy" died in 1965 and soon after Daphne moved to Kilmarth which became the setting for ''[[The House on the Strand]]''.
After her death in 1989, numerous references were made to her alleged [[lesbianism]]; an affair with [[Gertrude Lawrence]] as well as her infatuation for the wife of her American publisher, [[Ellen Doubleday]], were cited.<ref>Margaret Forster, ''Daphne du Maurier''.</ref> 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. However, this is perhaps too simplistic an explanation: a childhood brought into contact with the theatrical and artistic people of her parents' circle, many of whom were homosexual, should have meant for a liberal atmosphere. Yet strangely for a man in his profession, her father was vociferously [[homophobia|homophobic]].<ref>Michael Thornton, "Daphne's terrible secret", ''Daily Mail'' (London), [[11 May]] [[2007]].</ref> For a daughter who virtually worshipped her father, this was bound to have major repercussions in later life; guilt, shame and an instilled belief that homosexuality was utterly abhorrent could not have helped her form rational conclusions to her own doubts and anxieties.<ref>Margaret Forster, ''Daphne du Maurier''.</ref> In letters released to her official biographer after her death, du Maurier explained to a trusted few her own unique slant on her sexuality; her personality, she informs, comprises two distinct people: the loving wife and mother (the side she shows to the world) and the lover, a decidedly male energy, hidden to virtually everyone and the power behind her artistic creativity.<ref>Margaret Forster, ''Daphne du Maurier''.</ref> Du Maurier evidently believed this was the demon which fueled her creative life as a writer.<ref>Daphne du Maurier, ''Myself When Young'', Victor Gollancz.</ref> One can best try to understand this if one looks to those novels such as ''[[The Scapegoat (Daphne du Maurier)|The Scapegoat]]'' or ''[[The House on the Strand]]'', written in the first person and as men, and being utterly convincing.{{Fact|date=December 2007}}
==Titles and honours==
* Miss Daphne du Maurier (1907-1932)
* Mrs Daphne Browning; Daphne du Maurier (1932-1946)
* Lady Browning; Daphne du Maurier (1946-1969)
* Lady Browning; Dame Daphne du Maurier DBE (1969-1989)
In the [[Queen's Birthday Honours]] List for June 1969, Daphne du Maurier was created a [[Dame of the British Empire]]. She never used the title and according to her biographer [[Margaret Forster]] (''Daphne du Maurier'', Chatto and Windus, 1993, ISBN 0701136995), she told no-one about the honour. Even her children 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" (page 370).
Englsh Heritage created controversy in June 2008 when an application to commemorate her home in Hampstead by a Blue Plaque was rejected by them.
==Novels and short stories==
Literary critics have sometimes berated du Maurier's works for not being "intellectually heavyweight" like those of [[George Eliot]] or [[Iris Murdoch]], but to fully understand her importance in English literature one must look first to the era in which she wrote. At the onset of her career, with the horrors of the [[World War I|First World War]] still a fresh memory and the storm-clouds of the [[World War II|Second World War]] rumbling on the horizon, her novels offered much-needed glamour, romanticism and above all, escapism. But 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 of fiction. 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 number one author for library book borrowings.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}
The novel ''[[Rebecca (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 (Daphne du Maurier)|The Scapegoat]]'', ''[[The House on the Strand]]'', and ''[[The King's General]]''. The latter is set in the middle of the [[First English Civil War|first]] and [[second English Civil War]]s. Though written from the [[cavalier|Royalist]] perspective of her native Cornwall, it gives a fairly neutral view of this period of history and is written with a great flair for that era.
In addition to ''Rebecca'', several of her other novels have been adapted for the screen, including ''[[Jamaica Inn (novel)|Jamaica Inn]]'', ''[[Frenchman's Creek]]'', ''[[Hungry Hill (novel)|Hungry Hill]]'' and ''[[My Cousin Rachel]]'' (1951). The Hitchcock film ''[[The Birds (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 (film)|Jamaica Inn]]'' involved a complete re-write of the ending in order to accommodate the ego of its star, [[Charles Laughton]]. Du Maurier also felt that [[Olivia de Havilland]] was totally wrong as the (anti-)heroine in ''[[My Cousin Rachel]]''.<ref>Martyn Shallcross, ''Daphne du Maurier Country'', Bossiney Books.</ref> ''[[Frenchman's Creek]]'' fared rather better with its lavish Technicolor sets and costumes, though du Maurier later regretted her choice of [[Alec Guinness]] as the lead in the film of ''The Scapegoat'' which she partly financed.<ref>Oriel Mallet, ''Letters from Menabilly''.</ref>
Du Maurier was often categorised as a "romantic novelist" (a term she deplored),<ref>BBC Interview, 1979.</ref> 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 [[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]] et al., which she admired.<ref>Oriel Mallet, ''Letters from Menabilly''.</ref>
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 (story)|The Birds]]", ''[[Don't Look Now (book)|Don't Look Now]]'', ''[[The Apple Tree (story)|The Apple Tree]]'' and ''[[The Blue Lenses]]'' are exquisitely crafted tales of terror which shocked and surprised her audience in equal measure. Perhaps more than at any other time, du Maurier was anxious as to how her bold new writing style would be received, not just with her readers (and to some extent her critics, though by then she had grown wearily accustomed to their often luke-warm reviews) but her immediate circle of family and friends.
In later life she wrote [[non-fiction]], including several biographies which were well-received. This no doubt came from a deep-rooted desire to be accepted as a serious writer, comparing herself to her close literary 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 which 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 people|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'', a novel based on the life of a notable, and infamous, English ancestor—her great-grandmother [[Mary Anne Clarke]], former mistress of [[Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany|Frederick, Duke of York]].
Her final novels reveal just how far her writing style had evolved; ''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 (novel)|Rule Britannia]]'', written post-[[Vietnam War|Vietnam]], plays with the resentment of English people in general and Cornish people in particular at the increasing dominance of the USA.
She died at the age of 81 at her home in Cornwall, the region which had been the setting for many of her books. In accordance with her wishes, her body was [[cremate]]d and her ashes were scattered on the cliffs near her home.
In late 2006 a previously unknown work titled ''[[And His Letters Grew Colder]]'' was discovered. 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 Johnson]] 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 [[Novello Theatre|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 over his role as [[Member of Parliament]] as well as starting a romantic relationship with a local farmer. It was first staged at the [[Manchester Opera House]] in 1944, 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 the play was revived by [[Caroline Smith]] at the [[Orange Tree Theatre]] in [[Richmond upon Thames]] on [[5 September]], [[2007]], starring [[Karen Ascoe]] and [[Mark Tandy]].<ref>John Thaxter, [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/18169/the-years-between "The Years Between"], ''The Stage'', [[10 September]] [[2007]].</ref>
Better known is her third play, ''[[September Tide]]'', about a middle-aged woman whose [[bohemianism|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]] in the role originally created by Lawrence, 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."
==Plagiarism allegations==
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 Sucessora]]'' (''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 alleged, in her book ''[[Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress]]'', that du Maurier read the Brazilian book when the first drafts were sent to be published in England and based her famous bestseller on it. According to Nabuco's autobiography, she refused to sign a contract brought to her by a United Artists' worker in which she agreed that the similarities between her book and the movie were mere coincidence.<ref>{{cite web | title=Rebecca seria brasileira | work=Os Filmes | url=http://osfilmes.com.br/cronicamente/materias/estadopr_files/cultura.htm | accessdate=2007-10-26}}</ref> Du Maurier denied copying Nabuco's book, as did her publisher, claiming that the plot used in ''Rebecca'' was quite common.<ref>{{cite web | title=Bull's-Eye for Bovarys | work=TIME | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849789-2,00.html | accessdate=2007-10-26}}</ref>
==Publications==
===Fiction===
* ''[[The Loving Spirit]]'' (1931)
* ''I'll Never Be Young Again'' (1932)
* ''[[Julius (novel)|Julius]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Jamaica Inn (novel)|Jamaica Inn]]'' (1936)
* ''[[Rebecca (novel)|Rebecca]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Rebecca (play)|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 Hill (novel)|Hungry Hill]]'' (1943)
* ''[[The Years Between]]'' (1945) (play)
* ''The King's General'' (1946)
* ''[[September Tide]]'' (1948) (play)
* ''[[The Parasites]]'' (1949)
* ''[[My Cousin Rachel]]'' (1951)
* ''The Apple Tree'' (1952) (short story collection)
* ''[[The Scapegoat (Daphne du Maurier)|The Scapegoat]]'' (1957)
* ''Early Stories'' (1959) (short story collection, stories written between 1927–1930<ref>[http://www.dumaurier.org/early.html '' Early Stories'' at DuMaurier.org]</ref>)
* ''The Breaking Point'' (1959) (short story collection, AKA ''The Blue Lenses'')
* ''Castle Dor'' (1961) (with Sir Alfred Quiller-Couch<ref>[http://www.dumaurier.org/dor.html ''Castle Dor'' at DuMaurier.org]</ref>)
* ''The Birds and Other Stories'' (1963) (republication of ''The Apple Tree''<ref>[http://www.dumaurier.org/birds.html ''The Birds'' at DuMaurier.org]</ref>)
* ''The Flight of the Falcon'' (1965)
* ''[[The House on the Strand]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Don't Look Now (book)|Not After Midnight]]'' (1971) (short story collection, AKA ''Don't Look Now''<ref>[http://www.dumaurier.org/midnight.html ''Not After Midnight'' at DuMaurier.org]</ref>)
* ''[[Rule Britannia (novel)|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)
* ''Mary Anne'' (1954)
* ''The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë'' (1960)
* ''The Glass-Blowers'' (1963)
* ''Vanishing Cornwall'' (1967)
* ''Golden Lads'' (1975)
* ''The Winding Stairs'' (1976)
* ''Growing Pains—the Shaping of a Writer'' (1977) (AKA ''Myself When Young—the Shaping of a Writer'')
* ''Enchanted Cornwall'' (1989)
==Trivia==
{{Trivia|date=June 2007}}
{{Refimprove|section|date=February 2008}}
* Daphne du Maurier was a member of the Cornish nationalist pressure group/political party [[Mebyon Kernow]].
* 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 [[Germany|German]] spy in [[World War II]] [[Cairo]].
* [[Neville Chamberlain]] is reputed to have read ''Rebecca'' on the plane journey which led to [[Adolf Hitler]] signing the [[Munich Agreement]].
* Du Maurier was born and died in the same years as [[Laurence Olivier]], who portrayed Maxim de Winter in Hitchcock's film of ''Rebecca'' (1940). Du Maurier was born on 13 May 1907, while Olivier was born on 22 May, and du Maurier died on 19 April 1989, aged 81, and Olivier on 11 July, aged 82.
* 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.
* 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). Mary Anne Clarke from 1803 to 1808 was mistress of Frederick Augustus, the 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.
* Du Maurier was spoofed by her slightly older fellow writer [[P.G. Wodehouse]] as [[Minor characters in the Jeeves stories|"Daphne Dolores Morehead"]].
==See also==
* ''[[The Queen's Book of the Red Cross]]''
* [[:Category:Novels by Daphne du Maurier]]
==References ==
* {{cite book|last=Kelly|first=Richard|title=Daphne du Maurier|year=1987|publisher=Twayne|location=Boston|id=ISBN 0-8057-6931-5}}
* [http://www.dumaurier.org/obituary.html Obituary in ''The Independent'' April 21, 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.
<references/>
==External links==
* [http://www.dumaurier.org www.dumaurier.org] - site promoting the annual The Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts & Literature, held during May at Fowey, Cornwall.
* [http://www.dumaurierfestival.co.uk Official Du Maurier Festival website.] Full information about the Festival held in May each year in Fowey and the surrounding area.
* [http://www.crbo.co.uk/events.php?evGrp=40 Daphne at Port Eliot, St Germans.] On 31st May 2008, a special day's events at Port Eliot, featuring Justine Picardie, author of 'Daphne'
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dumaurie.htm Author's Calendar biography of Daphne du Maurier]
* [http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/daphne-du-maurier.htm Interview with Daphne du Maurier—1977]
* [http://www.bronte.info/ Website of The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire]
* [http://www.bronteparsonage.blogspot.com/ Web news magazine of the Brontë Parsonage Museum]
* [http://www.kasstzam.com/newsstream/2007/Du%20Maurier%20Festival%202007/ Du Maurier Festival 2007]
* [http://www.geocities.com/emmamassey82/daphnedumaurier.html Fan site]
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[[Category:English novelists]]
[[Category:English short story writers]]
[[Category:British historical novelists]]
[[Category:People from London]]
[[Category:English people of French descent]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:LGBT people from England]]
[[Category:Lesbian writers]]
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
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