A short life of the author
Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE (13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist and short story writer whose works — atmospheric, psychologically acute, and suffused with the landscape and light of Cornwall — are among the most enduringly popular in twentieth-century English fiction. Rebecca (1938) is one of the most widely read novels in the English language, a gothic romance and psychological thriller that has never gone out of print. Her fiction provided the source material for several of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films, and her influence on gothic and suspense fiction extends through writers as various as Shirley Jackson, Ruth Rendell, and Sarah Waters.
Life and Background
Du Maurier was born in London into a celebrated artistic family. Her father was the actor-manager Gerald du Maurier; her grandfather was George du Maurier, the Punch illustrator and author of Trilby (1894), the novel that introduced Svengali into the English language. Her mother was the actress Muriel Beaumont. She grew up in a theatrical, bohemian household — her godfather was J.M. Barrie — and was educated privately.
In 1932, she married Major Frederick “Boy” Browning, who later became Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Browning — the commander of the 1st Airborne Corps at the Battle of Arnhem (it was Browning who reportedly told Montgomery, “I think we may be going a bridge too far”). Their marriage was outwardly conventional but privately complex; du Maurier’s emotional and possibly sexual relationships with women — including the actress Gertrude Lawrence and the publisher Ellen Doubleday — remained largely private during her lifetime.
Du Maurier discovered Cornwall as a young woman and made it the centre of her imaginative life. Menabilly, a crumbling Rashleigh family estate near Fowey, became her home from 1943 and the model for Manderley in Rebecca. She lived in Cornwall for most of her adult life and set nearly all her fiction there.
Rebecca (1938)
Du Maurier’s masterpiece begins with one of the most famous opening lines in English literature: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” The unnamed narrator — a naive young woman who marries the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter — finds herself in the shadow of his dead first wife, Rebecca, whose presence saturates the great house of Manderley and whose memory is maintained with terrifying devotion by the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.
The novel works simultaneously as a gothic romance, a murder mystery, a study of class anxiety, and a psychological exploration of jealousy, identity, and self-effacement. Mrs. Danvers — one of the great villains in English fiction — embodies both menace and devotion in a way that resists simple interpretation. The novel’s ambiguity about Rebecca herself — beautiful, charismatic, cruel, possibly sympathetic — deepens with each reading.
Rebecca was an immediate bestseller and won the National Book Award in 1938. Hitchcock’s 1940 film, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Other Major Novels
Jamaica Inn (1936) — a Cornish smuggling thriller set on Bodmin Moor — established du Maurier’s ability to use landscape as a character. Frenchman’s Creek (1941) is a historical romance set in Restoration-era Cornwall. My Cousin Rachel (1951) is a masterfully ambiguous novel about a man who falls in love with a woman who may or may not have murdered his guardian — the novel refuses to resolve the question, leaving the reader in permanent suspense. The Scapegoat (1957), in which an Englishman switches identities with his French doppelgänger, is increasingly recognised as one of her finest works.
Short Stories and Adaptations
Du Maurier was also a superb short story writer. “The Birds” (1952) — a story of inexplicable avian attacks on a Cornish farm — became the basis for Hitchcock’s 1963 film. “Don’t Look Now” (1971) — a devastating ghost story set in Venice — was adapted by Nicolas Roeg into one of the greatest horror films of the 1970s. Her story collections, particularly The Apple Tree (1952) and Not After Midnight (1971), contain some of the finest English short fiction of the mid-century.
Critical Standing
Du Maurier was long dismissed by the literary establishment as “merely” a popular novelist — a genre writer whose enormous sales disqualified her from serious consideration. This attitude has shifted substantially since her death. Feminist and queer readings of her work have revealed layers of psychological complexity, and novels like My Cousin Rachel and The Scapegoat are now recognized as works of genuine literary sophistication. She remains, however, an author whose reputation has not fully caught up with her achievement.
Collecting du Maurier
Rebecca (1938, Gollancz, London) in first edition with the original dust jacket is a major collector’s item, bringing $2,000–$8,000 depending on condition. The dust jacket is scarce. Jamaica Inn (1936, Gollancz) brings $500–$2,000. My Cousin Rachel (1951) brings $100–$400. Signed copies are available but not abundant. Du Maurier lived until 1989 but was a private person who did relatively few signings.