Daphne Du Maurier, Haunted Heiress"Auerbach's Daphne Du Maurier is the author of sixteen other novels, along with biographies, articles, plays, memoirs, and short stories. Where other readers have become absorbed by Rebecca, Auerbach finds greater fascination in novels such as The Scapegoat, Hungry Hill, and My Cousin Rachel, books whose protagonists are troubled, even murderous, men succumbing to the haunting of previous generations. Du Maurier herself was haunted by her father and grandfather. Living under the shadow of her famous father, Gerald, actor and manager of Wyndham's Theater and creator of the role of Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and of her grandfather George, the popular illustrator and best-selling novelist of Trilby, du Maurier was the torchbearer of a stellar male line. Her own phrase for her secret self, "the boy in the box," hints at her sexual ambivalence and her alienation from the prescribed roles for women of her day.". |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adaptation American ancestors artistic beautiful became becomes begins biography birds Brontë brother called characters child chronicles claimed Cousin Rachel danger Daphne du Maurier daughter dead death domestic double dream England English exist eyes falls father female fiction final George du Maurier Gerald girl gives hated haunted heart hero Hitchcock House Hungry Hill husband imagine inheritance inspired Italy Jane Jean John Julius kill learned least less lives Look lost lover male Manderley marriage married Mary Anne Maxim mother movie murder narrator never novel past Peter Ibbetson Peter Pan Philip play plot possessed Progress Radclyffe Hall reader Rebecca remains remember role romance Scapegoat seems sisters spirit story Strand supposed thing thought Trilby true turn unlike Victorian vision wife Winter woman women write wrote York young