strange and random happenstance

The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Virago Press
Publication Date: 1981
Format: Paperback, 180 Pages
Rating: ★★
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From first hearing of the abandoned estate to several failed attempts to finally glimpse the house, Menabilly captured Daphne's imagination. She would eventually sit for hours on the lawn, gazing at the boarded up house imagining what once was and what ghosts might lurk there still. The seeds for Rebecca were thus planted and came to fruition years later while stationed with her husband in Cairo. She mapped out her story, staring an unnamed heroine and her husband Henry and the ghost of his dead wife haunting them still. Du Maurier was inspired by Cornwall and Menabilly, but her inspiration came from her family as well. The lauded author and grandfather she never knew, George Du Maurier, to her father, the famous stage actor, Sir Gerald Du Maurier, to her "uncle" J.M. Barrie. She was surrounded by artistic genius and it almost seemed predestined that she would make a name for herself in her own right. But seeing her name in lights? That was a humbling experience for the author. She longed for the days when authors would disappear behind their work and let it speak for itself. Yet, if called upon to give her opinion, despite her caustic wit tearing other authors to shreds for doing so, she would give it, without censor. Daphne Du Maurier might be remembered most for Rebecca, but that's not all she was.

Years ago, when I rediscovered Daphne Du Maurier by stumbling on a hoard of books at my local used bookstore I took to the Internet to see what other works she had written that were no longer in wide release, especially in the United States. That is when I first heard of The Rebecca Notebook. Not only is Rebecca the seminal work of Du Maurier, but one of my most favorite books ever. Therefore I needed The Rebecca Notebook to get further insight into Du Maurier's masterpiece and was willing to pay the exorbitant shipping from England in order to learn more about one of my favorite books. So was it worth it? Yes and no. There are insights to be learned but with the "other memories" there is a lot of filler, which is saying something as this slim volume is only 180 pages. I felt that seeing as Du Maurier cherry-picked essays from her back catalog she should have stuck with pieces relating to Cornwall and the house that inspired Manderley, as "The House of Secrets" is a wonderful little piece showing the genesis of Rebecca and has the lyricism of her fiction, which is sadly absent in her non-fiction, making it clunky and often painful to read.

As for "The Rebecca Notebook" itself? It's interesting to see how she plotted her writing chapter by chapter, showing what big reveals needed to happen when with snatches of dialogue she had hoped to use. Yet at the same time I feel this only truly interesting to writers or lawyers. Why lawyers? Because Rebecca was at the heart of a plagiarism case and "The Rebecca Notebook" was brought forward as evidence for the defense. This fact makes me leery of the veracity of the notebook. I don't doubt that Du Maurier wrote Rebecca and it was all her own creation, but I do doubt the notebook... it's a bit too convenient to have a chapter by chapter breakdown of the book being questioned. Yes, it could be real, but it could also be fabricated. I know this might seem very cynical of me, but Du Maurier was talented but also, as evidenced in her writing, she was devious. So it's more a compliment then a criticism to say that she fabricated this entire notebook just to win a court case. As for the book that supposedly was similar to Rebecca? Edwina L. MacDonald's Blind Windows? I'd really like to get my hands on a copy to see for myself the similarities but the book is lost to the mists of time.

Yet for how technical "The Rebecca Notebook" is and how depressing Rebecca's original "Epilogue" with the second Mrs. de Winter and Maxim, originally called Henry, were disfigured by a car accident, there was a very interesting reveal. Between these two pieces you see that Du Maurier had originally planned Mrs. Danvers to be insignificant. She is almost irrelevant until they need her to dig out Rebecca's planner and show that Rebecca had an appointment in London on the day she died leading to the reveal that Rebecca was dying and her greatest fear was pain. While this is very important to the resolution of the story not having Mrs. Danvers looming over the second Mrs. de Winter the whole time makes Rebecca an entirely different book! That this mousy second wife would just accidentally choose the same portrait Rebecca did to emulate at the masquerade? That seems unlikely. To have Mrs. Danvers push here to do it? Evil genius! There's a reason Hitchcock took Mrs. Danvers even further to her fiery end, it's because he knew that she is the linchpin that holds Rebecca together. Of course I disagree with what he did, but that doesn't mean he wasn't right in the significance of this one character.

As for the filler that makes up the rest of The Rebecca Notebook? In my mind it's best avoided. It's not just the fact that Du Maurier isn't the best writer when it comes to nonfiction, it's that she sometimes reveals things you really didn't want to know. A theme she keeps returning to is her family, from the more direct tales about her grandfather and father, "The Young George du Maurier" and "The Matinee Idol" respectively, to her ideas on love and the importance of family in "Romantic Love" and even to what it is like to lose love in "Death and Widowhood." While she tries to paint it as a lovely family unit, it's really a fucked up family unit. Seeing as she views Emily Bronte dying months after her brother Branwell from a cold she caught at his funeral romantic and just, because obviously Emily couldn't live without her "genius" brother, an opinion only held by Du Maurier I might add, gives you a hint at where she's going. And yes, she's going straight towards incest. And it's interesting to point out here that the only time she refers to it directly and not obliquely she refers to it as something "denied to us." Like we'd all be clamoring like Lannisters if it wasn't a sin? Eww. Just no.

Even putting aside the whole yeah incest, she has a lot of politically incorrect views. Yes, you could say she's a product of her time, but her stance against religion would have been viewed divisive even in it's day. As for comparing the stigma of widowhood as similar to the oppression suffered by people of color, I'm going to pretend I never read that. It's just SO offensive I can't even and that's why I've now categorized her as one of my favorite authors with reservations. I have many authors on this list, Lewis Carroll is one because he was a pedophile. J.M. Barrie, interestingly enough the adoptive father of Daphne's cousins, is another pedophile. Daphne's cousin Michael Llewelyn Davies, the favorite of Barrie's, committed suicide, which should easily prove the whole pedophile charge to any doubters. But my problem is I had already read and fallen in love with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Rebecca long before I learned anything of these authors personal lives. And unlike authors like Orson Scott Card and the dog whistles peppered in his writing, these authors work stands apart. You wouldn't know anything about the ick factor of their lives unless you read up on them, or in the case of Du Maurier, read their non-fiction. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. But I prefer in the end to be an informed reader.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, Family, George Du Maurier, Gerald Du Maurier, Incest, J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, Mrs. Danvers, Pedophile, Plagiarism, Rebecca, The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories

Daphne
Starring: Geraldine Somerville, Andrew Havill, Christopher Malcolm, Elizabeth McGovern, Nicholas Murchie, Malcolm Sinclair, and Janet McTeer
Release Date: May 12th, 2007
Rating: ★
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There was a time when two women were Daphne Du Maurier's life entire. Ellen Doubleday was the wife of Daphne's American Publisher, Nelson Doubleday, and Gertrude Lawrence was an actress with whom Daphne sated her unrequited love of Ellen. The news of the death of Gertrude leads to Daphne baring her soul in writing to Ellen, because Ellen was the beginning. They met on a transatlantic crossing. Daphne was coming to America to stay with the Doubledays to defend herself in court against accusations of plagiarism stemming from her most famous book, Rebecca. Ellen wafted into her cabin with her arms laden with presents and from that moment on the trial was nothing but a nuisance to Daphne who liked to do nothing better than bask in the presence of Ellen. Ellen is aware of Daphne's growing infatuation and confides to her that she doesn't judge her, she just can't love her in the way she desires. Daphne returns to England and does what she does best, control her emotions in her work. She writes a play, September Tide, wherein the character of the mother-in-law is Ellen and Daphne's avatar is the son-in-law. In a twist of fate the mother-in-law is played by Gertrude Lawrence, whom Daphne met at a party of Ellen's. Soon Gertrude and Daphne begin an affair, much as Gertrude and Daphne's father Gerald did years earlier. Yet Gertrude isn't Ellen and Ellen will forever be between them.

When I first read Rebecca I knew that it would forever be one of my favorite books. So much so that I actually stole my mom's copy from her collection of Franklin Mysteries despite being only about thirteen and not getting the full impact of the book. One of the first things I remember reading when looking into the life of the author of this classic was that this female writer shared a lover with her father. Right there I knew there was a story that needed telling. It might be a weird story, it might be a disturbing story, but the more I read about Daphne's relationship with her father, the famous actor Gerald Du Maurier, the more I needed to know. And I needed to know this from someone who wasn't Daphne. Daphne had a habit of censoring herself. Just read her autobiography, Myself When Young, and you'll see what I'm saying. She just tells her story in a very flat and conventional way. Her life could have been the life of any of her contemporaries. There was no plumbing of her depths, no hints of what she was so artfully and carefully concealing. Therefore when I first read about Daphne in some catalog I got in the mail I was excited to see that there was a film out there finally dealing with the complexity of Daphne Du Maurier. Her sexuality, her relationships, everything she tried to keep hidden. I wanted in. I wanted to know her better.

Perhaps I had too many expectations of a short movie made for television. Because all I got was surface. There was no complexity. If anything Daphne conflates and condenses until there's almost no story to tell. I can't help but think of the adaptations of Sarah Waters's work, who is herself a big fan of Du Maurier, there risks were taken, here... here is a movie that won't offend the sensibilities of the after church crowd gathering around to watch PBS. Because nothing is explained, nothing really happens. Daphne is a confusing mess of repressed emotions and stilted acting. It felt of another time. As in it felt like a movie made post Hayes Code, but only just. The film stock and direction made Daphne look and feel like a BBC adaptation from the early 70s. But not a good one like Upstairs, Downstairs, one of those ones you saw once and never wanted to see again and have since expunged from your memory. In fact I would go so far as to say that this isn't so much acted as a "historical dramatization" akin to the historical reenactments on the History Channel that are interposed between interviews with scholars. Only those are better acted.

In fact, if Daphne had gone all American Horror Story: Roanoke on us perhaps this would have worked. There is just SO MUCH that is glossed over and omitted, and this coming from someone who has only a passing knowledge, that this movie NEEDED those scholars interjecting and explaining what is happening in Daphne's life and mindset in order to grasp what is going on. Someone who is not at all familiar with Du Maurier would be totally at sea. For example the plagiarism lawsuit was just brushed aside for long awkward glances at Ellen Doubleday. Whereas the countless claims and sole lawsuit against Du Maurier for plagiarizing Rebecca could have alone made an interesting movie, instead of a few quick snapshots that brought her into the orbit of Ellen. Sure a successful book will bring the kooks out of the woodwork, but there is a possibility that Rebecca wasn't all Du Maurier's making... see, I'm already hooked right there, now I want that movie as well! But this movie was never about clarity. Daphne's complex relationship to her father is basically reduced to a not very witty line delivered by Noel Coward.

This here is the fatal flaw. Here is a movie about Daphne Du Maurier that never once goes into the depths of her psyche. Never once goes into the whole creepy control her father tried to exert over her with his countless laments that he wished Daphne had been a boy or the whole THEY SHARED A LOVER. Here she's portrayed as butch, the word "lesbian" literally shan't be uttered, if there has to be a mention of her proclivities, just call it "Venetian" as the unexplained ergot of her family demands. This simplification discounts so much of how Du Maurier viewed herself. Most likely due to the roles her father made her fit she isn't able to be simply called bisexual. She quite literally had a split within her, I'm not saying a split personality, but it could almost be called such. She viewed her creative drive as masculine and home life as feminine. Her creative drive was tied into her passion and therefore her romances with both Ellen and Geraldine, why else does she keep referring to herself as a young boy? And yes, that is never explained within Daphne. These issues needed to be handled with care and insight, not just dressing her up in plus fours and having her walk around the countryside!

This movie was such a missed opportunity that it just, ugh. I just don't want to think about what it could have been. But the true horror is that this movie was brilliantly cast. I mean seriously, you have some of the TOP actresses in British Drama and the directing and writing reduced them to this? Cora Crawley! That doyenne of Downton! Lily Potter! Harry Potter's freakin' mother reduced to this! But what really drives me batty is Janet McTeer. I've always admired her, from bumping people off on Marple to getting the sorcery going in The White Queen to taking on that most famous of mothers, Mrs. Dashwood, she's always been good. But this past February I got to see a broadcast of the National Theatre's live production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses which she stared in with Dominic West and holy shit people, if she doesn't win every award available to her for this it is a crime against humanity. The depth, the complexity, the humanity. I was moved more by that production and her acting than anything else in recent years. To know that this movie had access to that talent and then didn't utilize it? It is yet another crime against humanity.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daphne, Daphne Du Maurier, Downton Abbey, Du Maurier December Deux, Elizabeth McGovern, Gerald Du Maurier, Geraldine Somerville, Janet McTeer, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Lesbian, Rebecca, The White Queen

Myself When Young by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Virago Press
Publication Date: 1977
Format: Paperback, 176 Pages
Rating: ★★
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Daphne Du Maurier had a somewhat typical childhood with a-typical interludes. She was taught at home with her two sisters, was finished in Paris, and spent her spare time outdoors with her dogs or indoors reading. A-typically she was the daughter of a famous actor and was surrounded by playwrights and authors and other actors growing up. Therefore a flair for the dramatic was in her blood, and while she made up stories and kept a journal, it wasn't until she was a little older that she contemplated being a writer. She wanted a way to make a living that WAS NOT acting. Retiring and loving solitude over parties, when she finally started to venture to Cornwall her path in life was clear. Her path was to live in Cornwall and write... she just had to make that happen.

I don't want to make a sweeping generalization here, but it seems to me that all female British authors of a certain generation have 97% the same stories of their upbringing in print. This past year I read a lot about the Mitfords and their upbringing. A LOT. Daphne Du Maurier's upbringing could slot right in there easy as can be. I've never really thought overly much on the class system of England, but it can not be denied that people went in sets and you'd see the same group over and over again at parties and shoots. This leads to a sameness of experience in those certain classes. A certain Britishness that carries on as they finish their children in Paris, take jaunts for health treatments, Switzerland or Italy, visit Germany and hopefully not befriend too many people who will become or are Nazis, and then a nice family vacation spot to get away from it all and live the outdoor life.

The more you read these biographies, the more you gloss over. Ah yes, they are now in Paris and sneaking out, the right of passage of  British schoolgirls abroad, which movie will they see? Who will they kiss? Oh naughty they kissed a relative in secret. Now they are outdoorsy, to the hunt! I'm of two minds here. I find it reassuring that there was such a set way of life. So if I was dropped in a time machine during this epoch I'd be all set. At the same time how boring would life be? I mean reading Myself When Young felt like I was reading something I'd already read a long time ago and couldn't quite remember all the details because I'd heard it too many times and had started to consciously block it. What would you talk about with people who all had the exact same life experiences as you? The things that make life interesting are our differences not our similarities. Yes, our similarities might be what bring us together, but they aren't what keep us together. And they aren't what kept me reading this book.

Where Du Maurier differs from her peers is totally in creep value. While she doesn't mention her father much in this book, most likely because she exhausted the topic in his biography she wrote of him, little hints give you the willies. He's overprotective, overemotional, and why is she comparing how he kisses to another kiss she gets? You can see why the incest rumors started. Yet her father is nowhere near as creepy as her cousin Geoffrey. Geoffrey is responsible for her "sexual awakening" at fourteen, when he was in his thirties! Nothing "happens" till they are both older, but eww. Gag me with a spoon. You shouldn't be getting up to hanky panky with people related to you by blood. Especially people who are basically pedophiles, look to her cousins and J.M. Barrie for more proof! Though all this just seems to be water off a ducks back to Daphne as she says her family has a Borgia vibe. Ok, why not just start killing each other then. Please, it would be a relief to what you are getting up to.

But maybe all this human interaction didn't matter to Daphne and that's why it is water off her back. She never got on very well with others and is more at home in nature and with animals, so people can just bog off. Or the cynic could say her experiences with her family drove her from seeking solace with humans and she found comfort in nature. Either way you look at it it's her connection to nature, and to Cornwall in particular, that makes her work resonate. She understood the world around her and this translated into her writing. When you read her work, you are walking towards Menabilly, down that long and twisty three mile drive. You hear the crash of the surf and the cry of the gulls and the screams of the men as the ship goes down. The world around you is so present in her writing that you can't help but feel like you are there with her by your side.

And it's her writing that is when her life really begins. For pages and pages it's the same old story, but once she writes, and I mean really writes, sequestering herself away that, well, in one regard the book fails and in another the book succeeds. It fails because it's a headlong rush to the end and her marriage and the end of this book, but in another regard it's success because everything else falls away and it's just her words on the page that matter now. The stories bursting to come out that have become classics that I, among many other, have adored throughout the years. Who cares if this book is cut short, it was so that the other books could come into the word. She really had a calling to write, but until she found that connection to nature she was bottled up. She was more concerned with curfews and jaunts to Paris then finally setting about making a career for herself. Yet she did make it a career. She stopped faffing about and an author was there all along.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: British, Cornwall, Daphne Du Maurier, Du Maurier December, France, Gerald Du Maurier, Germany, Incest, J.M. Barrie, Menabilly, Mitfords, Myself When Young, Nazis, Paris, The Borgias

The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Virago Press
Publication Date: 1957
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

John has spent yet another holiday in France walking the history that is his passion and his reason for living. As he gets ready to return to England to teach yet another term at school he looks at all the people and wonders how apart he is from them and if his life of no connections is really a failed life. In the crowd he sees one face he didn't expect to see. His own. The two men, John and Jean, strike up a conversation based on their eerie similarities. They are true doppelgangers. The night is spent drinking and talking and come morning Jean is gone with John's identity, leaving the lonely Englishman an encumbered life filled with family and a failing business. Without really knowing what drives him to it John takes on Jean's life. The bachelor now has a pregnant wife, a daughter, a mother, mistresses, and a complicated life. But soon John doesn't want to leave this new life and if Jean were to decide to return, what would happen?

Daphne Du Maurier has always employed doubling and duality in her writing, but never so obviously as in The Scapegoat. Here she openly embraces the trope of people who have switched places. Though in lighter fare it is done willingly or comedically, as in The Prince and the Pauper, The Parent Trap, and Moon Over Parador. Here it is a situation thrust on John, combining the switching with a case of mistaken identity. Though in any other case mistaken identity would be easier to prove if you weren't the doppelganger of the man they think you are. By combining these two plot devices into one Du Maurier is able to delve into the darker aspects of who we are and what would happen if we tried to escape our life by taking up the mantle of someone else's. 

By having the opportunity of becoming someone else, someone known, what would you do? Seeing as Jean is the one who thrust this situation on John, it's pretty clear that he does this just to amuse himself, a humorous what if. But John, John is more complicated. By going along with Jean he is made complicit in this scheme he doesn't want. Yet being put in a situation where the repercussions fall on another's head means that for the first time in his life John is free of responsibility and guilt and is allowed to make mistakes and be taciturn or angry or whomever he chooses to think Jean is.

John's first embracing of the situation is the fact that he can't be held accountable. Du Maurier here is bringing up the darker nature of humans. What would we do if we could get away with it? For some people it would be anything and everything, theft to murder. Putting someone in this situation is testing their mettle. Given a free pass what would you do? It shows the goodness of John that after the initially heady response of being able to say what he really feels that he tries to better the lives of Jean's family. His deepest desires aren't dark and perverted, his deepest desires are to have connections, to have people to care for and love. At the start of his journey he can't come to terms with his driftless life. He wonders what does he do with failure. After spending time in the shoes of Jean he wonders what do you do with love.

John's question has changed, but the search for an answer is still there. That is what it is to be human. To always be questioning and searching. While John spends his time as Jean picturing him as this evil man who viewed the demands of family as the demands of his "captors" life is never this black and white. People aren't just good or evil, they are filled with grey areas. We have spent so much time with John that we see the world through his eyes now but it isn't till the end, that slight shift in perspective that makes us realize, John's point of view isn't the only one. Life is complicated and messy and we are left with questions, but it is never just black and white.

Speaking of someone living in the grey areas, Du Maurier spent most of her life, and a significant amount of her writing, not just dealing with these weighty issues of the nature of man but as an extended therapy session for herself. She viewed herself as two energies, male and female, which understandably makes her obsession with duality make sense. But there is another force that ruled her life and her work, and that is her father, the actor Sir Gerald Du Maurier. The relationship between Jean and his daughter Marie-Noel is a loving, yet odd and at times downright disturbing relationship. The scene where Marie-Noel asks her father to whip her... I defy you to find a more disturbing image then a grown man being asked by a small ten year old to be whipped for her imagined sins.

The question one is left with is how much did Daphne put of herself in her books? Her father was a dynamic and possessive man. They had a love hate relationship and he often wished that Daphne had been a boy, perhaps starting her duality issues. Incest was often hinted at. It is even believed that perhaps they shared a lover, Gertrude Lawrence. Whatever is and isn't true, one thing is certain, the creepy dynamic that they had is shared with Jean and Marie-Noel, further fanning the flames of what was real in Du Maurier's world and what was play acting.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Daphne Du Maurier, Doppleganger, Du Maurier December, France, Gerald Du Maurier, Incest, Moon Over Parador, The Parent Trap, The Prince and the Pauper, The Scapegoat

Murder on the Cliffs (Daphne Du Maurier Book 1) by Joanna Challis
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: November 24th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

Daphne Du Maurier has begged off another London season to spend some time in Cornwall, a desire her family just can't grasp, but reluctantly agrees to if she will stay with her mother's old nurse, Ewe Sinclaire, an inveterate gossip. Daphne has ambitions of being a writer and the lure of the windswept cliffs calls to her, as does the lost scrolls of Charlemagne watched over by the nuns at Rothmarten Abbey. If she happens to stumble upon gorgeous old houses with a Gothic air, well, so much the better. Little does she suspect that she will stumble upon a corpse on the beach on her very first morning walk.

The body of Victoria Bastion is beautiful even in death. Victoria was the local girl who worked her way into the kitchens of the great house, Padthaway, and then into the heart of Lord David. They were to be married in a weeks time, something that David's mother, Lady Hartley, was hoping to avoid at all costs. But would she murder Victoria just to stop the wedding? Plus David's sister Lianne, well, there are stories about her being touched and "not quite right," their father did kill himself after all. Daphne is welcomed into Padthaway because she has a snob appeal that just makes Lady Hartley giddy. The lady of the manor is able to entertain the daughter of the famous actor, Gerald Du Maurier, and perhaps make a match between her recently available son and Daphne. Daphne views this all as a little unseemly, not the least of which was avoiding the London season meant avoiding matchmaking, but then again, there is an undefinable something about David that attracts her. But she doesn't plan on using her unrestricted access to Padthaway to make a match, no she plans to solve a murder; because Victoria didn't die because of some accident, no matter how much the Hartleys hope that that will be the verdict.

More then anything it is Daphne's presence, as well as her poking around, that gets the investigation going. If it was left in the hands of Sir Edward, the investigator and tenant of the Hartleys, the case would most likely be marked down as accidental and things would continue on as they had, the rich protected, the poor lacking justice. Daphne promises Mrs. Bastion that she will figure out who the killer is and bring them to justice, all hopefully before her parents hear what is going on and demand she comes home. Because Daphne is playing with fire. She is in a nest of vipers and doesn't know which one has the poisonous bite.

When I first saw the movie Rebecca I was instantly in love with the world Daphne Du Maurier had created. I even have a teddy bear named Maxim de Winter. I soon not only feel in love with the book, but sneakily excised it from my mother's Franklin Library of Mysteries and installed it on my own bookshelves, I even carefully penned my name on the flyleaf so that it was "obviously" always mine. Rebecca has soon been followed by a few other titles from my mom's collectible books, which I hope she hasn't noticed, but I think she should have caught it by now if she ever was, but the fact remains that Rebecca is my favorite. Not only is it a classic in every since of the word, but it has perhaps the most memorable and evocative opening line ever: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

Now, keep in mind this in the mid-nineties when I first read Rebecca, meaning no Wikipedia, no handy Amazon UK to get my British books, in other words, only the books or info I could find out in reference books or what was on the shelves at B. Dalton's. Therefore I had Rebecca and Jamaica Inn. That was it, that was the extent of Daphne Du Maurier here in the United States. Sure I found out later that she had written almost forty books, but at this time there where two. But there where books about her and sequels of Rebecca, all fictional, but all about Daphne. Therefore I picked up these books as a hope to forge more of a connection with the author of Rebecca. The first book I picked up was an abysmal sequel called Mrs. DeWinter that not only had none of the magic of Rebecca, but gave me a weird lasting impression of Mrs. Danvers hanging out in a tiny room in a house on a country lane surrounded by Rebecca's clothes... odd and, just, well odd. Years later, with new hope I picked up Justine Picardie's Daphne. This book which alternated between an unknown modern Bronte historian and Daphne Du Maurier and her Branwell Bronte obsession left much to be desired. Therefore when I heard about this series by Joanna Challis I was excited and trepidatious.

Murder on the Cliffs is easily the best meta Daphne Du Maurier fiction I have yet to read, and as you see, I have read quite a few. I will admit that, oddly, Daphne Du Maurier would be the most likely of all authors fictionalized to have actually had a secret career as sleuth just because there is so much we don't know about her life, and there's just so many secrets about her relationships and her sexuality... Of course, there is a certain suspension of disbelief that I had to force myself to accept when I would volubly say, oh, Gerald wouldn't do that, or, what about Menabilly, f this Padthaway, Maderley is based on Menabilly pure and simple. But sometimes the suspension was just too great. The main problem I had was with the few little glimpses we had of Gerald Du Maurier, her larger then life father. Their relationship would be easily classified in the "eww" category. There where many suggestions of incest and sexual molestation, later in Daphne's life she took up her father's ex lover, and there was his very strong dislike of anyone she was involved with. Therefore to have Gerald actively suggesting that Daphne get herself married... well, um, no. Thankfully, Joanna really relegated Gerald to the background so that I was able to push this aside.

Overall though the characters had such life and vitality, all with a slight nod and wink to Daphne's oeuvre. I mean, sure, Daphne's worship of men seemed a little forced, but the way she sparred with "Mr. Brown" was fabulous, especially if you know that this man is, in actuality, her future husband. Joanna was able to take some of the bones of Du Maurier and make them different, more fleshed out, but able to relate to the original text in such a way that it was a fun time getting little jokes, like Castle Mor. Characterization-wise, the apparent arrested development of Daphne and Lianne was a little annoying at times. You would never think that they were 21 and 15 respectively. With Lianne, it's kind of part of the character, with Daphne though... maybe it is a subtle way in which to bring out the possible abuse by retarding her development in some ways? Finally, the Bastion twins, if ever there was a Bronte homage that Du Maurier would approve of, this was it. With their Cathy and Heathcliff mentality, aw, just too perfect for an author who was beyond obsessed with the Brontes. Daphne would smile at this... or at least smirk.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Branwell Bronte, Bronte, Daphne Du Maurier, Gerald Du Maurier, Golden Summer, Joanna Challis, Justine Picardie, Manderley, Maxim de Winter, Murder on the Cliffs, Rebecca

Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: 1936
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Challenge: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
Mary Yellan abides by her mother's dying wish and leaves her beautiful Helston behind and travels north to the Cornish moors and Jamaica Inn. There she expects to meet her Aunt Patience, the bubbly beauty of memory and her new husband, Joss Merlyn, who runs Jamaica Inn. Instead she finds a shell of a woman and a terrifying brute of a man in a run down inn where travellers dare not stop. If she will do as she's told and not ask questions, all will be well, her Uncle Joss tells her. It's not long till Mary starts to dream of a way out of her situation for herself and her aunt, taking what solace she can from wandering the moors. It's not long till she learns there are more nefarious aspects of Jamaica Inn, like the barred and locked room. On a fateful Saturday night Mary serves as barmaid to Joss and his rowdy friends. Long after she has gone to bed she hears wagons and then men are silently loading cargo in the dead of night. She sneaks downstairs and believes that he Uncle has committed a murder, though she has no proof, just the rope hanging from the ceiling. She decides that the next time her Uncle sets off across the moors she will follow him, come what may. But she becomes lost and stumbles upon the Vicar of Alturn, Francis Davey, a bizarre albino. She unburdens all she believes to be happening at Jamaica Inn to him and returns to the Inn with new hope in her heart because of this alliance. Soon she will have love in her heart as well, as she falls for Joss's younger brother Jem, a rascal and a horse thief. But when her Uncle is in his cups one night she learns the whole dark truth of Jamaica Inn and realizes why her Aunt has the haunted expression, because she now sees it in the mirror looking back at her. But hearing about the horrors and living through them are two separate things. After the horrors of one night it looks like everything will come to a head and Mary doesn't know if she'll survive, or if her survival matters as long as Joss Merlyn is brought to justice.

First off, why have I never read this book? It screams me! Period drama, Bronte-esque characters, but still all oddly modern and not bogged down in overtly "period" language. I just fell into this book and didn't want to leave. Du Maurier is able to so vividly capture the landscape and atmosphere, you can see how Cornwall needed Du Maurier to tell this story and Du Maurier needed Cornwall. There's a symbiotic relationship that feeds off each other and brings out the best in both through this stunning story. While really there is the barest of plots, young, destitute girl forced to live with evil relations and find a way to survive till the day is saved, it's the characters that drive this story forward. By all reckoning, Joss Merlyn should be a repulsive, horrid man, but there's some magnetism about him, you are drawn to this brute. Mary could see why her Aunt fell for him all those years ago. Which is why I think Mary falls for Jem, a purer, untainted version of Joss. I wonder how much of Joss is a distortion of Du Maurier's own larger than life father Gerald... there is so much about Du Maurier's life that makes you wonder, she herself might be just as big a mystery as the stories she wrote. But one thing is certain, I loved this book and this world. I was drawn in, guessing at the inevitable ending looming nearer and nearer, figuring out that the twist was soon to come, but never guessing at the depravity. Read this book, you won't be let down!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Albino, Aunt Patience, Bronte, Cornwall, Daphne Du Maurier, Francis Davey, Gerald Du Maurier, Jamaica Inn, Jem Merlyn, Joss Merlyn, Mary Yellen