Daphne du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier was an acclaimed English novelist, short story writer, and playwright, born in 1907 in London. She was born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, being the middle of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel, née Beaumont. Du Maurier's paternal grandfather was author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, and her mother was a maternal niece of journalist, author, and lecturer Comyns Beaumont. She and her sisters were indulged as children and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint.

Du Maurier's literary career began in her early twenties, after publishing her first novel, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many of her works, including "Rebecca," "Frenchman's Creek," "My Cousin Rachel," and "Jamaica Inn," have been successfully adapted into films. Alfred Hitchcock's film adaptations of her novels, such as "Rebecca" and "The Birds," made her one of the best-known authors in the world. Du Maurier's work is characterized by a moody and foreboding atmosphere, often incorporating elements of the paranormal, which became her trademark style.

Du Maurier's life resembles a fairy tale, having spent her youth sailing boats, traveling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. She married a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, and continued writing under her maiden name. Du Maurier's work was well-received by a popular audience, particularly women, as she recognized their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.

Du Maurier was obsessed with the past and intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. She was particularly interested in her own family history, which she chronicled in several works, including "Gerald: A Portrait," a biography of her father; "The du Mauriers," a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; and "The Glassblowers," a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors. Du Maurier's work is best understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
Standalone Novels
# Title Year
1 The Loving Spirit 1931
2 I'll Never Be Young Again 1932
3 The Progress of Julius / Julius 1933
4 Jamaica Inn 1936
5 Rebecca 1938
6 Castle Dor 1940
7 Come Wind, Come Weather 1940
8 Frenchman's Creek 1941
9 Hungry Hill 1943
10 The King's General 1946
11 The Parasites 1949
12 My Cousin Rachel 1951
13 Mary Anne 1954
14 The Scapegoat 1957
15 The Glass-Blowers 1963
16 The Flight of the Falcon 1965
17 The House on the Strand 1969
18 Don't Look Now 1971
19 Rule Britannia 1972
Short Story Collections
# Title Year
1 The Apple Tree 1952
2 The Birds and Other Stories 1952
3 Happy Christmas 1953
4 Kiss Me Again, Stranger 1953
5 Early Stories 1954
6 The Breaking Point/The Blue Lenses and Other Stories 1959
7 The Treasury of Du Maurier Short Stories 1960
8 Echoes From the Macabre 1971
9 Don't Look Now and Other Stories 1973
10 The Rendezvous and Other Stories 1980
11 Split Second and Other Stories 1981
12 Daphne du Maurier's Classics of the Macabre 1987
13 The Doll 2011
Non-Fiction Books
# Title Year
1 Gerald 1935
2 The Du Mauriers 1937
3 The Young George Du Maurier 1952
4 The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte 1960
5 Vanishing Cornwall 1967
6 Golden Lads 1975
7 Myself When Young 1977
8 The Winding Stair 1977
9 The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories 1981
10 Enchanted Cornwall 1989
11 Letters from Menabilly 1993
Daphne du Maurier Anthologies
# Title Year
1 Cornish Tales of Terror 1970
2 Witches' Brew 1984
3 Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels 1986
4 The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women 1995
5 Birds of Prey 2010
6 Sunless Solstice: Strange Christmas Tales for the Longest Nights 2021