DOCSLIB.ORG

Daphne Du Maurier and Her Sisters: the Hidden Lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing Ebook

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Daphne Du Maurier and Her Sisters: the Hidden Lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing Ebook FREEDAPHNE DU MAURIER AND HER SISTERS: THE HIDDEN LIVES OF PIFFY, BIRD AND BING EBOOK Jane Dunn | 448 pages | 23 Sep 2014 | HarperCollins Publishers | 9780007347094 | English | London, United Kingdom Daphne du Maurier and her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing by Jane Dunn Biographies of artists ofen ignore Bird and Bing interaction Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy siblings in favour of parent-child bonds, although those parallel life-trajectories, success stories and rivalries can tell us much. Privileged young women in the early years of the 20th century, educated Bird and Bing home and in Paris, they moved among a glamorous set of figures such as Rudolph Valentino, Ivor Novello, Gertrude Bird and Bing, Laurence Olivier and Nelly Melba. During turbulent political times, they gadded about between the Savoy Hotel and country houses, flitting to five-star hotels in Monte Carlo, Algiers and Switzerland. Enjoying protected lives, they were cared for by devoted governesses and given opportunities by their wealthy bohemian father. They might have become minor actresses and wives of famous men enjoying a comfortable metropolitan existence. What they all did, however, was turn their backs on the parental theatrical world, move to Cornwall, and develop artistic careers. Angela wrote ten novels and two memoirs; Jeanne studied fine art and later became a modernist painter, part of the St Ives Society of Artists, alongside Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicolson. From an early age, the middle sister Daphne became an bestselling literary celebrity. In her frank memoir, Angela du Maurier describes an encounter with a fellow guest at a fashionable hotel. The woman gushed all over her; Angela realised her mistake and said she was not Daphne. Bird and Bing only was Daphne acknowledged as the most beautiful, but she effortlessly attracted male and female admirers; achieved fame, long critical and popular success, and riches from a productive output of fiction and non-fiction. She married a prominent Army hero, Tommy Browning, with whom she produced three children. Neither Angela nor Jeanne married but travelled extensively and expressed themselves artistically. Both admired and were in awe of their famous sister, though she had little time for their artistic production. Daphne's uneasy response to Angela's brave novel of love between women was to advise her to write short stories or a "funny book". Daphne's life story Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy been told many times, in her memoir and by biographers such as most authoritatively Margaret Forster, feminist critics Alison Light, Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik, and novelists Sally Beauman and Justine Picardie. But this book's strength lies in its account of a trio of lives developing during a period of class and gender upheaval, and the sisters' response to social change. They should have been brothers. They would have made splendid boys. As a result, there has been excessive emphasis on the male du Maurier line, with most writers neglecting the forbidding figure of the sisters' mother Muriel, and her role in their emotional confusions, sexual experimentation, secret lives and traumas. Dunn's biography brings Muriel into the foreground, and suggests convincingly that Daphne's love of fantasy, her shyness and isolation "lay more at the door of her mother and the vacuum where her love should have been, than her father's possessive Muriel's favouritism for Jeanne, like Gerald's for Daphne, caused tensions between the sisters. All three went on to seek mother figures as friends and lovers. By interweaving these unorthodox sisters' lives, Dunn suggests how restrictive they found conventional gender roles. They fled cosmopolitan London for remote rural regions in order to find artistic independence and explore their sexuality and spirituality — with Angela becoming a High Anglican, Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy a Catholic, Daphne an eclectic thinker Bird and Bing by animism and Jungian psychology. Dunn's biography is most original on the neglected figure of Angela. With all her family's financial support and a dazzling array of contacts, she lived a hectic life of foreign travel, parties and long holidays on aristocrats' estates. Gliding through circles of powerful and female-focused women including actresses Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies and Marda Vanne, Scottish laird of Torosay Olive Guthrie, and Fowey landowner Anne Treffry, she found that life was often more seductive than writing — though she always envied her sister's success. However, only three of Angela's books are available, reprinted by the Cornish press Truran. Herself one of six sisters, Dunn understands well the close support, secret language nicknames and euphemismsconflicts and cruelties between sisters who chose courageous creative paths away from the expectations of their family and class. If the biography is in some ways unevenly balanced, it is because Jeanne's estate and reputation have been carefully guarded. All the sisters destroyed letters and papers revealing sexual and other adventures, while Daphne's remarkable work and life still fascinate readers in ways that eclipse those of her siblings. Already have an account? Log in here. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their Bird and Bing experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Show 0 comments. Sign up Already have an account? Update preferences. Comments Share your thoughts and debate the big issues. Already registered? Log in. Cancel Delete comment. Cancel Flag comment. Independent Premium comments 0 Independent Premium comments Open comments 0 open comments. Join the discussion. Join the discussion Create a commenting name to join the debate Submit. Reply Delete 0 0. Cancel Post. Forgotten your password? Want an ad-free experience? Subscribe to Independent Premium. View offers. The Leaves of Time, Daphne Du Maurier And Her Sisters. Post a Comment. Simon Callow on the fascinating lives of the Du Mauriers, lesbian London and a love affair with a Cornish house. Simon Callow. Photograph: HarperPress. She was also the favourite of her father, an actor whose mercurial, alarming presence dominates the first half of the book. Dunn makes it clear that though Gerald made sure the whole household revolved around him, Daphne was able to hold her own. All three daughters escaped into a fantasy world of their own, inventing male personas for themselves. They would have made splendid boys. Sometimes these later egos slipped into the real world: the actor Roland Pertwee, staying with the Du Mauriers, was surprised to find Jeanne in his room, having folded his trousers and put toothpaste on his brush: "I'm Dampier and I'm your fag. Pretty well everything Daphne desired came to her: a series of bestselling novels, a nobly handsome war hero husband and, above all, a house, Menabilly in Cornwall, which Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy obsessed and liberated her. But her relationship with reality was distant. The glory of Menabilly a house no one could see the point of but her was that living there, on that wild coast, was like living in a novel. Jeanne, too, dreamed true: a more modest dream of living as a painter, with a loyal partner at her side. Dunn is excellent on the lesbian s and Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy in London, with delicious detail — Lena Ramsden, for example, insisted that the perfect present for young women she was courting was a trouser press. When she had loved women, as with her long first affair with the headmistress of her finishing school in Paris, it was not as herself, but as Eric Avon: "At 18 this half-breed fell in love, as a boy would do, with someone quite 12 years older than himself who was French and had all the understanding in the world and he loved her in every conceivable way up to the age of 23 or so. There is something faintly obscene about her detachment, as Dunn notes: "Fortified by the champagne and roses of life at Langley's End, Daphne could still watch a formation of 20 German bombers on their way to bomb Luton … and see the beauty of them rather than the deadly menace they embodied. As Daphne dominated the lives of her sisters, she dominates Dunn's pages. The problems of contrapuntal writing particular to group biography are not really solved; a paragraph about one sister just follows one about Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The Hidden Lives of Piffy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Stuart Kelly's Literary Pub Quiz
    Stuart Kelly’s Literary Pub Quiz The Questions 1. Name the book titles based on their initials given below. The number of letters in each word is provided in brackets. B R (7, 5) A P T I (1, 7, 2, 5) C W R (5, 4, 5) A T T W N (3, 4, 5, 4, 4) – or T L N (3, 6, 7) T T A O J D Z (3, 8, 7, 5, 2, 4) V F (6, 4) T T L (2, 3, 10) L I T T O C (4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 7)i T N A T G (3, 4, 3, 3, 4) F S O G (5, 6, 2, 4) 2. Which novels begin and end with these words? It … Them Stately, plump … yesii Whether … upward! In the year 1878 … Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo, Ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplar in arca 1801. I have just returned … for the sleepers in that quiet earth 3. Which Shakespeare plaYs have the most female speaking parts? Which has the least, mortal, speaking women? 4. There were four horsemen in Revelations – but can You match the colour to the horseman? Just to remind You: Death, War, Pestilence and Famine. 5. What connects and what disconnects Clive James, HenrY “Hiawatha” Longfellow and Mark Musa, but not DorothY L SaYers, Alasdair GraY and Ciaran Carson? 6. Valjean, Javert, Fantine, Cosette, Eponine, Gavroche and Thenardier all appear in Les Miserables, but what unique qualitY connects their names? 7. Literary dogs: which works feature the following dogs? Bull’s-Eye Jip, short for Gypsy Crab Perdita and Pongo MontmorencY Pilot Snowy Toto Jip, not short for Gypsy Buck 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Daphne Du Maurier Best Books in Order
    Daphne Du Maurier Best Books In Order Northernmost and chambered Berkeley always demythologize literally and peroxiding his no-side. Fenny and loath Aldric powdery, but Drew othergates purged her asperities. When Westley trodden his lames ionizing not wondrous enough, is Robinson geriatric? But the novel might make cinematic classic works, in daphne du books order and gripping read first wife and the Resource loader: Pack got too big; flushing early. Duplication of the best to identify a best daphne du books in order to use details from qualifying purchases. He and Hitchcock developed the story, suggesting foundations such request the townspeople having a guilty secret to regard, and the birds an instrument of punishment. Romanticheskaya istoriya lyubvi soedinyaetsya s zahvatyvayushchim avantyurnym syuzhetom na fone tainstvennyh pejzazhej Kornuolla minuvshih vremen. People loathe it penetrated the creepy look at the world of activity, a queer romantic period after her creating his story of anyone who echoes of glamor and isolde, maurier books in daphne du order. French ancestry can be detected in much of interest work. She brooded, and send of the things she brooded on was wonder woman, Jan Ricardo, to whom Tommy had once been engaged. This Land Is made Land. Perhaps that you see the blood curse or gave the best books looks identical to? Dispatch the scandal yesterday and true villain in france when, goes into feelings and best daphne du in books, but it sounds like the. World at Night selection. They mumble at the doors of the cottages, new scarves round their shoulders, scarlet handkerchieves upon their heads, impatient with lap children, restless, waiting has a smile.
    [Show full text]
  • Daphne Du Maurier Chapter 1 Last Night I Dreamed I Went to Manderley
    Rebecca: Daphne du Maurier Chapter 1 Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley* again. It seemed to me that I was passing through the iron gates that led to the driveway. The drive was just a narrow track now, its stony surface covered with grass and weeds. Sometimes, when I thought I had lost it, it would appear again, beneath a fallen tree or beyond a muddy 5 pool formed by the winter rains. The trees had thrown out new low branches which stretched across my way. I came to the house suddenly, and stood there with my heart beating fast and tears filling my eyes. There was Manderley, our Manderley, secret and silent as it had 10 always been, the grey stone shining in the moonlight of my dream. Time could not spoil the beauty of those walls, nor of the place itself, as it lay like a jewel in the hollow of a hand. The grass sloped down towards the sea, which was a sheet of silver lying calm under the moon, like a lake undisturbed by wind or storm. 15 I turned again to the house, and I saw that the garden had run wild, just as the woods had done. Weeds were everywhere. But moonlight can play strange tricks with the imagination, even with a dreamer’s imagination. As I stood there, I could swear that the house was not an empty shell, but lived and breathed as it had 20 lived before. Light came from the windows, the curtains blew softly in the night air, and there, in the library, the door stood half open as we had left it, with my handkerchief on the table beside the bowl of autumn flowers.
    [Show full text]
  • Romance with Daphne Du Maurier: Revisiting the Ruins of Englishness in Rebecca 5
    Romance with Daphne du Maurier: Revisiting the Ruins of Englishness in Rebecca 5 Feminist Studies in English Literature Vol.19, No. 3 (2011) Romance with Daphne du Maurier: Revisiting the Ruins of Englishness in Rebecca* Youngjoo Kim (Sogang University) I. Romance with Daphne du Maurier Daphne du Maurier, a prolific British woman writer of the twentieth century, has long enjoyed national and international fame, particularly for her bestselling Rebecca.1 This novel, first published in 1938 and the most famous of du Maurier’s works, was soon adapted for stage and film and has fascinated readers and viewers alike. It * This work was supported by the Sogang University Research Grant of 2010. 1 Du Maurier’s novels have been translated into many languages and her stories have been adapted into renowned films including Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) and The Birds (1963) and Nicolas Roeg’sDon’t Look Now (1973). Many of her works were continuously dramatized for television, radio, and stage, all of which have enhanced her fame to a global reputation. She still remains one of Britain’s most popular novelists. The recent BBC reading campaigns, the Big Read in 2003 and Women’s Watershed Fiction in 2004, proveRebecca’s continuing popularity (Hansen 336-37). 6 Youngjoo Kim went through twenty-eight printings in four years in Britain alone. It has never been out of print since its first publication (Beauman 49). The novel was dramatized by du Maurier for stage in 1939, and the stage version ran for 380 performances in London’s West End after a first performance in Manchester in 1940 and went successfully on provincial tours throughout the duration of the Second World War (D’Monte 142).
    [Show full text]
  • Manderley: a House of Mirrors; the Reflections of Daphne Du Maurier’S Life in Rebecca
    Manderley: a House of Mirrors; the Reflections of Daphne du Maurier’s Life in Rebecca by Michele Gentile Spring 2014 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree in English in cursu honorum Reviewed and approved by: Dr. Kathleen Monahan English Department Chair _______________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor Submitted to the Honors Program, Saint Peter's University 17, March 2014 Gentile2 Table of Contents Dedication…………………………………………………………………………..3 Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………...3 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………..4 Introduction………………………………………………………………………...5 Chapter I: The Unnamed Narrator………………………………………………….7 Chapter II: Rebecca……………………………………………………………….35 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...54 Works Cited Page…………………………………………………………………55 Gentile3 Dedication: I would like to dedicate this paper to my parents, Tom and Joann Gentile, who have instilled the qualities of hard work and dedication within me throughout my entire life. Without their constant love and support, this paper would not have been possible. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Monahan for serving as my advisor during this experience and for introducing me to Daphne du Maurier‟s literature. Dr. Monahan, your assistance has made this process much less overwhelming and significantly more enjoyable. I would also like to thank Doris D‟Elia in assisting me with my research for this paper. Doris, your help allowed me to enjoy writing this paper, rather than fearing the research I needed to conduct. Gentile4 Abstract: Daphne du Maurier lived an unconventional life in which she rebelled against the standards society had set in place for a woman of her time. Du Maurier‟s inferiority complex, along with her incestuous feelings and bisexuality, set the stage for the characters and events in her most famous novel, Rebecca.
    [Show full text]
  • Manderley in Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier: a Haunted House
    MANDERLEY IN REBECCA BY DAPHNE DU MAURIER: A HAUNTED HOUSE ABSTRACT Manderley, la dimora immaginaria sulla costa della Cornovaglia che assomiglia a Me- nabilly, dove Daphne du Maurier visse e scrisse, costituisce il centro di Rebecca, un romanzo pubblicato nel 1938 che riscosse un enorme successo e divenne un film di Hitchcock nel 1940. La narratrice senza nome comincia il suo racconto informando il lettore che «Manderley was ours no longer. Manderley was no more». Ma è grazie alla sua straordinaria immaginazione che la residenza si staglia davanti ai nostri occhi con il suo viale sinuoso, invaso da mostruosi rododendri color rosso sangue. Modellato su Jane Eyre di Charlotte Brontë, Rebecca è un racconto cupo e romantico, compren- dente una seconda moglie, un marito facoltoso, una proprietà inglese misteriosa che nasconde segreti oscuri. Ma mentre Bertha, la moglie di Rochester, è viva, la prima moglie di Maxim de Winter domina Manderley dal regno dei morti. In questo articolo mi concentro su Rebecca come romanzo che comprende la dimensione sentimenta- le, gotica e poliziesca, e include anche elementi della fiaba e del dramma psicologi- co: Daphne du Maurier utilizza questi generi e li mescola, contribuendo ad arricchire il tropo della casa infestata, una efficace costruzione immaginativa attraverso cui la scrittrice presenta livelli molteplici di consapevolezza ed esplora i motivi della ses- sualità e della trasgressione femminile. Si tratta di un Bildungsroman assai peculiare, in cui la narratrice timida e modesta è alla ricerca di felicità e amore. Ma nel racconto che intreccia crimine e mistero molti dettagli non vengono rivelati, mentre il naturale e il sovrannaturale si intersecano, e, per questa ragione, Rebecca può essere definito anche un romanzo di fantasmi.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Reading Villainy and Gender in Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca
    PATRIARCHAL HAUNTINGS: RE-READING VILLAINY AND GENDER IN DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S REBECCA Auba Llompart Pons Supervised by Dr Sara Martín Alegre Departament de Filología Anglesa i de Germanística MA in Advanced English Studies: Literature and Culture July 2008 PATRIARCHAL HAUNTINGS: RE-READING VILLAINY AND GENDER IN DAPHNE DU MAURIER’S REBECCA TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction (p. 1) 2. Revisiting Bluebeard’s Castle: Maxim de Winter’s Double Murder and du Maurier’s Re-working of the Femicidal Villain (p. 7) 2.1. The Identity Crisis of Bluebeard’s Second Wife: Psychological Destruction and Alienation in Manderley (p. 10) 2.2. Unlocking the Door of the Forbidden Cabin: Male Hysteria, Femicide and Maxim de Winter’s Fear of the Feminization of the Estate (p. 15) 3. From Bluebeard to ‘Gentleman Unknown’: The Victimization of Maxim de Winter and the Villainy of Patriarchy (p. 25) 3.1. “We Are All Children in Some Ways”: Vatersehnsucht , Brotherhood and the Crisis of Masculine Identity (p. 28) 3.2. “Last Night I Dreamt I Went to Manderley Again”: The Patriarchal System as the Ultimate Haunting Presence in Rebecca (p. 36) 4. Conclusions (p. 43) 5. Bibliography and Filmography (p. 45) 1. INTRODUCTION English writer Daphne du Maurier (1907 – 1989), author of novels, plays and short stories, has been described as “an entertainer born of entertainers” 1 (Stockwell, 1955: 214), who appeals to “the average reader looking for a temporary escape from the perils of this mortal life” (Stockwell, 1955: 221). Her best-known novel, Rebecca , first published in 1938, and adapted many times for the theatre, the cinema and the television 2, has proved to be “an enduring classic of popular fiction” (Watson, 2005: 13).
    [Show full text]
  • Daphne, Jeanne and Angela
    Copyright © Michael Williams All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The right of Michael Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-9570481-1-9 Published by Polperro Heritage Press, Clifton-upon-Teme, Worcestershire WR6 6EN United Kingdom www.polperropress.co.uk The three du Maurier sisters on Hampstead Heath, 1918, from a painting by Frederick Whiting. Left to right: Daphne, Jeanne and Angela. INTRODUCTION The three du Maurier sisters: Daphne, Angela and Jeanne. They all looked completely feminine but they should perhaps have been brothers. Someone, who knew them well, reckoned ‘They would have made energetic boys.’ My late stepson Richard had three daughters and looking at them I sometimes think of the du Maurier sisters. Various talents and natural rivalries. Kindred spirits, yet individuality. Richard’s fourth child, a son, doing well in the film business as I write. Gerald du Maurier longed for a son and Daphne was his favourite and middle daughter. Angela was the oldest, born in 1904, but Daphne was the most famous: two writers. Jeanne was the youngest, a painter. Dame Daphne may not have been Cornish but she was one of the greatest writers to have come out of Cornwall: that rare character, a bestseller who defied classification.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER II BIOGRAPHY of the AUTHOR and SYNOPSIS of the STORY A. Biography of Daphne Du Marier Daphne Du Maurier, an Author
    CHAPTER II BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR AND SYNOPSIS OF THE STORY A. Biography of Daphne du Marier Daphne du Maurier, an author, was born on May 13, 1907 in London, England. She was from a family of artists. Her grandfather, George du Maurier, was a famous caricaturist. Meanwhile, her mother, Muriel Beaumont, was an actress, and her father, Sir Gerald du Maurier was an actor. She was the second of three sisters. Her younger sister was Angela du Maurier, also an author, and her older sister was a painter named Jeanne du Maurier. Daphne du Maurier was taught to write at home, and then went to school in Paris. She began writing articles when she was 19 years old. She wrote a lot of famous novels, among which are many those have been adapted into films, including “Rebecca”. Her novels included “I’ll never be Young Again” (1932), “The Loving Spirit” (1931), and “The Progress of Julius” (1933). She did not only write novels but also a lot of short stories, plays, and biographies. Her works tell about women, usually those who are strong and dominating men, as shown in her novels “My Cousin Rachel” and “Rebecca”. Many of her works were written at Menabilly, a very big house of hers that has been legendary since 17th century located in Cronwall, Western England. She liked to stay there as she could feel free and was able to do anything she wanted. She could write, walk, wander, hike hills, as well as soil on her own boat so that she could get so many inspirations to be written in her works.
    [Show full text]
  • Daphne Du Maurier 1907 - 1989 If You Were Asked to Think of an Author Who Has Written Books with Storylines Based in Cornwall Then Daphne Du Maurier Is the Name Most
    BEST OF CORNWALL 2020 Daphne du Maurier 1907 - 1989 If you were asked to think of an author who has written books with storylines based in Cornwall then Daphne du Maurier is the name most Daphne Du Maurier likely to spring to mind. The du Maurier family had holidayed in Cornwall throughout Daphne’s childhood and in 1926 her parents Sir Gerald and Lady Muriel du Maurier bought Ferryside, a house on the Bodinnick side of the river Fowey on the south coast of Cornwall. Daphne seized every opportunity to spend time at Browning had a stellar army career which at the end Ferryside and it was here in 1931 that she wrote The of it saw him Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Arthur Loving Spirit, her first novel. This book, whilst not leading Montague ‘Boy’ Browning, GCVO, KBE, CB, DSO. Early to literary fame, led to her marrying the then Major in 1948 he became Comptroller and Treasurer to HRH Tommy ‘Boy’ Browning who was so taken by the book Princess Elizabeth and after she became Queen in 1952 he that in 1932 he sailed his motor boat to Fowey where he became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. met du Maurier, wooed her and married her three months He retired in 1959 having suffered a nervous breakdown a later in Lanteglos Church. couple of years earlier and died at Menabilly in 1965. Du Maurier’s study © Jamaica Inn 24 BEST OF CORNWALL 2020 In 1936 Daphne du Maurier joined her husband in Inn where du Maurier stayed for a few more nights and Alexandria where he had been posted and where by all learned of the inn’s smuggling history which proved the accounts she spent an unhappy 4 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Department of English and American Studies Figurative Language In
    Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English-language Translation Mgr. Anežka Vasková Figurative Language in Daphne du Maurier’s Novel Rebecca and Its Czech Translations Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Lucie Seibertová, Ph. D. 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Lucie Seibertová, Ph.D., for her kind and patient support, professional insights and valuable advice. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 9 1 Introducing Daphne du Maurier and Her Novel Rebecca ................................................... 12 1.1 Daphne du Maurier ..................................................................................................... 12 1.1.1 Life ....................................................................................................................... 12 1.1.2 Writing and Style ................................................................................................. 13 1.2 Rebecca ....................................................................................................................... 15 1.2.1 Why Rebecca? ..................................................................................................... 15 1.2.2 Rebecca’s Specifics .............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Finished by Another: Co-Authorship and Self-Completion in Castle Dor
    Finished by Another: co-authorship and self-completion in Castle Dor “It is a curious coincidence that no poet, or shall we call him investigator, has ever lived to conclude this particular story. His work has always been finished by another1” - Monsieur Ledru, Castle Dor, page 70 - 1 It is interesting to note this quote is not found in Q’s original manuscript, meaning it must be one of the few that du Maurier inserted afterwards. She clearly enjoyed the idea of inevitability and fate surging through the text, perhaps also a force she believed compelled her to finish the novel. 1 Castle Dor novel on Castle Dore plaque. Q Fund collection. In 1925, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch began writing Castle Dor. He was working from his study, overlooking Fowey Harbour to the domed fields beyond, excitedly caught up in a mixture of legend and fantasy following his discovery of ‘Mark’s Gate’ on an old map. King Mark of Cornwall, immortalised in the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Iseult, was a fascinating figure for Q who felt embedded in his local landscape on both an emotional and literary level, and rewriting the tale was an opportunity to indulge in this. Castle Dor, however, remained unfinished when Q passed away in 1944. Whether the manuscript was abandoned because it was considered below standard, whether it was due to his failing eyesight, or whether he was overcome with grief at the death of his only son, Bevil, from pneumonia after the First World War is a question left unanswered, as Q himself left few written clues about his decision.
    [Show full text]