Daphne du Maurier

In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier's considerable talent.
"The appeal...

Prior to the publication of Golden Lads, Anthony Bacon was viewed as a footnote in the history of his younger brother, Francis. A fascinating historical figure in his own right, Anthony Bacon was a contemporary of the brilliant band of gallants who gathered around the court of Elizabeth I, was closely connected to the Earl of Essex, and worked in France as a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham. While living in France he became acquainted with Henri IV...

Many accounts of the life of Francis Bacon have been written for scholars. But du Maurier's aim in this biography was to illuminate the many facets of Bacon's remarkable personality for the common reader. To her book she brought the same gifts of imagination and perception that made her earlier biography, Golden Lads, so immensely readable, skillfully threading into her narrative extracts from contemporary documents and from Bacon's own writings,...

Sir Gerald du Maurier was the preeminent actor-manager of his day, knighted in 1922 for his services to the theater. Published within six months of her father's death, Daphne du Maurier's frank portrait was considered shocking by many of his admirers-but it was a huge success, winning her critical acclaim and launching her career. Here, Daphne captures the spirit and charm of the charismatic actor who played the original Captain Hook, amusingly recounting...

When Daphne du Maurier wrote The du Mauriers she was only thirty years old and had already established herself as both a biographer and a novelist. She wrote this epic biography during a vintage period in her career, between two of her best-loved novels: Jamaica Inn and Rebecca. Her aim was to write the story of her family "so that it reads like a novel."
Spanning nearly three quarters of a century, The du Mauriers...

Here is a BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Daphne du Maurier's classic tale of horror. The idea for this famous story came to du Maurier one day when she was walking across to a farm from her house. She saw a farmer busily ploughing a field while above him the seagulls were diving and wheeling. She developed an idea about the birds becoming hostile and attacking him.In her story, the birds become hostile after a harsh winter with little food.

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Including the brilliantly frightening short story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, this collection from the author of Rebecca is a classic work of alienation and horror. 
The chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of "Monte Veritv?" promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected...

A chilling story of ambition, Daphne du Maurier's third novel has lost none of its ability to unsettle and disturb. Julius Lévy has grown up in a peasant family in a village on the banks of the Seine. A quick-witted urchin caught up in the Franco-Prussian War, he is soon forced by tragedy to escape France for Algeria. Once there, he learns the ease of swindling, the rewards of love affairs, and the value of secrecy. Cruel and insensitive, Julius...

"In a moment of crisis, Richard is saved by a passing stranger, Jake. The two men, both at turning points, become firm friends and on a whim set out for adventure, jumping aboard the first ship they see. Their journeys take them to Norway and across Europe, cementing a passionate friendship. But it is in bohemian Paris that Richard finally meets the woman who enables him to fulfil his own artistic promise."--Page 4 of cover.

A "consistently entertaining" saga of beauty, war, and family set during the French Revolution, from the author of Rebecca and The Birds (New York Times). 
The world of the glass-blowers has its own traditions, its own language — and its own rules. "If you marry into glass," Pierre Labbe warns his daughter, "you will say goodbye to everything familiar, and enter a...