Women want love to be a novel. Men, a short story.
Daphne du Maurier Quotes
Writers should be read - but neither seen nor heard.
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| Birth: | 13th May, 1907 |
| Death: | 19th April, 1989 |
| Nationality: | British |
| Profession: | Author, Novelist, Playwriter |
About
Daphne du Maurier was born in London. Her grandfather was the author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the novel Trilby. These connections helped her in establishing her literary career, and du Maurier published some of her very early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. Her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931. Du Maurier was also the cousin of the Llewelyn Davies boys, who served as J.M. Barrie's inspiration for the characters in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. As a young child, she met many of the brightest stars of the theatre, thanks to the celebrity of her father.
The novel Rebecca, which has been adapted for stage and screen several times, is generally regarded as her masterpiece. In the U.S. she won the National Book Award for favourite novel of 1938, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association. Other significant works include The Scapegoat, The House on the Strand, and The King's General. The last is set in the middle of the first and second English Civil Wars. Though written from the Royalist perspective of her adopted Cornwall, it gives a fairly neutral view of this period of history.
Daphne du Maurier wrote three plays. Her first was a successful adaptation of her novel Rebecca, which opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 5 March 1940 in a production by George Devine, starring Celia Johnson and Owen Nares as the De Winters and Margaret Rutherford as Mrs. Danvers. At the end of May, following a run of 181 performances, the production transferred to the Strand Theatre, with Jill Furse taking over as Mrs. De Winter and Mary Merrall as Danvers, with a further run of 176 performances.
Du Maurier died aged 81 at her home in Cornwall, which had been the setting for many of her books.
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