From The Washington Times, Sunday, January 18, 2009–
BOOKS: A popular writer gets her due
DON’T LOOK NOW: SELECTED STORIES OF DAPHNE DU MAURIER
By Daphne du Maurier, Edited and with an introduction by Patrick McGrath
New York Review of Books, $15.95, 384 pages (paper)
By Martin Rubin
Daphne du Maurier was one of the most successful and popular English writers of the 20th century: Fame and fortune came her way and she even became a Dame of the British Empire. But as far as the academy and the world of literary critics were concerned, she got no respect. As the introduction to this collection of her short stories succinctly puts it:
“During her lifetime she received comparative little critical esteem. ‘I am generally dismissed with a sneer as a bestseller,’ she once said, for it pained her deeply that she was not regarded as the serious writer she took herself to be.” . . .
She is now, two decades after her death, becoming the beneficiary of feminist literary revisionism.
About time too! For Du Maurier really was an extraordinary writer, highly individual (perhaps belonging to no identifiable school or group of writers also contributed to her being marginalized) and powerful both in her prose style and in her choice of subjects. As befits the granddaughter of George du Maurier, whose classic Victorian novel gave us the truly iconic character Svengali, she had a flair for the dramatic and for surprise. Yet her twists are never just gimmicks. To take the most celebrated example, the fact that the Mrs. de Wynter who narrates her most famous novel, “Rebecca,” has, unlike her eponymous predecessor, no first name, makes and continually underlines the fundamental dynamic of the book: The corrosive sense of inferiority that blights her life amid that overwhelming presence. It is as fine an example of novelistic technique as you will encounter anywhere. . . .
For Martin’s full review, click here or visit www.washingtontimes.com.