by Daphne Du Maurier
The Lost Short Stories
Daphne du Maurier,of the “Rebecca” fame, was always a favorite writer of mine, and like most other fans, I loved her novel ‘Rebecca’ which was later made into a movie that is regarded as a classic. I liked her other novels such as “My Cousin Rachel” ,” Hungry Hill”, “Jamaica Inn” as well. Her writing had a sauciness that I enjoyed and the unpredictability of her characters and the content was what drew me to her novels; they were always very intriguing. Ms Maurier appeared quite the rebel of her times as did some of the characters she created; how could someone living in the 1930s and 40s write with such abandon on matters relating to love, marriage, parenting, womanhood?
While browsing through the Used Books section at the HBS (not the Harvard Business School) a couple of days ago, I chanced upon Daphne du Maurier’s “The Doll, The Lost Short Stories” and I was surprised. I had no idea there was another collection of short stories by du Maurier other than the collection titled “The Birds” that I had so thoroughly enjoyed. Needless to say, I bought the book, and finished reading the thirteen stories in less than three hours; I enjoyed each one of them. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t read them all in one sitting because each story has a distinct flavor that needed to be individually savored; clearly, I had made a mistake! In my desperate hurry to read all the stories, I had done a disservice to the story and to du Maurier’s writing. I plan to fix that by rereading no more than one story a day.
The stories present a collage of human relationships and captures the very essence of what it means to be human. The emotions captured in the stories are varied and so very vivid, be it of love gone awry in “The Weekend” or of love out of sync in the O’Henry like “A Difference in Temperament”. The story “And Now to God the Father” is about a charming, self centered Vicar; it is a tongue in cheek expose of the clergy and of the empty nature of words. The opening story “East Wind” presents a sort of dystopia, a society that has forgotten to ‘live’ and the sudden arrival of a shipload of foreign sailors suddenly ‘enlivens’ the hereto passive inhabitants of the little island and with some brutal consequences. The story titled “The Doll” is about the destructive nature of obsessive love and it has a surprise ending, quite the penchant of a du Maurier tale. I could so easily write about each of the thirteen stories because each one is unique and just as absorbing and fascinating. All thirteen are page turners and demand a read!





