Long Fiction:
The Loving Spirit, 1931
I’ll Never Be Young Again, 1932
The Progress of Julius, 1933
Jamaica Inn, 1936
Rebecca, 1938
Frenchman’s Creek, 1941
Hungry Hill, 1943
The King’s General, 1946
The Parasites, 1949
My Cousin Rachel, 1951
Mary Anne, 1954
The Scapegoat, 1957
Castle Dor, 1962 (with Arthur Quiller-Couch)
The Glass-Blowers, 1963
The Flight of the Falcon, 1965
The House on the Strand, 1969
Rule Britannia, 1972
Short Fiction:
Come Wind, Come Weather, 1940
Happy Christmas, 1940
The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Some Stories, 1952 (also known as The Birds, and Other Stories and as Kiss Me Again, Stranger: A Collection of Eight Stories)
Early Stories, 1955
The Breaking Point, 1959 (also known as The Blue Lenses, and Other Stories)
The Treasury of du Maurier Short Stories, 1960
Not After Midnight, and Other Stories, 1971 (also known as Don’t Look Now)
Echoes from the Macabre, 1976
The Rendezvous, and Other Stories, 1980
Classics of the Macabre, 1987
Drama:
Rebecca: A Play in Three Acts, pr. 1940 (adaptation of her novel)
The Years Between, pr. 1944
September Tide, pr. 1948.
Nonfiction:
Gerald: A Portrait, 1934
The du Mauriers, 1937
The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë, 1960
Vanishing Cornwall, 1967
Growing Pains: The Shaping of a Writer, 1977 (pb. in U.S. as Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer, 1977)
The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, 1980
Letters from Menabilly: Portrait of a Friendship, 1994 (Oriel Mallet, editor)
Edited Texts:
The Young George du Maurier: A Selection of His Letters 1860-1867, 1951
Best Stories of Phyllis Bottome, 1963
Daphne du Maurier (dew MOHR-ee-ay), born in London in 1907, came from a family deeply involved in the arts. Her grandfather, novelist and artist George du Maurier, wrote the well-known novel Trilby (1894). Her parents were both of the theater; her father, Sir Gerald, was a notable actor and manager.
The Loving Spirit, du Maurier’s first novel, was published in 1931. It was followed by I’ll Never Be Young Again and The Progress of Julius. Du Maurier’s initial success in the United States was achieved with a series of historical cloak-and-dagger romances, many of which were related from the viewpoint of the belabored heroine. The best remembered of these novels is probably The King’s General. A prolific and compelling storyteller, du Maurier’s other works in this genre include Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, Hungry Hill, and Mary Anne. She is also the author of the plays The Years Between and September Tide; a biography of her father, Gerald: A Portrait; and The du Mauriers, a semifictional account of her ancestors. Her other works include Happy Christmas and The Parasites.
Rebecca is du Maurier’s best-known work, and it has been widely imitated since its publication in 1938. Its success may be credited to the studied blending of a gothic atmosphere of mystery with the more subtle psychological suspense of a modern thriller. Du Maurier employed this formula in such works as My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat, and the story “Kiss Me Again, Stranger.” Film adaptations of du Maurier’s work were enthusiastically received. Jamaica Inn was filmed in 1939, and in 1940, Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, won the Academy Award for best motion picture of the year.