{"id":4541,"date":"2026-05-13T03:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=4541"},"modified":"2026-05-12T15:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:43:15","slug":"happy-birthday-to-daphne-du-maurier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=4541","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday to Daphne du Maurier!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you were to somehow invent a life perfectly suited for Gothic fiction, it would be hard for you to find one better than the one Daphne du Maurier actually lived. Born on May 13th, 1907 in London, she grew up in a family of artists and performers, spent her most formative years falling\u00a0deeply<\/em>\u00a0in love with the wild coastline of Cornwall. She then went on to write some of the most atmospheric novels in the English language. Happy birthday, Daphne. We are\u00a0still<\/em>\u00a0not over Manderley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Du Maurier’s relationship with Cornwall was probably the defining love affair of her life, arguably more consuming than any human one. She first visited the area as a teenager and was immediately captivated, describing it later as a feeling of having come home to a place she had never been. She eventually leased Menabilly, a crumbling and at the time largely forgotten manor house near Fowey, and lived there for over twenty years. Menabilly became Manderley, the brooding, unforgettable estate at the heart of\u00a0Rebecca<\/em>, her novel published in 1938. That novel’s opening line, “Last night I dreamt I was at Manderley again,” is one of the most recognizable first lines in all of English literature, and the house that inspired it was every bit as atmospheric and secretive as its fictional counterpart! Cornwall itself almost acts as a living character in Du Maurier’s novels… from the smuggler’s landscapes of\u00a0Jamaica Inn<\/em>\u00a0(published in 1936) to the weirdly claustrophobic coastal settings of\u00a0My Cousin Rachel\u00a0<\/em>(published in 1951).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And yet, for much of Du Maurier’s career… the literary establishment could apparently not quite bring itself to take her seriously. Critics often categorized her as simply a “romance writer”, a label that followed her stubbornly, despite the complex psychological nuance in her work and the genuine menace running through her best books.\u00a0Rebecca<\/em>\u00a0is many things… but a simple romance novel it is not! Du Maurier herself seems to have found the dismissal frustrating and confusing, and (thank goodness) history has sided firmly with her on this matter. She is now widely considered a master of suspense and atmosphere, and was even cited as an influence by writers like Stephen King! Her books have remained continuously in print decades after her death in 1989. The establishment eventually came around… it only took them the better part of a century (no rush, gentlemen!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Cornwall celebrates her legacy with an annual Du Maurier Festival of Arts and Literature held in Fowey each spring – drawing readers, writers, Du Maurier fans and literary pilgrims from around the world. First editions of her novels, especially Rebecca<\/em> and Jamaica Inn<\/em>, are genuinely prized in our cozy antiquarian book world. For a genuinely wonderful writer once dismissed as lightweight… Du Maurier’s legacy has turned out to be remarkably (and deservedly) significant. Happy Birthday to Daphne Du Maurier!<\/p>\n

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