dual personalities

Tag: Daphne du Maurier

May 13, 2015

Well said, Daphne

by chuckofish

“There was something rather blousy about roses in full bloom, something shallow and raucous, like women with untidy hair”
–Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

Vincent Van Gogh, Still Life with Pink Roses

Vincent Van Gogh, Still Life with Pink Roses

Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour

Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour

Roses in a Vase by Childe Hassam

Roses in a Vase by Childe Hassam

Happy birthday to Daphne du Maurier (13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989). Let’s toast her tonight and read from one of her great books. Jamaica Inn is my favorite. When she is in top form, there is no one better than Daphne du Maurier. Sadly, none of the movies made from her books are (in my opinion) all that great except, of course, for The Birds (1963).

the-birds-1963-Have a great Wednesday!

 

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May 13, 2014

“Dead men tell no tales, Mary.”*

by chuckofish

“He took her face in his hands and kissed it, and she saw that he was laughing. “When you’re an old maid in mittens down at Helford, you’ll remember that,” he said, “and it will have to last you to the end of your days. ‘He stole horses,’ you’ll say to yourself, ‘and he didn’t care for women; and but for my pride I’d have been with him now.”

― Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn

Happy birthday to Dame Daphne du Maurier (13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989)!

dumaurier4602

According to IMDB, “Daphne Du Maurier was one of the most popular English writers of the 20th Century, when middle-brow genre fiction was accorded a higher level of respect in a more broadly literate age. For her services to literature, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, the female equivalent of a knighthood.” In other words, they don’t write them like she did anymore.

Yes, it may be time to dust off Jamaica Inn or Frenchman’s Creek. I wish they would do justice to her books on film, but I haven’t seen any that really come close to her prose power. The Birds maybe. I must say, they keep trying. Check out all the versions here.

*Jamaica Inn, of course

 

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