The Doll
“The stories…are occasionally quite startling in their insight and their ability to unsettle. There’s much humour in evidence too…There’s a sense of the young Du Maurier crystallising her style, testing herself, amusing herself. She would go on to write stronger stories but as a glimpse of a voice in development this collection proves fascinating.”
Observer (London)
“Du Maurier is in a class by herself.”
—New York Times
Perhaps best known for her immortal gothic masterwork Rebecca—the basis for the Academy Award-winning motion picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock—Daphne de Maurier began her illustrious writing career penning short stories. In The Doll, thirteen of du Maurier’s early shorter fictional works have been collected—each story written before the author’s twenty-third birthday and some in print for the first time since the 1930s. Compelling tales of human foibles and tragic romance, the stories in The Doll represent the emergence of a remarkable literary talent who later went on to create Jamaica Inn, The Birds, and other classic works. This breathtaking collection of short fiction belongs on the bookshelf of every Daphne du Maurier fan.
Praise