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The Doll: The Lost Short Stories

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 360 ratings · 94 reviews

The lost stories of Daphne du Maurier, collected in one volume for the first time.

Before she wrote Rebecca, the novel that would cement her reputation as a twentieth-century literary giant, a young Daphne du Maurier penned short fiction in which she explored the images, themes, and concerns that informed her later work. Originally published in periodicals during the early...more

Paperback, 224 pages

Published November 22nd 2011 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published January 1st 2011)

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Community Reviews

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Jun 17, 2013 Petra X rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2013-reviews

The Doll is a very creepy story, way ahead of its time. It is a very dark tale about a woman's total obsession with a mechanical male sex doll. She drives her lover mad with jealousy with the intensity of her passion for the doll and consequent indifference to him. The story is short, very sexy, gothically dark, and still cutting-edge although it was written in 1928. The other stories - blah.

Hitchcock loved du Maurier - three of her works were the basis of films he made - Jamaica Inn, Rebecca a...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Hannah marked it as to-read

HERE'S ANOTHER GR GIVEAWAY I WON'T WIN - YIPEE!!!!

Here's why:

I have too many GR friends and books. I mean, who needs a review or friends to read it? Much better to let a book like this languish in the never-never land of 0-books-0-friends world. Much better that a giveaway junkie who really just wants a freebie will win this instead of a 3 year member who takes the time to read and review books.

It's not as though I'm a du Maurier fan or anything. Nah, not me. Nope. Nuh-uh.

I think I've been black...more

13 likes · like · see review

Aug 13, 2012 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories-novellas

The Doll is a collection of du Maurier's early short stories. The introduction (by someone I'm not otherwise aware of) seems to suggest that the main interest here is in the beginnings of themes that later haunted her work, and the glimpses of the things that haunted her personally. I'm not that interested in that, though, but I still found the stories well-crafted and interesting. Daphne du Maurier certainly had a way with her narration; 'The Limpet' made me smile in recognition...

Not as fine a...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: found-in-the-swapshop, great-short-story-collections

Not as multi-textured as her later stories, but still...damn impressive. And not a happy ending among them ;-)
Lovers who are misaligned, married couples uneven in their love for one another, mother-daughter pairs where the daughter dotes, the mother competes... There is humor here too, but not as much as in the later works. If there is a fault it is that you can often tell to what ending the story is headed, which is not so much true of her later work. Still, the journey there is not to be misse...more

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May 05, 2011 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: published-2011, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, spring-2011, boo-scary, bettie-s-law-of-excitement-lost

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

BBC BLURBS

1 - In East Wind the lives of a young couple are altered irrevocably when a group of beguiling strangers are shipwrecked off the shores of the Scilly Isles. Excitingly, East Wind is one of several recently rediscovered stories by Daphne du Maurier, and published in her new anthology, The Doll: Short Stories. East Wind was written when she was just nineteen, until now it has only ever been published in the United States and was found in her 1926 notebooks in the archives at Exeter University. Most of the other stories included in the collection have never been published or have been out of print for decades. Written early on in du Maurier's writing career they reveal the dark themes explored in the novels that made her name.

Reader: Anna Madeley
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Elizabeth Allard.

2 - The Doll is a macabre and unsettling tale about a young man besotted by a young violinist, who in turn has a strange and haunting passion. The Doll is the title story of a newly published collection by Daphne du Maurier, and excitingly, is one of several recently re-discovered short fictions by the famous writer that have either never been published or have been out of print for decades. Written in the late 1920s when du Maurier herself was just twenty, The Doll reveals some of the dark themes that she explores in the novels that made her name.

Reader: Ed Stoppard and Sean Baker
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Elizabeth Allard.

3 - The Happy Valley by Daphne du Maurier tells the story of a young woman who dreams of an eerie wilderness and a grand old house, and echoes her most famous book, Rebecca. In the story, the young woman starts a romantic relationship with a man and finds herself walking into the real landscape she has dreamed of...

The Happy Valley is selected from The Doll: Short Stories, the newly published collection by Daphne du Maurier. This includes several pieces recently rediscovered by an enthusastic devotee of the famous writer. The Happy Valley was originally printed in the Illustrated London News in 1932 but hasn't been published in a collection until now. Written early in her career these stories reveal the dark themes explored in the novels that made her name.

Reader: Hattie Morahan
Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Lucy Collingwood.

We were treated to a peek of three stories from the collection of newly found early du Maurier short stories. It is easy to see the roots of the unsettling fiction that D du M was going to write later and Happy Valley is an early whimsy that would flower into Rebecca. Glad I didn't shell out the dosh.(less)

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Jan 17, 2013 Jaksen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loved it. She was morbid and weird and crazy, at least in her writing. I've recently read a book about her, her father and James Barrie, author of Peter Pan. It's a wonder she got to age 23 with her brain intact.

I look forward to 2039, and hope I am still around, to read her adolescent diaries, which she forbid to be published until that date.

Still, even if I knew nothing of her background, these stories would be great. 'The Doll' itself is one of the weirdest things I've ever readn, but knowing...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Ryan G rated it 5 of 5 stars

I adore a well written short story more than I do the same writing in novel form. The skill needed to tell a finely honed story in such a small amount of space, when down well, never fails to impress me. This collection of thirteen stories blew me away, every single one of them made me laugh, shudder, and stare in amazement once I was done.

I don't know what to type next or even what to say if someone were to ask me about this one. I think I would just stand there, tongue-tied, unable to fully ex...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-short-stories

THE DOLL: The Lost Short Stories. (various, 1926-1932). Daphne du Maurier. ****.
This is a great collection of previously uncollected short stories by this author. They are called “lost” because they had been published in relatively obscure magazines at the time, and became unavailable to anthologists. Ms. du Maurier must have inherited genes that promoted writing skill, since these early stories were truly exceptional for one new to the craft. They all deal, in one way or another, with the rela...more

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Nov 23, 2011 Lydia Presley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, gothic, fiction, short_stories

Original review posted here

I don’t know which short story to gush about in this review. From the creepy, ick factor of the book’s title story, The Doll, to the heartbreaking loss experienced in East Wind, to the funny, but bittersweet tale of Frustration… I could go on and on.

I think one story though really got to me. I loved them all for their tragic, gothic-like settings, stories and people.. but there is one story that is all letters that move from the thrilling moments of a new, forbidden lo...more

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Dec 22, 2011 Melody rated it 4 of 5 stars

After reading Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and loving it, I decided to read The Doll, a compilation of short stories she had written during the early 1930s. I understand that many of the short stories in this collection were published in periodicals way back then and it is only at this time that they have found their way into print.

While reading The Doll: Short Stories, I couldn't help comparing this to Rebecca as the latter had left quite a deep impression on me. I don't think I'd ever forget th...more After reading Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and loving it, I decided to read The Doll, a compilation of short stories she had written during the early 1930s. I understand that many of the short stories in this collection were published in periodicals way back then and it is only at this time that they have found their way into print.

While reading The Doll: Short Stories, I couldn't help comparing this to Rebecca as the latter had left quite a deep impression on me. I don't think I'd ever forget the narrator's tone, or the creepy housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. With that in mind, I started reading The Doll with great anticipation. I have also read from other reviews that this collection is much darker and this has further raised up my hope a little.

The first story, East Wind, tells a dark story of once a peaceful, isolated island and how the residents' mind are influenced and brainwashed after the arrival of a ship outside their quiet world. This story left me speechless because I hadn't expected the cruelty towards the end. Nevertheless, this story reflects the frailties of human nature and the tragedy that comes with it.

Follow up next is the main story of its book title - The Doll. Thinking this story might be a talking doll or whatever, I awaited the horror to come with it but instead of the smug satisfaction which I had initially expected, I was blown away by the twist and how dark it can be when one is being obsessed.

However, this compilation is not all about darkness and madness, as The Happy Valley tells a story of one woman's strange dream and coincidence (or is it fate?). Another tale, Frustration, definitely left me feeling frustrated not because the story didn't engage me but on the contrary, it made me felt sorry for the couple who had made much efforts being together but well, misfortune and fate just got into their way. Tame Cat is another story that left an impression on me as it tells a story of a mother and her daughter who both share the same affection for the same man.

As for the rest of the stories, they showcase the various of relationships and how one reacted due to obsession, jealousy, unhappiness etc etc. Each of these tales explore the frailties of human nature and though I have to confess they aren't joyful tales, they reflect the emotions and how one would think and react under the circumstances.

These tales may not be as good or polished as compared to Rebecca, but I enjoy reading Daphne du Maurier's writing style and the dark, brooding atmosphere she created in most of her works. Now I can't wait to read Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel, which I heard they are equally good as Rebecca.(less)

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Jan 29, 2013 Sasha Martinez added it

Shelves: books-read-in-2013, skimmed-or-abandoned

What I wrote right before I decided to give up:

I’ve mentioned the wtfuckery that abounds in Daphne du Maurier’s collection of “lost” short stories, The Doll. I’m only halfway-ish through the book—that’s six stories down—and each one of those stories has a half-baked feel I can’t shake off, and majority simply has me scratching my poor head. That is: None of these is the du Maurier short fiction I’ve come to know. Though her always-to-die-for prose is present, all of the stories—with the [begrudg...more What I wrote right before I decided to give up:

I’ve mentioned the wtfuckery that abounds in Daphne du Maurier’s collection of “lost” short stories, The Doll. I’m only halfway-ish through the book—that’s six stories down—and each one of those stories has a half-baked feel I can’t shake off, and majority simply has me scratching my poor head. That is: None of these is the du Maurier short fiction I’ve come to know. Though her always-to-die-for prose is present, all of the stories—with the [begrudging] exception of the title story—simply feels like du Maurier had an idea, picked up some loose leaf, and ran with it. If I were a snide little gremlin, I’d say something like: Oh, is it a wonder these stories were lost?

A quick rundown of the stories I’ve read thus far:

* We’re welcomed to the collection by “East Wind,” which feels like a not-that-subtle allegory of how colonialism is the worst thing ever: See how our men have forgotten work, they’re off smoking cheroots and raiding the ship for brandy, having a good time with sailors-at-port, whilst their women are willingly bedded by these pale-skinned strangers. And then, of course, the next day, the strangers skedaddle, leaving the islanders cleaning up the mess everyone made in that mini-episode of hysteria. Myeh.

* And then there’s “The Doll”—I mean, if I were hard-pressed to pick one short story I don’t want to tear into bits and pieces, it would be this. It’s a du Maurier almost doing her best: A tale of jealousy and obsession, turned on its ear with a Gothic undertone and lots of macabre-feels you can’t shake off. It deceives you, which I like. It really does seem like some the-madness-of-jealousy thing, but it soon enough turns creeptastic, making me go, “There! That’s the du Maurier I know and love, by Jove! That’s the sick fuck I’ve read!” But—there’s a depth missing to it. It feels like a creep-fast, and stops at that.

* The good feelings fizzled with “And Now to God a Father,” a story about a charismatic vicar who just feels really skeevy for some reason. But du Maurier doesn’t follow through—something that characterizes most of the short stories in the collection. Things got worse with “A Difference in Temperament”—which irritatingly feels like a writing exercise: How do you, quite explicitly, show that two people who love each other have different personalities, which might just doom their relationship?

And then I read other stories but I’d grown increasingly disenchanted. I think there’s one where newlyweds get into one scrape after another on their honeymoon—drive a car to nowhere, car disappears with all their stuff, they pitch a tent, tent falls on their faces, ring disappears, a landlady nearly throws them out for attempting to live in sin. Yadda yadda yadda, it’s all this schmaltzy, ridiculous crock. And then there’s another one about a whore, and that could have worked, but I don’t care.

Sigh. There’s something very dated with these stories—no, not because they were written in them days of yore, ha-ha—but because they have this feel of the no-point short stories anthologized in textbooks, the ones assigned to me in high school? And almost all of them are mildly moralistic, stylistically conventional, and an all-around bore. Augh. I don’t even know if I’m moving forward with this, if I’m going to read the last seven stories. It feels like I’m wasting my time—and if the guilt rears its ugly head, I could always reason that I gave it six chances.(less)

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Feb 26, 2012 EinsteinShrugged rated it 2 of 5 stars

When I first read about this book I was thrilled. I've been reading - and re-reading in come cases - all of Daphne Du Maurier's books. I still remember the first time I read Rebecca and it single-handedly changed the way I thought of 'Classic Lit-RAH-chure'. Quite frankly, it changed my entire reading life. So when The Doll was announced I wasted no time in picking it up and happily cozied down with it.

Meh.

There's a reason these stories were not reprinted. They're slice of life stories, some wi...more

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May 05, 2013 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Daphne du Maurier is one of my favorite authors. She writes with a descriptive narrative that compels the reader to keep reading and try to figure out where she is going with the story. With the exception of The Limpet, the stories in The Doll were written between 1929 and 1932. And some showed a true sense of the macabre or odd, at the very least. The Limpet showed just how manipulative some people can be and at the same time think they've done nothing but be supportive. Look at some of Ms du M...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Zee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, booksread2011, gothic-horror, shortstories

Here is an early showcase of Du Mauriers' literary prowess and her interest for certain themes that she would develop later into full length novels. In this little medley of tales one can spot a prototype of ‘Manderley’ house as well as recurrences of the blood-red azaleas that have become synonymous with it (the haunted setting of her most acclaimed novel ‘Rebecca’).

Overall, the stories centre on the varying degrees of sexual degeneration and the disintegration of relationships. These are expl...more Here is an early showcase of Du Mauriers' literary prowess and her interest for certain themes that she would develop later into full length novels. In this little medley of tales one can spot a prototype of ‘Manderley’ house as well as recurrences of the blood-red azaleas that have become synonymous with it (the haunted setting of her most acclaimed novel ‘Rebecca’).

Overall, the stories centre on the varying degrees of sexual degeneration and the disintegration of relationships. These are explored from different angles, be it through the eyes of a prostitute or an emotionally disturbed violinist. I got a sense that as a young writer, Du Maurier understood the value of subtlety, as even her most extreme story mostly hinges on the power of suggestion. As in the fashion of the great gothic novels like ‘The Monk’ nothing is openly described but more or less alluded to.

Surprisingly, most of these were written during the authors younger years when I suppose her sexual curiosity was at its’ peak. But even then she approached her material with a maturity far beyond her years. This was raw talent trying to find its ultimate shape and form on some very sharp and often risqué ideas.

One particular story (and I can’t review without mentioning it) stands out as the most shocking. Nearly all her stories probe the dark recesses of the human psyche in one way or another, but this one tale really had me bewildered with its’ brazen pornographic twist. ‘The Doll’ is a story I can only describe as lurid and bold. It is dripping with sexual immorality and during its’ time must have caused quite a stir, as the immorality stems from a woman. The story is accessed through a fragment of letters discovered washed up on the shore. While the author is unknown, the account is legible enough to be understood, which turns out to be a strange confessional of an ex-lover who reveals one woman’s dark secret and her sickening fetish for a life-like, mechanical doll called Julio.

Now forgive me, but I didn’t know they actually HAD sex dolls back in the late 1800’s, especially ones that functioned. There is something very creepy about the thought of a cultured woman, carrying around this portable boyfriend in her trunk. The idea has a faint science-fictiony feel to it as I am reminded of the Japanese anime ‘Ghost-in-the-Shell: Innocence’, where the plot revolves around a load of ‘gynoids’ (robotic geishas) that suddenly go homicidal. Nothing like that happens here of course, but throughout the anime deep psychological questions were asked about why the dolls were created, and what they really represented outside their obvious functions. Because of this, I actually found myself attempting to relate with the doll as opposed to the other two characters, which as you can imagine made things more disturbing! Another book I should mention(and have not read yet) is ‘Locus Solus’ by Raymond Roussel, a surrealist take on the absurdities of scientific experimentation and the book which inspired a big part of the anime in question.

But I digress. As I read ’The Doll’, I got the feeling that this was evidence of Du Maurier playing in the sandbox of her ideas. There is an experimental quality to each story, but recurring characters like Maisie the prostitute shows she definitely had something in mind. It is also here that one can see early sketches of her now infamous Rebecca. If you like this book I recommend Raymond Carvers 'Beginners' for further reading, which is far sharper and more modern.
(less)

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Sep 24, 2011 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a collection of du Maurier's earliest work, along with one later published story, and while the stories presented here are clearly not as advanced as her more famous novels, the writing is just as gripping. The characters she depicts are as real and intriguing as any of her other creations, and many of them featured in this book I would gladly read more about in a fuller length work. Reading these stories, written by a young woman in her late teens/early twenties, it is no surprise that...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Audra (Unabridged Chick) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: heroine-unlikable, mood-dark-and-twisted, place-uk, skeletons-in-the-closet, short-stories, tres-amusing

Daphne du Maurier is one of my patron saints, one of the handful of writers who indelibly shaped me and my tastes in literature, so I expected I'd love this collection of 'lost' short stories. I wasn't disappointed: the pieces here are wry and a little dark and deliciously British. These stories span her career, from her start to her post-Rebecca and post-The Birds days, and it's really exciting to see her entire career captured here.

While du Maurier is known for her deliciously Gothic novels,...more

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Aug 28, 2011 Ivan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've only read the titular story - but it's riveting entertainment; very dark and macabre. A man becomes obssessed with a woman who toys with his affections. What's macabre about that? Well, she has this mechanical male doll named Julio in the other room, life sized and fully funtional (if you get my drift). This is only 15 pages long, but full of suspense and dread. I haven't read the rest of the stories in this collection.

I have several collections of Lady Browning's stories - partly because t...more

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Nov 30, 2012 John Newcomb rated it 3 of 5 stars

There seems to be alot of gushing reviews of this collection. I love DDM. I think she is one of the finest amongst English Short Story Writers (although perhaps not one of the finest short story writers in English Fitzgerald, Joyce, Narayan, Wilde, Mansfield etc are masters of the genre). But there is a reason why these stories were "lost" and why the scrupulous writer did not have them republished. They are not very good (with the possible exception of The Limpet). The pre war anti Semitism whi...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While this collection of short stories is making a name for itself based on the racy titular story, it is all the other stories that have been long lost or forgotten that Daphne wrote at such a young age and showed the writer that she was to become that made it memorable to me. Things we have come to know and love as distinctly Du Maurier are present in these earliest writings. Nameless characters who we connect with so readily. Bleak situations. The foibles and follies of humanity. The clash of...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Recommendation One: Read this stories with some space of time between them. Their themes, especially those relating to male and female dynamics become quite samey in several of the stories. It is as she is working out a basic idea about how people are drawn together and then repelled by each other, but playing it in different keys. None of them quite jive though.

Recommendation Two: Don't go into this expecting the mastery of Rebecca, but rather as a storm cloud signifying the coming of that maj...more Recommendation One: Read this stories with some space of time between them. Their themes, especially those relating to male and female dynamics become quite samey in several of the stories. It is as she is working out a basic idea about how people are drawn together and then repelled by each other, but playing it in different keys. None of them quite jive though.

Recommendation Two: Don't go into this expecting the mastery of Rebecca, but rather as a storm cloud signifying the coming of that major work.

Besides this collection of stories, the only work I have read by du Maurier is Rebecca, which by nearly all accounts is her greatest. This book features a quotation from some review, perhaps one in the New York Time, which proclaims du Maurier as one of the literary giants of the 20th century. That is a stretch. Quite a long stretch at that. I find myself falling in a camp between those who want to elevate her the giant status and those who want to dismiss her as having little literary merit. These stories do foreshadow what I think of as her greatest talent, the ability to craft a taut story. However, for all the commentary concerning the author's keen psychological insight, I just don't see it. Neither here or in Rebecca. She seems to be able to describe one type of relationship, those between men and women who are separated by an inability to understand each other, or more to the point, an unwillingness to understand each other. True, the stories display the tautness of a well written short stories, but something is missing when one compares them to the stories of a writer such as Eudora Welty, Catherine Mansfield or Peter Taylor. These are short story writers who truly had keen psychological insight, and compassion. And in the case especially of Welty and Taylor, a light touch and deft touches of humor.

Despite all the comments I read about the creepiness and the revolutionary nature of the title story, "The Doll," I found it one of the weakest, and not at all creepy. And not at all revolutionary. Anyone who believes that du Maurier was doing anything ahead of her time, seems to have missed out on on Anais Nin, Henry Miller, and Jean Genet to name just a few. Or to name an earlier master of perversity, Beckford. Perverse as the character Rebecca is, the story lacks the chill that I expected. Want creepy short story, I recommend you read Truman Capote's "Miriam." Then, compare the two. Capote, a gifted writer and one of the great wasted talents of his generation, knew the fine line between saying and suggesting. "The Doll" leaves me cold. "Miriam" leaves me with chills.

I suppose one can say that some of what is wanting it these stories is indicative of the author's age when she wrote them; she was in her early twenties. However, compare again, but this time to Jane Austen and Francoise Sagan. (less)

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Apr 06, 2012 Patricia Stewart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: daphne-du-maurier

I have finished the short stories written early in Daphne du Maurier's career from 1926 - 1932, but published much later.

Small snippets of personal thought and conversation surround and are contained in each story of "The Doll House". The reader feels she is outside an opened window or door and overhears what one should walk away from - but one stays and listens to feelings thick and heavily laden with the truth in the place the characters call home.

from: "A Difference in Temperament" - Life is...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Judith Winters rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a series of 13 short stories by Daphne du Maurier collected in one volume after being originally published in periodicals during the 1930's. After reading "Rebecca" twice I knew what type of writing to suspect and sure enough this small volume of earlier works does not disappoint. Some of the stories were humorous, but a funny type of humor with others being slightly macabre on a 1930's level. In looking at the long list of other Daphne du Maurier books, I definitely want to read more....more

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Oct 30, 2012 Stephanie Jobe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Alright I am going to do this story by story. This is always harder I can’t give much of a blurb for a short story without giving anything away and her writing has always defied description for me. I can remember reading Rebecca in school and realizing afterwards that piece of information you never receive, but you also don’t realize it is missing. Rebecca is one of the few books from school that I really want to reread.

“East Wind”

An idyllic island village cut off from the world and living the s...more

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May 21, 2013 Mariano Hortal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-horror, genre-short-story, british-literature

Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/el-muneco/

No puedo ocultar que tenía muchas ganas de coger este primer título del sello Fábulas de Albión. Y la espera ha valido y mucho la pena. “El muñeco” consta de una recopilación de cuentos perdidos que fueron encontrados en 2010 por la librera de Fowey Ann Willmore cuando descubrió el relato homónimo y otros que están fechados anteriormente al que fue el gran éxito de la escritora inglesa Daphne Du Maurier (1907-1989): “Rebeca”.
Pilar Adón, en el pról...more Publicado en http://lecturaylocura.com/el-muneco/

No puedo ocultar que tenía muchas ganas de coger este primer título del sello Fábulas de Albión. Y la espera ha valido y mucho la pena. “El muñeco” consta de una recopilación de cuentos perdidos que fueron encontrados en 2010 por la librera de Fowey Ann Willmore cuando descubrió el relato homónimo y otros que están fechados anteriormente al que fue el gran éxito de la escritora inglesa Daphne Du Maurier (1907-1989): “Rebeca”.
Pilar Adón, en el prólogo, nos muestra las claves de la escritura de Du Maurier, ya patente desde estos primeros relatos:
“Si algo caracteriza a los personajes de Daphne Du Maurier es la obsesión. Su turbulenta personalidad que hace de ellos unos seres sufrientes víctimas de su propia ira y de su frustración, y responsables de actos que, en los momentos previos al delirio, ellos mismos habrían considerado odiosos. Innombrables.”
En esta excepcional antología de cuentos entre sus obsesivos y personajes nos encontramos “mujeres infieles que se ven arrastradas por un impulso irracional en un medio salvaje de tintes míticos; hombres santos que incitan al suicidio a criaturas más débiles, cuyo mayor error fue el acercarse a ellos en busca de una asesoramiento piadoso y de ayuda; madres que aborrecen la juventud de sus hijas y que no soportan el terror ante la pérdida de su propia tersura y belleza…”.
“En ellos, la suma de elementos cotidianos origina situaciones de una tensión insoportable (acompañadas, eso sí, de un humor agridulce y profundamente perturbador), que rara vez desembocan en un final feliz. Se sirve además de sus dos recursos más habituales: la dilación y el paisaje. Ambos son valiosísimos. Mediante la dilación aplaza los momentos clave y juega con la anticipación del lector, que se deleita en la adivinación, en el uso de la deducción y en la identificación con los personajes. Por otra parte, el paisaje actúa como reflejo de las tensiones humanas y, a la vez, como su posible desencadenante.”
En “Viento del Este”, el primero de los cuentos de la recopilación tenemos un ejemplo muy claro de la utilización del paisaje que habla Pilar Adón, en este caso a través de una isla, endogámica y aislada, un protagonista más de la narración:
“Solo existía la isla. Más allá se extendía lo espectral, lo intangible; la verdad se hallaba en la roca oscurecida, en el tacto de la tierra, en el ruido de las olas que rompían contra los precipicios. Esa era la creencia de los humildes pescadores, quienes durante el día lanzaban sus redes, y durante la noche chismorreaban encaramados a la pared del estuario sin dedicar ni un solo pensamiento a las tierras que había al otro lado del mar.”
En el magnífico cuento homónimo, el segundo de la antología, tenemos el ejemplo más claro del uso de la dilación mezclada con un anticipo de lo que sería su novela más famosa:
“Rebeca – Rebeca, cuando pienso en ti con tu rostro ardiente y pálido, tus enormes ojos fanáticos como los de una santa, la boca delgada que escondía tus dientes, puntiagudos y blancos como el mármol, y la aureola de cabello salvaje, eléctrico, oscuro y descontrolado -, nunca ha existido nadie tan hermoso.”
Estos dos primeros relatos, excepcionales, no ocultan que están más emparentados con la tradición de los cuentos góticos y de terror, solo podemos asombrarnos ante la perversidad del segundo de ellos con un final cargado de tensión y pulsión ante la obsesión fetichista más a allá de lo terrenal de la protagonista.
A partir de ahí a una relajación en lo truculento como en ese “Y ahora a Dios nuestro padre” donde Du Maurier cambia radicalmente de registro para mostrarnos una historia de un hombre santo con ansias de notoriedad cueste lo que cueste, aunque sea trágico para alguna feligresa: “Se perdió en la belleza de su propia voz. Al cabo se detuvo, y terminó con una nota de suprema victoria. El mundo le pertenecía.”
Eclecticismo, tanto en lo estilístico como en lo temático, es lo que caracteriza el resto de relatos como esa narración epistolar “Y sus cartas se volvieron más frías” donde utiliza las cartas, escritas unidireccionalmente de un amante a la persona de la que se enamora reflejando mediante continuas elipsis que nosotros, como lectores, rellenamos lo que falta del relato; la obsesión pasa de uno a otro extremo y asistimos extasiados a una narración cargada de ironía.
O el espléndido igualmente “La lapa” donde la manipulación del encantador personaje no consigue, a pesar de su inteligencia, los objetivos deseados. O el paradójico “Nada duele mucho tiempo” donde refleja el dolor de una esposa ante la llegada de un marido que no la apreciará como ella necesita. Narraciones que olvidan la base del terror para mostrarnos la cotidianeidad de situaciones reales que, desgraciadamente, no acaban nunca de manera satisfactoria para los personajes.
Poco puedo decir más de esta recopilación proverbial; donde tenemos cuentos que van de lo bueno a lo excepcional y que, desde luego, sobresalen por su perversidad inherente. Una delicia para cualquier amante del género.
Los textos vienen de la traducción del inglés de Marian Womack para esta edición.(less)

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Mar 04, 2013 Blair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-on-kindle, short-stories

The Doll is a compliation of 'lost' short stories by Daphne du Maurier, most written early in her career and either published or discovered much later. It's safe to say this is a mixed bag, and not a book I would recommend to readers who aren't already familiar with du Maurier's stories. While I enjoyed the majority of the tales in this collection, they are very different to those I have found in other collections by the author: many of them are about relationships, and the tone of most is more...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Daphne duMaurier is one of my great literary idols. So when a book of her "lost" short stories was recently published, I was about to pop! I got my hands on it as soon as I could. Luckily I prepared myself beforehand for the possibility that these stories might not be her best work. Her best work was published when she was alive and had some control over what went out into the world. These stories, though signature duMaurier work, strike me as the ones the author wrote and rejected herself for p...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Amy Sturgis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, gothic

This is a collection of some of Daphne du Maurier's earliest works. While it's a bit uneven, as you'd expect, all of the stories are solid, and some are truly excellent.

The standout stories, in my opinion, are the following:

"East Wind" reads a bit like Du Maurier is channeling H.P. Lovecraft. It's a haunting, harrowing sketch. Just lovely.

"And Now to God the Father" is a brilliantly dark and cynical look at the vain and self-satisfied worldly ambition of a vicar who serves man instead of God. T...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Cindy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: anthology, female-authors

Some undiscovered Daphne du Maurier stories, along with other obscure ones. Story of their discovery in The Guardian: Lost Daphne du Maurier stories discovered, including this bit: "Most startling among them is "The Doll", published in 1928 when Du Maurier was barely into her 20s – a macabre short story about a man who discovers that the girl he's smitten with is besotted with a mechanical sex doll."

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Jun 01, 2013 Anna rated it 2 of 5 stars

Du Maurier was obviously playing around with characters and themes she liked, the desolate and hopeless, the low and their lot in life. Not ground breaking but interesting in points. Hard not to find the story 'Doll' ridiculously tame. A story of what is supposed to read of an obsessed man being horrified by the depravity of the object of his love is not terribly shocking. It does not stand up to the changing times. Or my imagination which may be a lot sicker than Du Maurier's.

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Jun 18, 2012 Linda K K rated it 4 of 5 stars

All written by the age of 23, Daphne Du Murier shows a superb deft hand at short story writing in this recently published collection.

As a huge fan of "Rebecca" as well as most of her other books, I was excited to discover these, and with the exception of one or two rather strange ones, they did not disappoint. She is quite insightful into the psychology of relationships as well as the depth of the human mind to manipulate as well as to justify its' actions.

A terrific group of stories and well re...more

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About Daphne du Maurier

If Daphne du Maurier had written only Rebecca, she would still be one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Few writers have created more magical and mysterious places than Jamaica Inn and Manderley, buildings invested with a rich character that gives them a memorable life of their own.

In many ways the life of Daphne du Maurier resembles that of a fairy tale. Born int...more If Daphne du Maurier had written only Rebecca, she would still be one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Few writers have created more magical and mysterious places than Jamaica Inn and Manderley, buildings invested with a rich character that gives them a memorable life of their own.

In many ways the life of Daphne du Maurier resembles that of a fairy tale. Born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, the daughter of a famous actor-manager, she was indulged as a child and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint. She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, who married her.

Her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. While Alfred Hitchcock's film based upon her novel proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.

Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England, Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: a Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.

While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love or fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.

In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image or a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.

In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story. The nameless heroine has been saved from a life of drudgery by marrying a handsome, wealthy aristocrat, but unlike the Prince in Cinderella, Maxim de Winter is old enough to be the narrator's father. The narrator thus must do battle with The Other Woman - the dead Rebecca and her witch-like surrogate, Mrs Danvers - to win the love of her husband and father-figure. The fantasy of this novel is fulfilled when Maxim confesses to the narrator that he never loved Rebecca; indeed, he hated her, a confession that allows the narrator to emerge triumphantly from the Oedipal triangle.

http://www.dumaurier.org/obituary.html (less)

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“Then all at once she turned to me, her face pale, her eyes strangely alight. She said, “Is it possible to love someone so much, that it gives one a pleasure to hurt them? To hurt them by jealousy, I mean, and to hurt myself at the same time. Pleasure and pain, an equal mingling of pleasure and pain, just as an experiment, a rare sensation?” — 1 person liked it

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