The du Mauriers

by Daphne du Maurier

When Daphne du Maurier wrote The du Mauriers she was only thirty years old and had already established herself as both a biographer and a novelist. She wrote this epic biography during a vintage period in her career, between two of her best-loved novels: Jamaica Inn and Rebecca. Her aim was to write the story of her family 'so that it reads like a novel.'

Spanning nearly three quarters of a century, The du Mauriers is a saga of artists and speculators, courtesans and military men. From England to Paris and back again, their fortunes varied as wildly as their ambitions. An extraordinary family of writers, artists and actors they are...The du Mauriers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Classics, Memoir, History, British Literature, Historical

336 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Daphne du Maurier was born on 13 May 1907 at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, London, the middle of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel, née Beaumont. In many ways her life resembles a fairy tale. Born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, her paternal grandfather was author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the 1894 novel Trilby, and her mother was a maternal niece of journalist, author, and lecturer Comyns Beaumont. She and her sisters were indulged as a children and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint. Her elder sister, Angela du Maurier, also became a writer, and her younger sister Jeanne was a painter.

She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. 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, whom she married.

She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels 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 of 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 of 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.

Reviews

[TBV (on hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This offering is neither fish nor fowl. Is it nonfiction or fiction? It is meant to be a biography of several generations of the du Maurier family, but it is highly fictionalised and the end result is puerile.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading Daphne du Maurier's The du Mauriers but in the introduction, it mentioned the book she wrote of her father after his death, so I decided to read that before reading this story. I am a big fan of her books and I find her family fascinating and her fictionalized history of them outstanding. After reading "Gerald: A Portrait", I understood her father better and her family history, yet I had questions like why is George named Kicky and that was answered as well how he meet his wife, and telling all about the all the family members. So having read "MaryAnne"and "The Glass Blowers", which are about her parental great, great grandparents history but missing was the remaining story of her great grandparents and the rest of her grandparents' story, that was the in between and prior to "Gerald". The family history is now quite complete in how much Daphne tells us.

Several things stand out, The du Maurier men were dreamers and that they did not think or plan for the future, only the present and vague ideas of the future but George du Maurier was the first since the great, great grandfather and his father, to see that he may dream but that he must produce so that poverty is not part of the problem. Their women bore the brunt of a very trying economy and for the children to not meet abject poverty, but they denied themselves basic needs so that their children could thrive, though many times the more was asked of them which caused them hardship. Daphne brings the point home that if Mary Anne Clarke did not demand more from her royal lover or disclosure would be forced, her selling of her body prevented her grandchildren from being possibly lost and starving. Ellen resented her mother, for they were different as night and day but she finally appreciated and saw that her children had a chance because of this foresighted blackmail which was an annuity payments until Ellen's death. Ellen had thought her childless sister-in-law, Louise du Maurier had really no worries which showed Ellen's limited understanding of her amount of care to her nephew, Gygges. Louise was more his mother to him than Ellen, who basically gave him to Louise, who also went without so that he could have what he needed and helped with his debts. Ellen was upset when she became pregnant with Gyggy because Kicky had all her hopes and dreams, knowing that funds were limited. It was heart breaking to see the attitudes of his parents because who knows if extra attention might have helped him break had habits in his youth.

I enjoyed the stories of The du Maurier men and feelings towards animals and general want to have friends not enemies.

Daphne talks about George du Maurier's loss of sight in his left eye and his worries about his right eye, in "Gerald: A Portrait"; in "The du Mauriers" we find out that his loss was all of a sudden and retinal detachment was confirmed. Back in that time surgery or laser correction was not discovered yet, so his loss was inevitable. Though I am not an artist, I can understand his worries because I would be like him, but having lived more 150 years later where surgery saved my eyesight but I did see blackness in a large part of my vision.

I find it funny when reading people are mentioned in books that I am reading and I have just recently learned about them in another book. Jimmy Whistler, as Kicky called him shared a room/studio, so it was interesting hearing these comments about the artist. Kicky wanted to be a great artist but was not masterful enough to succeed, he felt he would never find his way until his friend, Tom Armstrong told Kicky, he would be great in "Punch" magazine. Kicky as a kid drew caricatures which shows how are basic talents are not always appreciated until much later.

How George's Trilby and his other books came to paper and how his characters based many times on people he knew. George goes back to his beloved home in France but sees they do change and going back home is not always a homecoming.

Why discuss settlements before a marriage? It was important back then because some men and women were fortune hunters and were kind and loving, thinking they would win a spouse with money to pay their debts and ways. One relative learned this the hard way, yet another who thought she was clever after a disappointment to her husband's ability paid the price in her way.

The story in short- MaryAnne and Ellen are to live in Paris and The du Maurier family is returning back to France after a long absence, families become intertwined in Paris.

This indeed is an ultimate favorite of mine. I love Daphne and will pick up her fictional books in the future and finish them all at some point but these fictionalized versions of her family are indeed a favorite of mine.💖

[Doronike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visticamāk ar šo grāmatu nu jau man būs gana di Morjē daiļrades - savu lasīšanas plānu būšu izpildījusi. Di Morjē daiļradi var iedalīt divās lielās tēmās - romāns vai stāsts ar negaidītu pavērsienu, bieži mistikas vai pat šausmu apdvests, un vēsturiskie romāni ar piedzīvojumu elementiem. Di Morjē neinteresēja nosacītais "mūsdienu" romāns un, pēckara gados nākot tam modē, viņa sūkstījās par savu iziešanu no aprites. No mana viedokļa di Morjē vēsturiskie romāni nav tik spēcīgi, taču konkrētais "The du Mauriers" ir uz robežas starp romānu un dzimtas vēsturi, konkrētāk - tā ir di Morjē dzimtas sāga beletrizētā formā, kas daiļdarba uzrakstīšanas brīdī (1937) bija gana novatoriska. Centrālais tēls romānā ir Dafnes vectēvs Džordžs di Morjē - sava laika pazīstams karikatūrists un arī pāris slavenu romānu autors - taču stāstījums sākas ar atkāpi līdz pat Džordža vecaimātei Mērijai Ennai, kas bija Anglijas karaliskās ģimenes kurtizāne.
Di Morjē ir lieliska raksturotāja, viņas tēli ir dzīvi un darbīgi. Jāsaka gan, ka di Morjē ir bijusi iesprostota pienākumā turēties pie reāliem faktiem, tādēļ brīžiem viņai vienkārši nav telpas, kur izpausties. Un ļoti jau daudz par naudu - di Morjē dzimta sitas kā plika pa nātrēm, jo viņiem galvas pārpilnas ar idejām, bet makos staigā vējš.
Romāns domāts tiem, kam interesē di Morjē personība, un arī ģimenes sāgu cienītājiem.

[denudatio_pulpae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Anne Clarke po wybuchu skandalu zostaje zmuszona do zniszczenia wszystkich dokumentów związanych z księciem Yorku, w zamian za dożywotnią rentę. Skompromitowana kobieta sprzedaje swój dobytek aby spłacić wierzycieli i opuszcza Anglię. Na szczęście jej córka Ellen, główna bohaterka tej książki, jest zupełnym przeciwieństwem charakteru matki. Młoda kobieta zaprzyjaźnia się z nauczycielką z pensji, Louise Busson du Maurier i wkrótce poślubia jej brata, Louisa-Mathurina du Maurier. Para doczeka się trójki dzieci – w tym George’a, dziadka autorki.

Książka na pewno bardziej strawna niż historia Mary Anne Clarke, ale nadal to biograficzna powieść o przodkach autorki, a ich losy nie są zbyt porywające. Czy to jest wada? Właściwie nie, jeżeli ktoś ma ochotę na najzwyczajniejszą pod słońcem historię rodziny, opierającą się głównie na problemach finansowych poszczególnych jej członków.
6/10

[Carla]

An enchanting account of Daphne du Maurier's family -- starting with the slum-goddess Mary Anne who tantalizes a Duke, and ending with her grandson, George du Maurier, noted caricaturist and author of Trilby (and incidentally a great friend of James, "Jimmie," Whistler.) Du Maurier's ability to inhabit her characters, is extraordinary; and by the end of this short book, I hated to part with any of them.

[Laura Alderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and enjoyable book about the du Maurier family in the 18th and 19th centuries, in France, Germany, England and Belgium. A middle class family, largely down on their luck through the procrastination of various men in the family who struggle to focus on work. Observations on the difficulties for women of this class; unable to work, they were largely reliant on others in their family to support them. Reads like historical fiction, which it largely is, with real characters in it nevertheless.

[Debbie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daphne du Maurier is one on my favorite authors, so I really enjoyed this history of her family!

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of historical fiction and family history.

[Nightwitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novelized historical saga of the du Maurier family by a scion of theirs. Pleasant, easy read; lots of conversations, which I assume were fictionalized, and, later in the story, excerpted letters, which I assume were not. I dimly recall reading du Maurier's Mary Anne, which I believe was far more fictionalized than this, but this is still definitely fiction rather than history. Not necessarily worth seeking out unless you're wildly interested in the Victorians or the du Mauriers, but an interesting look at a family "type" you see rarely - because du Maurier was determined to be historically accurate, she doesn't gloss over the fact that these people were frequently mean to each other, irresponsible, and wildly desperate to cast off their ignoble origins (or to assert their far-more-than-noble origins, however untrue they might have been). Not sorry I read it, but not a reread.

[Lucia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un'opera acerba ma allo stesso tempo interessante,non solo per le figure femminili estremamente caratterizzate ma anche per lo sviluppo delle tematiche familiari, soprattutto per quanto riguarda il rapporto genitore-figlio, e per la puntuale descrizione di un'epoca ottocentesca con le sue contraddizioni e imperfezioni.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea that Daphne du Maurier was a direct descendant of Mary Anne Clarke (who, like so many people who had made England too hot to hold them, sought refuge on the Continent), or that her father George studied alongside Alma-Tadema or shared a London studio with Whistler! It's a bizarre and colourful family history, and you can see why she wanted to novelise it. If all the letters quoted are original rather than authorial invention, she clearly had an extraordinary archive to work from.

I'm not sure it quite works as a historical novel, because it jumps around too much. It's not a family saga type story (though perhaps it is trying to be), and it's not Ellen's story, as perhaps it could have been (though that would have been a depressing and embittered narrative). It's really covering too much material from too many points of view to be effective, I think, presumably because the author had such a wealth of events to choose from. The beginning, with the child Ellen, is very vivid (and, one assumes, almost entirely fictionalised; none of those details would have been recorded!) and could easily have been the start of a novel. But then we drift away into various other people who affect her life -- all of them shown with great understanding and sympathy, however they feel about one another -- and the book loses its immediacy of narrative and becomes more of a memoir. It's no longer a direct window onto events as they are happening, but more of a diffuse summary of what happened.

The other focussed section, as others have commented, is at the end, when she writes about her father's youth. This is again less vividly immediate, since by and large she is not reconstructing an imagined individual scene but describing a whole period or way of life (one can imagine with hindsight how it might have been if she had been writing it as fiction, giving a specific scene with a local shopkeeper rather than saying that they were all kind, etc), but it focuses in on a single character and point of view again, which helps to make it more of a story.

If nothing else, the book has inspired me with a curiosity to read George due Maurier's long-forgotten novel "Peter Ibbetson", which we had on the shelves for years in an ancient Victorian edition - I wonder if I can still lay my hands on it, or if we got rid of it unread? Apparently it was a thinly veiled account of his own childhood experiences and acquaintances in 19th century Paris.

And the family history hooked me enough for me to gallop through it in a couple of days. I'm just not sure the book is quite either fish or fowl, and with hindsight feel there might have been a powerful novel to be had out of limited episodes in it. (Also, I now want to reread Daphne du Maurier's "Mary Anne", which I read as a child as pure historical fiction and didn't even associate with her other, 'adult' novels which would have had no appeal at the time...)

[Alex Pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Du Maurier tells her family history as a novel, which I really like as a literary concept. There are certainly enough flamboyant characters to justify it. Mary Anne Clarke was Daphne’s great-great-grandmother and the infamous mistress of Frederick, Duke of York (second son of George III). The novel reflects on her transition from dazzling belle of society, to older and often scandalous, scorned woman. Ellen (Du Mauriers great grandmother) is the real heroine of the book. It follows her battle to sustain her family on the annuity/‘hush money’ provided by the Duke of York to buy Mary Anne’s silence regarding the affair.

Ellen just about manages to keep the family afloat against the odds of a frivolous husband, 3 children and a loose cannon of a mother. Ellen’s eldest ‘Kicky’ George Du Maurier, is somewhat lost as a young man before eventually finding his place at the satirical magazine ‘Punch’ and going on to write the Gothic novel ‘Trilby’. Her second son, ‘Gyggy’ was an unreliable army man, constantly in need of money to remedy the perils of gambling. Ellen fights hard to make a respected lady of her only daughter Isobel, despite the influence of Mary Anne and other ‘silly women’ of the family.

Daphne was 30 when she wrote this novel and it was sandwiched between 'Jamaica Inn' and 'Rebecca'. It lacks some of the pace of her fictional novels but the characterisation of her relatives somewhat makes up for it. Worth a read for any fellow Daphne worshippers.

[Jean Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give very few 4's...and this may be a bit short of that but I really enjoyed it. Loving Daphne DuMaurier, I found reading about her (very interesting) ancestors a pleasure. Her writing, as always, is compelling. Her grandfather was George (Kicky) who perhaps would be considered the 'main' character but the characters weave in and out, each with it's own story line.
She wrote a book about her father which I want to read.

[Tansy Hepton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting somewhat fictionalised biography. Well written, easy to read with good characters - warts and all. It helps if your ancestors have a good story to tell! But I like that it's about them, not the famous people they mixed with. Slightly disappointed with the final pages, although I'm not sure what it needed instead, perhaps a little self reflection?

[Leila Kern · Rating 5 out of 5]

It had been many, many years since I read this book. However, I love Daphne du Maurier as a writer (remembering Rebecca) and I was not disappointed in reading this book. The story has intrigue, comedic moments and, yes, sadder moments but was very entertaining. Today’s world has nothing on the du Maurier family history. I loved this book and will place it back in my library.

[Caroline Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My elderly Penguin copy from 1949 describes this as 'biography' which is perhaps an exaggeration. Daphne du Maurier reimagines the lives of her ancestors as historical fiction. It is entertaining, not always flattering and often tongue in cheek. I really enjoyed it and it has encouraged me to return to her novels, perhaps on my next trip to Cornwall. The Penguin copy, inherited from my Mum, is heading to a friend who is interested in reading it.

[Toni Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Daphne du Maurier, but this is not one of her best works. It follows her ancestors.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely interesting, but also definitely hard to keep characters straight, and often quite confusing.
Definitely interesting family!

[Abby]

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[Dils AB · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novelization based on Daphne Du Maurier, great grandmother, grandmother and father.

It is more on her grand mother and her father as her great grandmother already have a standalone book on her own. Her great grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke was a mistress to the Duke of York. Her grandfather Louis Mathurin married Mary daughter, Ellen. Louis Mathurin was a dreamer and good for nothing kinda person while Ellen is a person long disillusioned by life due to the exposure she got from her mother world.

She painted a critical look of her ancestors. I like it. I know of many Louis Mathurin and Ellen of the worlds and understand their struggle, and seeing it written it is almost she is only critical of Ellen harshness and not Louis Mathurin irresponsibility. However I must say she must held both of them in great respect because in that age, there is only so little a woman could do. Not everyone could be Mary Anne.

Her writing of his father is almost sympathetic and apologetic to all his failings. It was said she adored his father exceedingly and it showed.

It was a good read and a nice novelization based on a real life of bourgeois French and English people. Enjoyed it immensely and I always felt sorry for Ellen and Louis. Sometimes, women do have all the ill luck and all the responsibility.

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brings the epoch and her forbears to life, vividly. The final pages are very moving. This continues her family biography from where 'The Glass Blowers', similarly a family history, leaves off. 'The Du Mauriers' is more limited in scope because the focus is entirely on the family, and barely touches the general events of the era (19th century), whereas 'The Glass Blowers' is as much about the events of the era (pre-Napoleonic to post-Napoleonic) as on the family personages. Great drama and clarity about the people (some family correspondence quoted, much research done by her). Much sadness in some cases, and much joy in others. As with most lives. The beginning and the end move fairly quickly. The middle portion is a bit of a slog, but the reader (or at least me) pushed on anyway out of curious. Glad I stuck with it.

[Grizel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novelized account of DuMaurier's family history, starting with Mary Anne Clarke, mistress of the Duke of York at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The most astounding revelation is that at least three generations of DuMauriers were able to essentially live off the hush money she received: not because it was a lot (at least it doesn't sound like it was)but because three generations of DuMauriers were incapable of gainful employment.
The most depressing part is the story of Aunt Louise. Between that and the rest of the family's attempts to leech off various friends and relatives, this book should keep most people's interest until the end.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to assign a genre to this, but my instinct is to ascribe it to historical fiction. It's often put under non-fiction, and biography, but these stories of her ancestors are really quite fictionalised, it seems to me - in their thoughts and emotions and so on. Just because a story's about a historical personage doesn't make it strictly biographical, I think. Certainly the biographies I read tend to have more of the reference about them.

Either way, it's an interesting read. The family members are certainly entertaining characters!

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biographical, yes. A clear picture of the DuMauriers, not so much. Wonderfully written for the most part, of course. A great read, no. A perfectly wonderful read for anyone who is a lifelong fan of Daphne Du Maurier, absolutely. Makes the reader more eager than ever to learn more of the fascinating family and their background.

[Linda Orvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography written by Daphne du Maurier when she was famous. The du Mauriers were an artistic, interesting family. Daphne pulls no punches in her biographies, and makes her family believable and human.

[Hina Fatima · Rating 3 out of 5]

A family history as suggested by the name with characters brought vividly to life by Daphne Du Maurier. Very interesting at the beginning but it becomes a bit of a drag midway through the book.