“The point is, life has to be endured, and lived. But how to live it is the problem.”
― Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel
Daphne du Maurier was born on May 13th, 1907 at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park, London. She grew up in Cannon Hall in Hampstead, where she enjoyed a life of visits to the theatre, to restaurants, and on vacations. When she was home, there was always a round of parties and luncheon gatherings on the weekends with the theatrical celebrities of the day, as her mother was an actress, and her father an actor-manager. Daphne, however, was a solitary child and found this entertaining too much.
After a sporadic education with many schools and governesses, Daphne went to a small finishing school at the Villa Camposenea, Meudon, just outside of Paris, when she was eighteen. As a girl in her late teens and early twenties, she was very enthusiastic about her writing but was often distracted by offers of trips abroad and family commitments.
One thing Daphne was particularly interested in was her French ancestry and late grandfather George du Maurier, and would often listen to her father tell stories about him. Daphne could have easily made her second home in France and her writing could have taken a different path, but that changed when her mother took Daphne (as well as her sisters) to Cornwall in search of a new vacation home. Their new home was called Ferryside and Daphne would often stay there, alone, after her family’s vacations ended, to pursue her writing, which early-on consisted of poetry and short stories.
Eventually, her mother’s brother agreed to publish some of her short stories, poems, and essays in a magazine. In 1931, Daphne’s debut novel, The Loving Spirit, was published. A young army officer, Frederick Browning, known as Boy, read The Loving Spirit and went to Fowey, where Daphne lived, to meet the young woman who wrote the book. The two became close and eventually, Daphne proposed and they were married three months later in 1932.
In 1933, while struggling to be a wife, Daphne gave birth to her first child, Tessa. The following year, Daphne’s father died after a short illness and an operation for cancer from which he never recovered, inspiring Daphne to write a biography about him, Gerald: A Portrait, which was published in 1934. Boy and his family were posted to Egypt in 1936, and Daphne wrote to family and friends, telling them how unhappy she was.
While in Egypt, Daphne became quite unwell, and a visit to the doctor confirmed that she was pregnant again. To get away from the heat of Egypt, she traveled to Cyprus, which made her feel closer to her life in Cornwall. In 1937, Daphne gave birth to her daughter Flavia, and, in 1940, she gave birth to her final child, Christian.
Shortly after her novel Rebecca was published, there were claims that it was plagiarized, and Daphne had to travel to New York to give evidence in courts, and a few days later she went home because the case could not be proven.
Throughout her marriage, Daphne had been involved in several relationships; Boy was also having affairs, and right before their 25th wedding anniversary, Boy had a breakdown from the stress, but the pair eventually tried to make things right until 1965 when Boy died. Though their marriage had been through a lot, Daphne was absolutely devastated.
For as long as she could remember, Daphne’s life had been built on writing, so it was a tragedy, when, in her old age, she found herself unable to continue. She began to withdraw from her friends and life itself and died on April 16th, 1987.
Book Recommendation: Rebecca (1938)
PS: If it wasn’t clear in my last post, I’m highlighting the lives of some of my favorite authors and recommending some of my favorite books! The embedded links in the book recommendation section lead to summaries of the book(s) mentioned (these are spoiler free ones like on the back cover of a book).
Source: Daphne du Maurier
These books seem really interesting! I’ll definitely check them out if I ever get past my pile of nerd books. It’s also interesting to see the habits and events in Du Maurier’s life that led to her success, like her staying at the house in Cornwall to write.
Thank you for including the “PS” at the end, it really helped to clarify your objectives. I think it is cool that you are not just summarizing your favorite books, but taking it a step further and learning about the author. I especially think it is cool that since you are a STEM major, you can explore another side of yourself through these blogs!
I love this idea for a blog! So often when we read, we overlook that another person wrote every word we are reading, and that they have an entire life of their own. There is so much more to analyze in a book when you know why it was written. Her life sounds interesting without even mentioning her career as an author. It’s interesting to see how the wealthy lived in a different era, and that they were able to be so frugal with money! Reading about Daphne definitely made me more inclined to read her books!
I am someone who neglected reading for too long. I just started doing it again last semester. I always associated it with something that I had to do and forgot I could do it for my own pleasure. I started Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand over the break and recently finished it. I love to see other people reading because they enjoy it. It is something recently I have been loving. Atlas Shrugged is almost 1200 pages, and I tore through it. It clearly illustrates a certain type of philosophy, objectivism, and I would highly recommend it. I’m not trying to push her ideals onto anybody or give my opinion on them. It’s a book that, if you allow yourself to be open-minded and not just say, “that’s stupid, I don’t like that,” explores her philosophy in incredible detail and is a buffet of food for thought. It’s one of the most intellectually stimulating books I’ve ever read. Again, you do not have to agree with it, but it gives you a plethora of new ideas to explore.
I love this post as well as the idea behind the blog. This is such an interesting read and I think it’s important that we see the people behind what we read!!! I have been reading significantly more in college and I appreciate that you are going back to the classics. You write so beautifully and I truly enjoyed reading this post.
I feel like writers always have such interesting lives. Whether they seem tragic or happy or whatever. I don’t know if that’s just because everybody leads a somewhat interesting life or just that writers specifically lead interesting lives. It could also be because they were all rich growing up. Anyway, this was another very interesting post and I enjoyed reading it.