George du Maurier - Complete Works of George du Maurier

The Complete Works of

GEORGE DU MAURIER

(1834-1896)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2021

Version 1

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The Complete Works of

GEORGE DU MAURIER

By Delphi Classics, 2021

Complete Works of George du Maurier

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2021.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 91348 741 6

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Place du Chatelet, Paris by Etienne Bouhot, 1810 du Maurier was born in Paris in 1834, the son of Louis-Mathurin Busson du Maurier and Ellen Clarke, daughter of the Regency courtesan Mary Anne Clarke.

Du Maurier as a young man, c. 1870

Unlike most established authors of the Victorian era, George du Maurier came to novel writing very late. He had studied art in Paris, before moving to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost the vision of his left eye. He then reportedly studied chemistry at University College, London, before meeting Emma Wightwick, whom he eventually married in 1863, at St Marylebone, Westminster. Moving frequently over the course of their marriage, the couple first settled in Hampstead in 1869. Du Maurier had at this time become a member of staff at the British satirical magazine Punch , drawing two cartoons a week. His usual targets were the affected manners of Victorian society, the bourgeoisie and members of Britains growing middle class.

While producing black-and-white drawings for Punch , du Maurier created illustrations for several other popular periodicals, including Harpers , The Graphic , The Illustrated Times, The Cornhill Magazine and the religious periodical Good Words . In time, his deteriorating eyesight caused him to reduce his involvement with Punch , when he turned to novel writing instead. His first novel was Peter Ibbetson (1891), which enjoyed a modest success at the time and was later adapted for stage and screen, and even as an opera by the American composer Deems Taylor.

The novel is noted for its surprising blend of romance and realism, transporting the reader into a world of dreams and ideal beauty. The first chapters concern the heros life as a child in the country near Paris, where he lives contentedly with his parents and his delicate little friend Mimsey Seraskier, their neighbour. However, after the death of his father and mother, he is taken away by his uncle. The following years are spent at school in England. Peter quarrels with his ill-bred uncle and becomes a lonely, hard-working architect, employed in Yorkshire on a restoration job for the Duke of Towers, a peer of the realm. Troubles arise when he falls in love with Mary, the Duchess of Towers

Du Mauriers self portrait, c. 1879

The first edition

The original frontispiece

The 1935 film adaptation, starring Gary Cooper and Ann Harding

T HE WRITER OF this singular autobiography was my cousin, who died at the Criminal Lunatic Asylum, of which he had been an inmate three years.

He had been removed thither after a sudden and violent attack of homicidal mania (which fortunately led to no serious consequences), from Jail, where he had spent twenty-five years, having been condemned to penal servitude for life, for the murder of , his relative.

He had been originally sentenced to death.

It was at Lunatic Asylum that he wrote these memoirs, and I received the MS. soon after his decease, with the most touching letter, appealing to our early friendship, and appointing me his literary executrix.

It was his wish that the story of his life should be published just as he had written it.

I have found it unadvisable to do this. It would revive, to no useful purpose, an old scandal, long buried and forgotten, and thereby give pain or annoyance to people who are still alive.