In Praise of Daphne du Maurier
And here I am, only a silly sheltered girl in a dress, knowing nothing at all — but Nothing.”
But how far du Maurier ended up traveling, how deep she takes us into the strange cities and foreign lands within ourselves, into those emotions
that stay coiled out of view — our envy and resentment.
But to women — some women, my kind of women — this book is something more, not merely beloved or popular but foundational.
Few writers have watched and captured women with such conspicuous pleasure as
du Maurier — the way they walk and wear coats and unscrew their earrings.
Do you see what I mean?”
The trouble with walking in Venice, according to a character in du Maurier’s “Don’t Look Now,” is
that it becomes compulsive: “Just over the next bridge, you say, and then the next one beckons.” So it is with du Maurier.