Product Description

The stories in this collection, some written before du Maurier published her first novel, reflect many human emotions: romance, disenchantment, fantasy, nostalgia, ambition, irony, the longing for adventure. Each of them is based on something observed, something overheard, and all will provide pleasure for every mood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65120 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Daphne du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

About the Author
Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.

Customer Reviews

14 short stories
This is a fantastic collection of 14 short stories that are set in various locations, France, London, Cornwall and Switzerland. All are areas that Du Maurier had visited in actual life. The tales are created from things she overheard or saw, then turned into the haunting tales that form this collection. Du Maurier made these tales seem like actual events, maybe because they come from snippets of her life which she then elaborated on to breathe life into them. From romance to ghostly tales, there is sure to be something for everyone to enjoy in this anthology.

Fabulous Collection of Interesting Short Stories
The Rendezvous and Other Stories is a collection of Daphne's earlier works. Some of them are inevitably therefore very short more musings than full stories yet that doesn't stop them being completely brilliant. For example `Panic' which is short but also incredibly dark and a little disturbing. `La Saintee-Vierge' is almost a fable in its own way looking at a woman's innocence.

`The Rendezvous', `No Motive' and `Split Second' are the three longest tales and though I didn't love `The Rendezvous' because all the characters annoyed me and I wanted to throttle several of them but it made me have a reaction. I did think that No Motive is a brilliant murder mystery of sorts and Split Second is one of the best tales with a twist of the whole collection. It does make you admire what a wonderful writer she was and how good she was so early on in her writing career.

There are a few duds I can't lie. I found `The Lover' slightly boring and it's a tale of a lover getting what he wants with older women that I have read a fair few times before and seemed a little bit contrived. I also hated `Angels and Archangels' it again seemed to be based on the sort of things that you have read a few times before about bad vicars and didn't seem to have Daphne's true voice ringing through it. These two were it has to be said the only ones I didn't like, oh no I tell a lie, I didn't like `Escort' which is possibly quite a brilliant ghost story but the words `submarine', `naval' and `war' really put me off.

However despite these three I didn't love most of the time I wanted the tales to be longer. In particular `No Motive' which is the first tale and is brilliant, `Adieu Sagesse' which I thought at the start I wouldn't enjoy but like all good Du Maurier's has a brilliant twist, mind you for her this was a very light and comical twist. Most of the time she has a serious dark undertone and quite a cynical outlook on life which is something that I really like about her work, she likes to look at a situation and then try and add some darker dynamic or undertone to it.