Don't Look Now
Stories
By Daphne du Maurier
Selected and with an introduction by Patrick McGrath



A dead child appears in the alleyways of Venice; routine eye surgery reveals the beast within to a meek housewife; nature in revolt against man's abuse turns a harmless species into a force that threatens humankind; a dalliance with a beautiful stranger offers something more dangerous than a broken heart. In Daphne du Maurier's stories, the stuff of everyday life—grief, the limits of self-knowledge, battles between the sexes, and environmental degradation—burst through the ordinary into the realm of the uncanny.

This new selection of du Maurier stories, chosen from the span of her extraordinarily fruitful career, represents the author at her most chilling and most psychologically astute, looking back to the Gothic masterpieces of the Brontës and forward to the work of Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. Here novelist Patrick McGrath revisits some of the best-known examples of du Maurier's output, like "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now," and unearths hidden gems—many of which have been unavailable for years. This book is an excellent introduction to one of the greatest storytellers of the twentieth century and a deeper exploration of one of its most prodigious imaginations.

Reviews

Her tales of the macabre are among the best of their genre.
— Michael Dirda

A crackerjack raconteuse…she takes the reader by the icy hand and leads him behind the curtain to view the characters on their ways to their own breaking points.
— The Saturday Review

Du Maurier served up more sinister fare than the Brontës…
— The New York Times Book Review

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I've just read it at the beginning of September! Great mystery stories, not too long and with real suspense. My favourite was "Stations of the Cross" (i am not sure if that was original title i've read it in Polish) - a complex study of human relations

It has to be said that I am not a great one for murder mysteries when it comes to literature, although on the screen I love them. ( I'm odd like that ) and Daphne's novels never seem to attract me somehow. I know they say never judge a book by it's cover, and to a large extent that is true, however, if a book does now draw my attention in anyway, I will not even see it to pick it up. If I don't pick it up I won't ever read it.

If I'm not instantaniously grabbed by the first page or two in a book I struggle to 'get into' them. I don't like books that keep my dilly dallying making little attempt to hold my attention or draw me into it's story until near the end where things inevitibaly become more interesting.

In the past I have found most detective, murder mysteries to be along those lines. Am I still correct in this? or have writers changed their ways?
Maybe it's just a lack of interest in the subject on my part? I'm not sure anymore.
Liz, Margo, Paul and Durga, if I'm wrong please tell me and tell me why

I think it's just a matter of personal taste. I've been reading mysteries since I was a little girl. The authors I read are adept at catching one's attention and keeping it right from the beginning. These writers are my favorites: Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine); Elizabeth George; George Simenon; P.D. James; Minette Walters. \

Trivia: The Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds was based on the short story in this book by the same title.

I always loved all the mysteries and detective stories. the fist pages are sometimes hard - not each author makes it easy for us to get to know the characters...

Jakki i hope You will not suffer while reading October's book - i didn't know You don't like mystery

No, don't worry Durga, I think for me it;s just not having found an author with a style of writing I can easily pick up upon.
I have the book on order now and are quite looking forward to reading it. this one sounds a little better for me