I can’t say that I get Daphne du Maurier confused with Patricia Highsmith a lot, but sometimes I have to stop and think, Now, wait a minute, which one wrote “The Doll?”
The two author’s styles are very similar. And the atmosphere, my god—the eeriness, of course . . . yes. You could pick any one story, written by either author, and easily imagine the other to have written it. There is the stepping up to a line, the line of civility? Stability? Sanity? There is the psychological suspense, the question, Will the character (the author) step across into the bizarre? The unknown? The yet-to-be explored? Each author flirts with (should I say pets or fondles, even–Ok, I’m just being cheeky here, forgive me) the taboo. Especially during the time each was writing, they each explored areas that society deemed off limits in many respects, especially for women.
And yet, there is a certain envy, it seems, a giddiness that we feel as readers as we follow along. “Yes,” we whisper to ourselves. “Yes.” We yearn to step across that line. We are only readers, and can step safely aside at the last minute. We can feel the thrill as the person holding the camera tells the person she is photographing to take a couple more steps backward, ever closer to the cliff’s edge. We are voyeurs, after all, only that, nothing more . . . we can innocently watch. We can feel the thrill as the edge of the cliff begins to crumble beneath the heel of the person being photographed. Are we really witnessing a murder? Or is it merely an accident? Of course, when we see the photographer calmly pick up her things, when she picks up a towel and dabs the perspiration from her face and neck, and when she calmly and slowly starts back down the path, alone—well, then we know. It’s what we expected all along. It’s what we wanted, isn’t it? Well, isn’t it? Should we feel guilty? That tingling sensation, is that guilty pleasure? We can’t help but smile to ourselves. Yes! Whatever it is, whatever we call it, the feeling, we enjoy it. The ending is just what we hoped it would be—And we want more!
The scene above is, if I’m remembering correctly, from a short story by Daphne du Maurier. I believe the story is in the collection of stories titled Kiss Me Again, Stranger. I believe I’ve also seen this same collection titled with “The Birds,” which is, of course, another short story from the collection, and the story that Hitchcock used for the movie of the same title. Don’t jump into the story, “The Birds,” thinking it is the same as the movie, however, as only the main idea was used for the movie. The setting is different, most everything is different, except for the birds attacking people. The story is good, of course, just somewhat different. And the story came first, naturally.
My favorite story from this collection is the title story, “Kiss Me Again, Stranger.” This story is simply a good old-fashioned style ghost story. It is best to read the story, but a narration of the story is available on YouTube. I’ll provide the link here, but if that doesn’t work you can just do a search and it should pop up.
I have to warn you though, the narration isn’t the best. The speaker speaks clearly enough, but the story is slow, and the narrator is American. The narrator really should be a British speaker for this story, as that is the setting for the story, and the references to money are all British pounds, shillings, etc.
Another thing that bothers me is that the narrator stops in the middle of the narration to explain that when a reference is made to a “Mac” in the story the reference is to a coat and not a modern-day Apple computer. Really? I have to admit that I wondered whether modern readers/listeners would know that it was a coat being referred to—I had this thought just prior to the narrator breaking in with his aside. I still don’t think the comment was necessary, however. I would have just let it stand. Since the story was written in the forties or fifties, and by way of context, I believe most readers/listeners could figure the author wasn’t referring to a computer.
In any case, if you can’t get your hands on the written story, you can check out the narration. I guess it is better than nothing. Or even if you are just curious, give it a listen. I think the narrated story runs close to an hour.
I won’t get too much into the Patricia Highsmith side things here, as I’m quite sure everyone is at least vaguely aware of Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train novel, which is also a Hitchcock movie (another thing the authors have in common).
And then there are the Tom Ripley series novels, starting with The Talented Mr. Ripley. You might be familiar with these. I believe there is a TV series now featuring Ripley, though I haven’t watched it.
I will say, my favorite Highsmith novel would be The Cry of the Owl. This book was also made into a movie in the 1990s or early 2000s. The movie is not good. Julia Styles is in the movie, but this didn’t help. I’m not sure what the producers were thinking. They went for a nineties style take on a fifties style novel. A comedy type novel might have worked. This book was definitely not a comedy.
A Kind of Murder is another movie from one of Highsmith’s books. I don’t think it was a commercial success. It was made recently (within the last couple of years). In any case, I think they stuck close to the book’s style on that one.
A funny thought just hit me: I’ve only read novels of Patricia Highsmith, not any of her short stories. And I’ve only read short stories of Daphne du Maurier, just the two collections: Kiss Me Again, Stranger, and The Doll.
I do have a du Maurier short story collection called The Breaking Point, but have yet to read it. Looking forward to it.
I don’t remember much of the stories in the collection titled The Doll. “The Doll” was a very strange story, however.
So, am I the only person who has never read Rebecca? I do know the first line of the book. I think of Stephen King whenever I hear it. Did he reference it in an interview, or in his book On Writing? I don’t recall what he said, exactly, whether it was the most known first line ever, or the best first line ever. Anyway, whatever he said, and him saying the line cracks me up.
My favorite first line of any novel is most definitely the first line of The Martian, by Andy Weir. I won’t spoil it for you here. You’ll have to flip open the cover the next time you see a copy of the book. Now that is a memorable first line! It pulls you right into the story.
Oh, and as a final note, there is also a documentary about Daphne du Maurier on YouTube. I just watched it a little bit ago.
So, the question remains, what makes these two authors similar? Is it style? Is it that both were willing to explore the dark side of human nature, to push the envelope? For me it is the atmosphere. The suspense. Don’t we just love it though? Whatever it is.
I guess I would say style, or I’m leaning towards this at least. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to pin it down exactly. The two are definitely similar, eerily so, at least to my mind.