WRITER

Daphne du Maurier

1907 - 1989

Photo of Daphne du Maurier

Icon of person Daphne du Maurier

Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Daphne du Maurier has received more than 3,998,261 page views. Her biography is available in 60 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 55 in 2019). Daphne du Maurier is the 638th most popular writer (down from 619th in 2019), the 461st most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 492nd in 2019) and the 53rd most popular British Writer.

Daphne du Maurier is most famous for her novel "Rebecca" which was published in 1938. The novel is about a young woman who marries a widower and moves into his estate, Manderley. The estate is haunted by the memory of Rebecca, the first wife of the widower.

Memorability Metrics

  • 4.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 65.12

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 60

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.97

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.84

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The scapegoat
Aristocracy (Social class), British, Fiction
Someone jolted my elbow as I drank and said, 'Je vous demande pardon, ' and as I moved to give him space he turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realized, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well.I was looking at myself."Two men--one English, the other French--meet by chance in a provincial railway station and are astounded that they are so much alike that they could easily pass for each other. Over the course of a long evening, they talk and drink. It is not until he awakes the next day that John, the Englishman, realizes that he may have spoken too much. His French companion is gone, having stolen his identity. For his part, John has no choice but to take the Frenchman's place--as master of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a large and embittered family, and keeper of too many secrets.Loaded with suspense and crackling wit, "The Scapegoat" tells the double story of the attempts by John, the imposter, to escape detection by the family, servants, and several mistresses of his alter ego, and of his constant and frustrating efforts to unravel the mystery of the enigmatic past that dominates the existence of all who live in the chateau.
1957
My Cousin Rachel
Fiction, Romantic suspense fiction, Man-woman relationships
Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies suddenly. In almost no time at all, the new widow - Philip's cousin Rachel - turns up in England. Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious woman like a moth to the flame. And yet ...might she have had a hand in Ambrose's death?
1900
Mary Anne
Fiction, Women, Fiction in English
In Regency London, the only way for a woman to succeed is to beat men at their own game. So when Mary Anne Clarke seeks an escape from her squalid surroundings in Bowling Inn Alley, she ventures first into the scurrilous world of the pamphleteers. Her personal charms are such, however, that before long she comes to the notice of the Duke of York. With her taste for luxury and power, Mary Anne, now a royal mistress, must aim higher. Her lofty connections allow her to establish a thriving trade in military commissions, provoking a scandal that rocks the government - and brings personal disgrace.
1954
Rebecca
Married women, Cornwall (England : County), Fiction in English
With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.
1938
Frenchman's Creek
Fiction, Pirates
Jaded by the numbing politeness of Restoration London, Lady Dona St. Columb revolts against high society. She rides into the countryside, guided only by her restlessness and her longing to escape. But when chance leads her to meet a French pirate, hidden within Cornwall's shadowy forests, Dona discovers that her passions and thirst for adventure have never been more aroused. Together, they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which bestows upon Dona the ultimate choice: sacrifice her lover to certain death or risk her own life to save him. Frenchman's Creek is the breathtaking story of a woman searching for love and adventure who embraces the dangerous life of a fugitive on the seas.
1940
Jamaica Inn
Fiction, Smugglers, Detective and mystery stories
This is a gothic style period thriller about a young woman who is forced to join her aunt and her bullying husband at a remote inn in Cornwall when her mother dies. Mystified by the movements of her uncle and unable to explain why the inn is never open to customers, she eventually learns that she is in the midst of a gang of wreckers, people who lure passing ships onto the rocks and murder their crews in order to loot their cargoes.
1936

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Daphne du Maurier ranks 638 out of 7,302. Before her are Raymond Queneau, Edward Bernays, Curzio Malaparte, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Saul Bellow, and Clarice Lispector. After her are William Makepeace Thackeray, Walther von der Vogelweide, Ivan Franko, Irène Némirovsky, Kōbō Abe, and Alexander Pope.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1907, Daphne du Maurier ranks 32. Before her are John Bowlby, Horst Wessel, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Sister Lúcia, François Duvalier, and Daniel Bovet. After her are Otto Ohlendorf, Hans Selye, Burgess Meredith, Giovanna of Italy, Maurice Blanchot, and Erich Mielke. Among people deceased in 1989, Daphne du Maurier ranks 31. Before her are Hu Yaobang, Ferdinand Marcos, Silvana Mangano, Sugar Ray Robinson, Emilio Segrè, and George Beadle. After her are Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein, John Hicks, Joris Ivens, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, Hermann Oberth, and Michel Aflaq.

Others Born in 1907

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Others Deceased in 1989

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Daphne du Maurier ranks 461 out of 8,785. Before her are Thomas Gainsborough (1727), John Bonham (1948), John Edward Gray (1800), Thomas Harriot (1560), William Adams (1564), and Austen Chamberlain (1863). After her are John Wallis (1616), Edward the Martyr (962), Joshua Reynolds (1723), Julia Gillard (1961), Helena Bonham Carter (1966), and Sid Vicious (1957).

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Daphne du Maurier ranks 53. Before her are Enid Blyton (1897), Samuel Butler (1835), D. H. Lawrence (1885), John Donne (1572), J. M. Barrie (1860), and Samuel Johnson (1709). After her are Alexander Pope (1688), Muriel Spark (1918), Martin Amis (1949), Ernest Thompson Seton (1860), Ian McEwan (1948), and Douglas Adams (1952).

British born Writers

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