Daphne Du Maurier had the ability to provide writing that
was gripping even while it was not considered "high" literature. With its "faults," one
of the reasons critics have not been able to dismiss her work is that it has remained so
popular over time.
In Rebecca, for
example, the mystery rests with the fate of Rebecca who the reader never meets: she is
dead when the story begins. However, the tale is presented so that the narrative carries
its audience for some time before answers about Rebecca's fate are given—not having to
rely on the mystery in order to grip its reader.
Basil Davenport,
reviewing Rebecca...identifies the book as a mystery about who
Rebecca really was and what happened to her, but he also credits du Maurier for writing
so well and so compellingly that she does not have to rely on the murder mystery
plot...
Du Maurier used
"melodrama," which was considered "pedestrian," with characters that were less than
brilliant. Our heroine, the new Mrs. De Winter (she is never referred to by any other
name), is naive to the point that even knowing that the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, hates
her, takes the older woman's advice—a big mistake. Danver's motivation is to destroy the
fragile new wife of Maxim De Winter, a young woman in no way strong enough to play in
this game of high-rollers, herself a penniless orphan.
In
addition, it seems unlikely, that Maxim would allow Mrs. Danvers to stay on, in that it
is like living with one's former mother-in-law; and, too, that he is so emotionally
unavailable that he is of little help to his new wife as she tries to navigate the
unchartered waters of marriage and high-society. However, it may well be this kind of
"manipulation" that specifically garners sympathy from the audience for the heroine.
This kind of tactic, however, keeps Du Maurier from being considered a writer of "high"
literature.
In fact, one critic
notes:
...du
Maurier [was] 'a poor woman's Charlotte Brontë' of the
1930s.
Another element that
make Du Maurier's writing lean more to popular literature is her focus on the
supernatural rather than romance. It is seen in Rebecca, but
becomes more prevalent over time; it is present in her story, The
Birds. This brings us to another criticism of Du Maurier's work: as she
became more popular, she also became more commercialized: her writing seemed to take on
the format of a screenplay, ready to easily be adapted for a film; such was the case
with The Birds, adapted by Alfred
Hitchcock.
While some critics may have wanted to outright
dismiss Du Maurier's writing, as with Rebecca, it has been
impossible to do so.
Rebecca is one of those
novels that critics have a difficult time disrespecting. On the one hand, it does have
excessive, overblown language in places, and its plot is far from original. On the other
hand, the book's overwhelming approval by the general public...up through today, has
made it in some respects immune to negative criticism, forcing reviewers to think twice
before dismissing it as just one more popular
romance.
The "overblown"
language may seem trite, but Du Maurier's ability to pull the reader along for a
suspenseful ride without giving up too much of the mystery too early, enabled her to
develop a highly successful career as a writer; her books were much sought after and
while she is not considered an author of "high" literature, her work does not fit easily
into the category of simply "popular" literature, thus blurring the lines between the
two.
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