Books like Daphne du Maurier, haunted heiress by Nina Auerbach

Nina Auerbach’s *Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress* chronicles the life of the celebrated English novelist, revealing how the shadow of her father, Gerald, the stage manager and actor, and her grandfather, George, the illustrator and novelist of *Trilby*, shaped her work. Auerbach examines du Maurier’s extensive output—sixteen novels, biographies, articles, plays, memoirs, and short stories—and argues that her most compelling narratives lie in works like *The Scapegoat*, *Hungry Hill*, and *My Cousin Rachel*, where protagonists are men undone by inherited guilt. The memoir also delves into du Maurier’s personal defiance of 20th‑century gender norms, epitomized by her self‑labeling as the “boy in the box.” The study situates the author’s sharp‑edged fiction within the broader context of her family’s artistic legacy and the cultural impact of adaptations such as *Rebecca*, *Jamaica Inn*, *The Birds*, and *Don’t Look Now*.

First publish date: 2000