So irritated by this silly, gushing biography of Daphne du Maurier, translated from the French which doesn't help. (It's kippers for breakfast, not smoked herring!)
It's not just the breathless, novelette-ish style but lazy inaccuracies that even a bit of Google-research would have corrected: you won't find Keats's house in Primrose Hill and I don't think that the Brontës thought of themselves as daughters of a Presbyterian parsonage.
Lots of hissing and harrumphing from me ...
And then I started watching The Crown and caught the Queen cutting into a scone with a knife ...
My dears, I nearly passed out. She'll be drinking out of the milk bottle next!
10 comments:
I almost picked this up in Waterstones, but I had my reservations. I still think we need a definitive biography of DDM.
You made the right call, Nicola. I'm sure DDM would repay a more rigorous biographer - this one sounds like a fan with a girl-crush.
I have tried to read this several times and just can't bear it. Too much like a novel and not enough facts for me.
Okay, educate this American - why is it shocking that the queen cut into her scone with a knife?
You never cut scones, you break them apart, Anbolyn. Though I don't suppose anyone would dare correct the Queen's table manners!
You're so right. The book is unbearable. Only a library book, fortunately.
What a shame you didn't like it. I read it in French over the summer and enjoyed every page. It set me off on a reread of Daphne's best, and we even caught the release of 'My cousin Rachel' on a whistle stop trip to Paris. It certainly didn't come across as a 'fan with a girl crush' in my opinion.
I've read two biographies of D du M and this won't be the third. It sounds awful...
I've read two biographies of D du M and this won't be the third. It sounds awful...
Two's probably enough, Veronica! You won't learn anything new from this one. Much better to go back and re-read the novels. I'd love to read Frenchman's Creek again - but maybe I read it at the right age, about 13. Would be so sad not to enjoy it as much again.
I gave up about 20 pages in. It was Not Good. Perhaps it lost something in translation?
That would be a charitable way of looking at it!
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