The Doll: Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier, reviewed by Eva Leung

Three copies of The Doll, first published in 2011 - left the original UK paperback, centre a US hardback, and right the current UK paperback

Genre: Short Stories
Original Publication: 5 May, 2011.

A sodden pocket book is discovered ashore, revealing a dark tale of obsession… only, it is incomplete, because some of the pages are missing, some of the words and lines illegible.

A superstitious young woman gets an invitation to be a partner in crime, and she makes her decisions based on the signs she receives.

A Vicar counsels a pair of young lovers, but he might never foresee what steps they take.

Another young couple motor down the country on a weekend – their relationship is then changed forever.

Then yet another couple – finally – gets married; but whatever can go wrong does go wrong.

Then there is an epistolary short story – letters from the man to the woman – showing how the affair begins and progresses… with its title foretelling the ending.

Published 22 years after the death of the author, The Doll: Short Stories is a collection of short stories mostly (all but one) written before Daphne du Maurier was 25, between the years of 1926 and 1932. Many of them were discovered only in recent years, hence it is sometimes published as The Lost Short Stories. In these early works, du Maurier explores themes and ideas she would later develop in her more mature works; and more importantly, she experiments with narrative styles that demonstrate, yet again, why she is a master storyteller way ahead of her time.

© Eva Leung August 2024.

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