du Maurier, George
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Artist.
(1834-1896) French/UK illustrator, cartoonist – over 3000 cartoons for Punch alone between 1864 and 1896 – and author, resident mostly in UK from the 1850s on; grandfather of Daphne du Maurier. The protagonists of his first and best novel, Peter Ibbetson (June-November 1891 Harper's New Monthly Magazine; 1891), share each other's dreams, in which they return to their idyllic childhood. But du Maurier is known almost exclusively today as the author of Trilby (January-June 1894 Harper's Monthly; expurgated 1894 3vols; text restored vt Svengali: George du Maurier's Trilby 1982), whose Antihero, the preternaturally competent mesmerist (see Hypnosis) Svengali, is a foreign-born Jewish eminence gris whose invasive manipulation of his victims reflected Late Victorian fears of Decadence and of psychic corruption from abroad (see Imperialism; Race in SF), making him into an immensely popular Icon, a convenient embodiment of fin de siècle worries. Du Maurier's last novel, The Martian (October 1896-July 1897 Harper's New Monthly Magazine; 1897), lackadaisically tells through hindsight the life story of a sensitive but mysterious Spiritualist who turns out to have been a Martian all her life (see Mysterious Stranger). [JC]
see also: Psi Powers.
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier
born Paris: 6 March 1834
died London: 8 October 1896
works
- Peter Ibbetson (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1891) [first appeared June-November 1891 Harper's New Monthly Magazine: hb/]
- Trilby (London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1894) [published in three volumes: first version appeared January-June 1894 Harper's Monthly: book version expurgated: hb/]
- Svengali: George du Maurier's Trilby (London: W H Allen, 1982) [rev vt of the above: reprinting the magazine version: introduction by Peter Alexander: hb/George du Maurier]
- The Martian (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1897) [first appeared October 1896-July 1897 Harper's New Monthly Magazine: hb/]
- A Legend of Camelot, Pictures and Poems, Etc (London: Bradbury, Agnew, and Co, Publishers, 1898) [poetry plus graphics: coll: title poem is fantastical Satire of the Pre-Raphaelites: hb/George du Maurier]
about the author
- Daniel Pick. Svengali's Web: The Alien Enchanter in Modern Culture (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2000) [nonfiction: hb/from T C Turner]
links
previous versions of this entry