I learned three things from the preface to Don’t Look Now. They were (1) Hitchcock’s film The Birds was based on a short story by (2) Daphne du Maurier who (3) hated it. Here’s a little about that.

Anyway. This is a collection of 9 short(ish) stories by du Maurier. Thanks to this and Rebecca, I’m now a devoted fan of du Maurier. Every one of these stories is almost perfect, filled with tension and dread. Even before I finished the book, I was looking forward to reading a couple of them again.

The Birds was very different from the Hitchcock film. I saw the movie when I was young and it left a permanent impression. I was afraid the story wouldn’t stand up to the memory of the movie. Not to worry, the story is superior. In the article linked above, they describe the difference:

At the centre of du Maurier’s narrative is a part-time farm worker called Nat Hocken, and in the story his struggle to protect his family from the birds is set against a wild Cornish coastline where gales sweep across stark hills and fields and isolated farmhouses. The combination of bleak landscape and rustic characters lends an appropriately elemental tone to the tale, and this is missing from Hitchcock’s version, with its placid northern California setting and the urbane city folk he casts as his protagonists.

Setting and mood are so integral to every story in this collection – the story the collection is named after is a perfect example: she weaves together immense grief (a couple who’ve just lost a child) and sinister, supernatural mystery (these weird twins who claim psychic powers) with an idyllic and intoxicating setting (Venice). It was all-consuming within about 3 pages, and completely unforgettable (I have the film version lined up for later this week).

I couldn’t put this down. These stories are among the best I’ve read. I wish I’d started reading du Maurier earlier in life.

---