Daphne Du Maurier

This book is the first full-length evaluation of du Maurier's fiction and the first critical study of du Maurier as a Gothic writer. Using the most recent work in Gothic and gender studies, the authors enter the current debate on the nature of female Gothic and raise questions about du Maurier's relationship to such a tradition. They demonstrate that using recognizable popular forms, she was able to explore through Gothic writing the anxieties of modernity in the kind of fiction many people find accessible. This, they claim, explains the compulsive quality of her best novels and their enduring popularity.

This book is the first full-length evaluation of du Maurier's fiction and the first critical study of du Maurier as a Gothic Writer.

Booknews

Horner (European Studies Research Institute, U. of Salford) and Zlosnik (English, Liverpool Hope U. College), authors of (1990), purportedly provide the first full-length evaluation of du Maurier's fiction from historical, cultural, geographical, and female Gothic literary perspectives. They demonstrate that her popular romantic novels (e.g., , 1938; , 1967) went beyond formulas in exploring such modern anxieties as identity/gender roles, ambivalence toward the other, the dysfunctional family, and transgression and desire. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Avril Horner is Senior Lecturer in English and Associate Director of European Studies Research Institute at the University of Salford.

Sue Zlosnik is Head of the Department of English at Liverpool Hope University College.