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Don't Look Now
Following the death of their young daughter, John and Laura visit Venice to try and escape their grief. But when the couple meet two aged sisters, one of whom claims to have psychic visions of the dead girl, strange things start to happen.
Filmed in 1973 with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, Daphne du Maurier's classic thriller starts as a moving examination of grief but gradually becomes a chilling tale with a dark and terrifying climax.
This adaptation of Don't Look Now premiered in 2007 at the Sheffield Lyceum with a transfer to the Lyric Hammersmith.
Filmed in 1973 with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, Daphne du Maurier's classic thriller starts as a moving examination of grief but gradually becomes a chilling tale with a dark and terrifying climax.
This adaptation of Don't Look Now premiered in 2007 at the Sheffield Lyceum with a transfer to the Lyric Hammersmith.
112 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 7, 2007
5 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Daphne du Maurier
435 books10.2k followersDaphne du Maurier was born on 13 May 1907 at 24 Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, London, the middle of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel, née Beaumont. In many ways her life resembles a fairy tale. Born into a family with a rich artistic and historical background, her paternal grandfather was author and Punch cartoonist George du Maurier, who created the character of Svengali in the 1894 novel Trilby, and her mother was a maternal niece of journalist, author, and lecturer Comyns Beaumont. She and her sisters were indulged as a children and grew up enjoying enormous freedom from financial and parental restraint. Her elder sister, Angela du Maurier, also became a writer, and her younger sister Jeanne was a painter.
She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, whom she married.
She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: A Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.
In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image of a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.
In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.
She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling on the Continent with friends, and writing stories. Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. A prestigious publishing house accepted her first novel when she was in her early twenties, and its publication brought her not only fame but the attentions of a handsome soldier, Major (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Frederick Browning, whom she married.
She continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Daphne du Maurier was obsessed with the past. She intensively researched the lives of Francis and Anthony Bacon, the history of Cornwall, the Regency period, and nineteenth-century France and England. Above all, however, she was obsessed with her own family history, which she chronicled in Gerald: A Portrait, a biography of her father; The du Mauriers, a study of her family which focused on her grandfather, George du Maurier, the novelist and illustrator for Punch; The Glassblowers, a novel based upon the lives of her du Maurier ancestors; and Growing Pains, an autobiography that ignores nearly 50 years of her life in favour of the joyful and more romantic period of her youth. Daphne du Maurier can best be understood in terms of her remarkable and paradoxical family, the ghosts which haunted her life and fiction.
While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories.
In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. In Julius and The Parasites, for example, she introduces the image of a domineering but deadly father and the daring subject of incest.
In Rebecca, on the other hand, du Maurier fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 18, 2024
Twisty, sinister, chilling
A married couple travel to Venice to recuperate from the recent death of their daughter. But after a chance encounter with two clairvoyant sisters who claim to have seen their daughter in Venice, things take a turn for the worse.
Thanks Chris for mentioning this story to me. It’s one of the best short stories I’ve ever read.
A married couple travel to Venice to recuperate from the recent death of their daughter. But after a chance encounter with two clairvoyant sisters who claim to have seen their daughter in Venice, things take a turn for the worse.
Thanks Chris for mentioning this story to me. It’s one of the best short stories I’ve ever read.
October 22, 2024
A couple travel to Venice after their daughter passes away. They encounter two sisters who say they have seen their daughter alive. As the couple delve into the mystery, they uncover a shocking discovery.
A short, but gripping tale!
A short, but gripping tale!
January 7, 2026
I must've missed something, ot was good and kept me focused all through my reading, but I didn't quite understand the psychic thing and what did it have to do with the whole thing. It felt like something was missing, I don't know.
November 15, 2024
Grief, Mystery, and Chilling Encounters Await: A Thrilling Venice Adventure
A married couple travels to Venice to recover from the recent loss of their daughter. However, after a chance encounter with two clairvoyant sisters who claim to have seen their daughter in Venice, things quickly take a darker turn. This short story promises to thrill with every page.
This version is a play script, and I loved how it was written. Every scene was so vivid and descriptive that I felt as if I were there.
I've been wanting to read Rebecca by this author and plan to dive into it next year.
A married couple travels to Venice to recover from the recent loss of their daughter. However, after a chance encounter with two clairvoyant sisters who claim to have seen their daughter in Venice, things quickly take a darker turn. This short story promises to thrill with every page.
This version is a play script, and I loved how it was written. Every scene was so vivid and descriptive that I felt as if I were there.
I've been wanting to read Rebecca by this author and plan to dive into it next year.
July 1, 2020
At least now, upon finishing, I wholly understand why this tale was included in an anthology of 'the weird'! Not to its detriment, mind. It was a curious little narrative, perhaps more may be gleaned from a return to the text another day. Or, tonight.
October 29, 2025
Chilly and satisfying.
October 16, 2025
(2.5) I was honestly so confused about what was going on with the twins and Laura. And then the end was so ???
July 30, 2024
Definitely has amazing elements for a short story including but not limited to the atmosphere. Du Maurier has already established herself as a great gothic writer so there’s not much more I can say on the topic. Although, I think the ending is alright I take off a star because it wish it had a little more oomf (of course it is a novella so there isn’t much you can do in such a short amount of pages so I forgive her).
May 17, 2020
Having only read Rebecca before, to be ‘well read’ for an author, this was my next book, a selection of short stories, and, how pleasantly surprised I was by these stories. Some, in parts scary, plenty of suspense, and overall very enjoyable. I felt the weakest story in the group was “ The Way of the Cross”
September 30, 2025
This is my first read from this author and I can definitely tell why she is such a huge name in writing. I've always known about the movie (though I haven't watched it yet) but I had no idea it was a short story first. It's filled with so much tension. I had a fun time but it didn't blow me away. The ending was so crazy. I am even more interested in seeing the movie now and how they handle that.
November 1, 2019
Muy buen libro, aunque el final se sintió algo apresurado, la tensión se mantuvo casi hasta el final.
March 29, 2021
Interesting use of bait-and-switch that was quite effective despite this being a short novella. You think you know where this is going and then it heads somewhere very different.
December 14, 2022
I liked the style of the writing but found the ending underwhelming.
April 9, 2023
3.5 stars
June 9, 2025
A wonderful play
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews