The Birds / Kiss Me Again, Stranger

Langenscheidt-Lektüre #61

by Daphne du Maurier

Greek edition with these two stories.

Genres: Classics

Paperback

Published January 1, 2002

About the author

Daphne 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.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

short review for busy readers:
Two stories from du Maurier with notes (meant for learners of English). Good ideas but stuffy and meandering in execution. Outdated, old fashioned English and behaviours.

The Birds
Today we could read this as climate fiction. Hundreds of thousands of birds launch an attack on humanity due to some strange weather occurrence.

Could have been interesting, but unfortunately, it's mostly just an uneven siege story about one rural family's hold out, in which a lot is threatened but very little happens. The real creep factor is only present in the final scene when we actually SEE the impact of the birds and are not given glimpses. But at that point, it's way too late.

Kiss Me Again, Stranger
A ho-hum, rather transparent story about how some guys fall in insta-love with utter fruitcakes. If you've ever wondered how men end up married to psychopaths and never notice until she butchers the children, this story sheds some light.

I've always had Rebecca recommended to me, but if this is du Maurier's writing style, I'll give it a hard pass.

[Paul Lemcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the Hitchcock film in about 1964 shortly after it was released, and I was hooked on Hitchcock. I remember the fear and tension, and I felt it again (though quite differently) in the book. Glad I finally read it 60 years later.
Loved Kiss Me Again Stranger. Now I need to go back and see the old 1963 film. I wonder if I'll say Glad I finally saw it 60 years later.

[Eric Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Birds

Ever since I was aware of the Hitchcock movie, I found the premise absurd and impossible, and thus, the story without merit or serious consideration. Also, somehow I thought the Hitchcock movie was responsible for an increased popularity in phobia of birds, and I found this phenomenon misguided. I could not imagine how this could be anything but cheap thrills.

After reading this original work that inspired the movie, I can’t say I view the premise any differently, but Du Maurier’s story did offer critiques on human hubris in disastrous times, and our over reliance on state actions. It also did not set out to make the birds the villains, but rather their going berserk being the fault of some unexplained natural force. The foreboding ending was also appropriate.

---
Kiss me again, Stranger

Is it rare for a story to make men feel unsafe about dating?

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two very good stories. The Birds is by far the better of the two. The Birds also the Hitchcock Movie as a rule of thumb is better in book form than movie. This is no exception.

Kiss me again is a sweet story of romance, a bus journey, a one night stand, WITH, an unexpected twist at the end.

[John Woakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred The Birds over Kiss Me Again Stranger but as stories they didn't really go anywhere. I think a short story needs a bit of a punch or something to set it above. Maybe it was the 50s setting but it didn't really do that much for me.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Birds story is absolutely more terrifying than the movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Kiss Me Again, Stranger was creepy and heartbreaking at the same time!

[Cathern · Rating 3 out of 5]

This rating is for Kiss Me Again Stranger

[Wendi Enright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love short stories, and these were exceptional, especially Kiss Me Again Stranger, and The Birds. Classic.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το μικρό αυτό βιβλίο, περιέχει δυο ιστορίες, οι οποίες βέβαια δεν είναι τρόμου ακριβώς, αλλά σίγουρα έχουν μια νοσηρή ατμόσφαιρα που τρομάζει λίγο και η αγωνία βαράει κόκκινο.

Τα πουλιά: Η πρώτη και μεγαλύτερη ιστορία από τις δυο, πάνω σ'αυτήν βασίζεται και η ταινία του πανμέγιστου Άλφρεντ Χίτσκοκ, την οποία βέβαια δεν έχω δει ακόμα, αλλά υποθέτω ότι θα έχει κάποιες διαφορές και παραπάνω πράγματα σε σχέση με την ιστορία της Μοριέ. Λοιπόν, τα πουλιά τρελάθηκαν και επιτίθενται στους ανθρώπους! Συγκεκριμένα, βλέπουμε τον αγώνα ενός άντρα να φυλάξει την οικογένειά του, κλείνονται στο σπίτι, ο άντρας βάζει σανίδες στα παράθυρα, και περιμένουν... Τι περιμένουν; Κάποιους υπεύθυνους της κυβέρνησης να πούνε ότι όλα τελείωσαν... Εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένο, αυτό το στιλ της γραφής μπορώ να πω ότι μου αρέσει, οπότε βάζω άριστα στον τομέα αυτόν. Η όλη ατμόσφαιρα είναι νοσηρή, με τα πουλιά να μην καταλαβαίνουν τίποτα και πολλά από αυτά να κουτουλάνε σε τοίχους και παράθυρα και να σκοτώνονται... Η αγωνία επίσης μπόλικη. Το τέλος αφήνει τα πράγματα κάπως μετέωρα...

Φίλησε με πάλι, άγνωστε: Μικρότερη σε μέγεθος σε σχέση με τα Πουλιά, όχι στο ίδιο επίπεδο όσον αφορά την αγωνία, αλλά μια νοσηρότητα προς το τέλος υπάρχει... Ένας χαμηλών τόνων νέος, γνωρίζει μια ταξιθέτρια σε ένα σινεμά και την ερωτεύεται. Δεν υποψιάζεται όμως τι τρέχει μέσα στο μυαλό της, ούτε μαθαίνει ποια ακριβώς είναι... Στο τέλος μαθαίνει, όμως... Και πάλι εξαιρετική γραφή, με τον νέο άντρα να μιλάει την αργκό της εποχής, και την Μοριέ να σκιαγραφεί πολύ καλά τον χαρακτήρα του. Υποψιάστηκα ότι κάτι δεν πήγαινε καλά με την κοπέλα, αλλά δεν ήμουν απολύτως σίγουρος ως προς τι. Ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία, αλλά σε σχέση με τα Πουλιά και τους Μπλε Φακούς, λίγο κατώτερη.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy the writing of Daphne du Maurier but surprisingly 'The Birds' which was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for his classic film does not quite work for me. I felt the same about the film also, although well written and some excellent sections I felt overall the ending left the story feeling a little flat.
'Kiss me again stranger' was also adapted into a film and again I found it a little weak.