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After Midnight: Thirteen Chilling Tales for the Dark Hours
624 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2025
2 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
Daphne du Maurier
427 books10.4k 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 of 1 review
November 21, 2025
I would highly recommend this book. It has a collection of thirteen chilling tales. They are unsettling, atmospheric, psychological, and dark. I loved them all so get yourself ready to dip your toes into dark, and unsettling world created by daphne du maurier.
Sharing reviews of some of my favourite tales.
1. The Blue Lenses- A woman undergoes an eye surgery but after removal of the blue lenses, the reality completely changes for her and upends her world. The story consists of unsettling sight and a thin line vanishes between reality and paranoia. This was such an unsettling, and disturbing story
2. Don’t Look Now- This story has a perfect amount of grief, suspense and mystery. It was chilling, atmospheric, and unsettling. The ending was jaw dropping. It was centred around psychic abilities and atmospheric elements. What you see or hear is not always true. Try to look beyond them, the truth will unfold itself to you.
3. The Alibi- This was a psychological story about human horror not necessarily bending towards supernatural elements but it is full of unthinkable happenings. Expect mysterious identity, horrifying truth, secrets, and spine chilling ending.
6. Monte Verità- Set in an European mountain region, the story is full of emotions, haunting memories, and horror one cannot imagine.
7. The Pool- This was a profound story. Two siblings decides to spend summer holidays at their grandparent’s house but things turn upside down as soon as Deborah discovers a secret world. There is a thin line between reality and childhood memories. The story was perfect.
8. The Doll- Loved this one. This is a terrifying tale of love and obsession and it felt so poetic and terrifying.
12. Split Second- After returning from a brief walk, a woman’s reality changes unexpectedly and present becomes some kind of hallucination. This was such a profound read. I would say the story was chilling, unsettling and thought provoking.
Thanks to the publisher
Sharing reviews of some of my favourite tales.
1. The Blue Lenses- A woman undergoes an eye surgery but after removal of the blue lenses, the reality completely changes for her and upends her world. The story consists of unsettling sight and a thin line vanishes between reality and paranoia. This was such an unsettling, and disturbing story
2. Don’t Look Now- This story has a perfect amount of grief, suspense and mystery. It was chilling, atmospheric, and unsettling. The ending was jaw dropping. It was centred around psychic abilities and atmospheric elements. What you see or hear is not always true. Try to look beyond them, the truth will unfold itself to you.
3. The Alibi- This was a psychological story about human horror not necessarily bending towards supernatural elements but it is full of unthinkable happenings. Expect mysterious identity, horrifying truth, secrets, and spine chilling ending.
6. Monte Verità- Set in an European mountain region, the story is full of emotions, haunting memories, and horror one cannot imagine.
7. The Pool- This was a profound story. Two siblings decides to spend summer holidays at their grandparent’s house but things turn upside down as soon as Deborah discovers a secret world. There is a thin line between reality and childhood memories. The story was perfect.
8. The Doll- Loved this one. This is a terrifying tale of love and obsession and it felt so poetic and terrifying.
12. Split Second- After returning from a brief walk, a woman’s reality changes unexpectedly and present becomes some kind of hallucination. This was such a profound read. I would say the story was chilling, unsettling and thought provoking.
Thanks to the publisher
Displaying 1 of 1 review