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"The Little Photographer" tells of a rich Marquise bored and dissatisfied with her life who attempts to spice up her life by having an affair with a photographer whilst holidaying on the French Mediterranean coast.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1952
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About the author
Daphne du Maurier
432 books10.1k 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
January 12, 2025
'The Little Photographer' is a poignant psychological story about the high price one sometimes has to pay for cruelty and taking advantage of more vulnerable people out of boredom.
October 5, 2021
Great short story from one of my favourite authors. She wrote in such a beautiful, descriptive style, that she could have re-written the telephone directory (throwback for the older generation) and make it a pleasure to read.
March 2, 2020
From TIA:
The young Madame la Marquise is away on holiday- alone and bored. But then she meets the local photographer and feels the thrill of being looked at. A classic du Maurier tale featuring an illlicit, slow-burning passion and a surprise twist.
Dramatised By: Michelene Wandor.
Director: Geni Hall-Kenny
Madame: Sian Thomas
Photographer: John McAndrew
Elise: Nickle Rainsford
Mlle Paul: Nickle Rainsford
Edouard: Robert Harper
Manager: Robert Harper
Miss Clay: Pauline White
Celeste: Alice Ford
https://archive.org/details/TheLittle...
The young Madame la Marquise is away on holiday- alone and bored. But then she meets the local photographer and feels the thrill of being looked at. A classic du Maurier tale featuring an illlicit, slow-burning passion and a surprise twist.
Dramatised By: Michelene Wandor.
Director: Geni Hall-Kenny
Madame: Sian Thomas
Photographer: John McAndrew
Elise: Nickle Rainsford
Mlle Paul: Nickle Rainsford
Edouard: Robert Harper
Manager: Robert Harper
Miss Clay: Pauline White
Celeste: Alice Ford
https://archive.org/details/TheLittle...
May 10, 2024
****Spoilers****
4.5 stars...In reading a description of the ending from a book review site, they pointed out some things about it I hadn't thought of....
Don't read on.... If you don't want spoilers....
Could she be pregnant? Would she ever consider doing away with a child?
Another captivating story by this author
4.5 stars...In reading a description of the ending from a book review site, they pointed out some things about it I hadn't thought of....
Don't read on.... If you don't want spoilers....
Could she be pregnant? Would she ever consider doing away with a child?
Another captivating story by this author
April 7, 2016
A short story by Daphne du Maurier.
A Marquise while holidaying with her two young children on the French Riviera hires a photographer to photograph her and her children.
A chilling tale but not one of her better stories.
A Marquise while holidaying with her two young children on the French Riviera hires a photographer to photograph her and her children.
A chilling tale but not one of her better stories.
Read
September 3, 2025<100 pages
This was a fascinating read. The themes of class were very clear, but I found the narration very compelling. It was difficult not to root for the Marquise and in many ways she was a sympathetic character; in the end we are all in a prison of our circumstances, no matter how gilded. It gave me a similar feeling to The Yellow Wallpaper.
This was a fascinating read. The themes of class were very clear, but I found the narration very compelling. It was difficult not to root for the Marquise and in many ways she was a sympathetic character; in the end we are all in a prison of our circumstances, no matter how gilded. It gave me a similar feeling to The Yellow Wallpaper.
July 1, 2020
Another short story by Du Maurier. The story revolves around a family go to the South of France. Whilst the husband is out in business, the wife has an affair and the consequences of it. Beautifully written, builds up to an incident, which, I feel Du Maurier doesn’t utilise enough and the story then fizzles out.
July 8, 2017
While it starts off very romantic, the unexpected twist made me smile.
April 21, 2019
Karma
December 27, 2018
Daphne du Maurier es una excelente narradora de obras cortas, una vez más lo vuelve a demostrar.
El Pequeño fotógrafo es un título que va tomando fuerza conforme conoces al protagonista y a su gran tímido deseo de admirar y querer a una marquesa solitaria que tiene un marido y dos hijas que sólo la empujan a la rutina.
La marquesa se siente admirada, querida, siente que todos la miran pero hasta eso ya no le causa nada, ella necesita salir de todo aquello y lo único que tiene es una pequeña máquina de hacer fotos. Esto la induce a salir del hotel donde se encuentra e ir a la ciudad en busca de algo nuevo. Aquí conoce a nuestro co protagonista. Paul, el pequeño fotógrafo, un joven apuesto, rubio, con ojos de venado que queda perplejo con la marquesa y decide admirarla con fervor y sutileza.
La marquesa se dará cuenta de esto al instante y lo invitará a tomarle fotos en donde reside, necesita que la admiren de esa forma, encontró a alguien que la admira con una dulzura y frescura que nadie había tenido hasta ahora.
La marquesa utilizará sus mejores armas para mantener al fotógrafo anonadado, querrá pasar un buen verano viéndose a escondidas con Paúl, pero algo no irá como ella lo había pensado, puesto que nuestro fotógrafo se ha enamorado.
Lean a El Pequeño Fotógrafo.
El Pequeño fotógrafo es un título que va tomando fuerza conforme conoces al protagonista y a su gran tímido deseo de admirar y querer a una marquesa solitaria que tiene un marido y dos hijas que sólo la empujan a la rutina.
La marquesa se siente admirada, querida, siente que todos la miran pero hasta eso ya no le causa nada, ella necesita salir de todo aquello y lo único que tiene es una pequeña máquina de hacer fotos. Esto la induce a salir del hotel donde se encuentra e ir a la ciudad en busca de algo nuevo. Aquí conoce a nuestro co protagonista. Paul, el pequeño fotógrafo, un joven apuesto, rubio, con ojos de venado que queda perplejo con la marquesa y decide admirarla con fervor y sutileza.
La marquesa se dará cuenta de esto al instante y lo invitará a tomarle fotos en donde reside, necesita que la admiren de esa forma, encontró a alguien que la admira con una dulzura y frescura que nadie había tenido hasta ahora.
La marquesa utilizará sus mejores armas para mantener al fotógrafo anonadado, querrá pasar un buen verano viéndose a escondidas con Paúl, pero algo no irá como ella lo había pensado, puesto que nuestro fotógrafo se ha enamorado.
Lean a El Pequeño Fotógrafo.
June 5, 2020
my favourite daphne de maurier book so far !!!
February 8, 2022
Durchwachsen.
Die Geschichte liest sich etwas zäh, ehe die versprochene "Spannung bis zur letzten Zeile" einsetzt.
Jedoch ein ganz befriedigendes Ende.
Die Geschichte liest sich etwas zäh, ehe die versprochene "Spannung bis zur letzten Zeile" einsetzt.
Jedoch ein ganz befriedigendes Ende.
December 12, 2023
Again, Daphne DuMaurier definitely knows how to write some of the stuff that happened in the story I was not expecting, but I loved it.
June 26, 2025
Daphne du Mauriers #1 fan
August 24, 2016
Really good short story, love Daphne Du Maurier! I didn't read anything about it before so I went into this short story without knowing anything. It starts off as a very romantic story about a wife alone with her daughter on sleepy beach holiday where she gets bored very quickly. Her husband away on business she meets a photographer which turns out to be a chilling story of an affair gone wrong. I love Daphne's writing as it paints such a beautiful but chilling picture.
January 23, 2009
I love this little book. I love DuMauriers descriptions, the hot weather at the sea bath, the laziness, the lack of purpose. I love how things happen, everything. Somehow it reminds me of Stefan Zweig. And it would be great to have a movie made of it.
It's small, but so far it really is my favorite of her works.
It's small, but so far it really is my favorite of her works.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews