Lawrence Vane

by Angela du Maurier

Lawrence Vane, at the height of a brilliant concert career, loses her sight and has nothing left in her life whatsoever. Having previously passed up marriage for her Steinway, Lawrence now decides that only in marriage will there be some meaning in her life, and goes out to the East to the island of Tahang to marry Paul Carron, with whom she has corresponded but whom she has never seen. Paul is half Indian and very dark, but has not the courage to admit this to her. Jealous, possessive and afraid, he keeps her away from almost all other contacts, preserves his deception, until an operation gives Lawrence the opportunity to see again.

303 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Angela du Maurier was born on 1 March 1904 in London, the eldest of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel, née Beaumont. 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 middle sister, was the famous writer Daphne du Maurier, and her younger sister Jeanne was a painter.

Originally aspiring to follow the family tradition of acting, she planned to be an actress and spent two seasons on the stage. She played Wendy Darling alongside both Gladys Cooper and Dorothy Dickson as Peter Pan. She worked on the land in Cornwall during the war and travelled extensively in Europe. She later turned to writing, with the release of her earlier works coinciding with the publication of her sister's Rebecca and Jamaica Inn. Her works of fiction include The Road to Leenane, Pilgrims by the Way, The Perplexed Heart, Reveille and Treveryan. She lived at Ferryside, the family house in Cornwall, for most of her life.

She died in Wandsworth, London, aged 97.

From Wikipedia