Don't Look Now

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Published by NYRB Classics

• About Don't Look Now
• Praise

• About Daphne Du Maurier


• About Patrick McGrath

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ABOUT THIS BOOK

An NYRB Original

A dead child appears in the alleyways of Venice; routine eye surgery reveals the beast within to a meek housewife; nature in revolt against man’s abuse turns a harmless species into a force that threatens humankind; a dalliance with a beautiful stranger offers something more dangerous than a broken heart. In Daphne du Maurier’s stories, the stuff of everyday life—grief, the limits of self-knowledge, battles between the sexes, and environmental degradation—burst through the ordinary into the realm of the uncanny.

This new selection of du Maurier stories, chosen from the span of her extraordinarily fruitful career, represents the author at her most chilling and most psychologically astute, looking back to the Gothic masterpieces of the Brontës and forward to the work of Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. Here novelist Patrick McGrath revisits some of the best-known examples of du Maurier’s output, like “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now,” and unearths hidden gems—many of which have been unavailable for years. This book is an excellent introduction to one of the greatest storytellers of the twentieth century and a deeper exploration of one of its most prodigious imaginations.

About the Author

Daphne du Maurier (1907—1989), a novelist, playwright, biographer, and short-story writer, was born into an artistic family in London. She began writing short stories and articles in 1928 and in 1931 her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published. Many of her works were adapted into films, including Rebecca, “The Birds,” and “Don’t Look Now.” In June 1969, du Maurier was named a Dame of the British Empire.

Patrick McGrath was born in London in 1950. His works include Blood and Water and Other Tales, The Grotesque, Spider, Dr. Haggard’s Disease, Asylum (which was short-listed for the 1996 Guardian Fiction Prize and made into a feature film), Martha Peake, and Port Mungo. His most recent novel is Trauma (April 2008). He lives in London and New York with his wife, Maria Aitken.