Daphne Du Maurier
Author
Publisher
Bolinda/Audible audio
Pub. Date
2017
Description
Inspired by a grisly discovery in the 19th century, The King's General was the first of du Maurier's novels to be written at Menabilly, the model for Manderley in Rebecca. Set in the 17th century, it tells the story of a country and a family riven by civil war, and features one of fiction's most original heroines. Honor Harris is only 18 when she first meets Richard Grenvile - proud, reckless and utterly captivating. But following a riding accident,...
4) Julius
Author
Series
Appears on list
Description
Julius Levy sacrifices everything to a ruthless ambition. After adventures in Europe and Africa he reaches England, where his ambition is quickly realised. As he claws his way to wealth, he cares for no one until his daughter is born, who inspires dark passions in her father that will destroy them both.
8) Rebecca
Author
Series
Appears on these lists
Description
On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of 'Rebecca' falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him. But as they arrive at her husband's Cornish estate, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread. Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of...
Author
Series
Publisher
Virago
Pub. Date
2003
Appears on list
Description
Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as guinea pig for a new drug Magnus has discovered in his biochemical research. On taking the drug, Dick finds himself transported through time to the Cornwall of the 14th century.
Author
Publisher
Penguin
Pub. Date
2006
Description
The title story is a supernatural tale involving a British couple on holiday in Venice to escape the pain of their young daughter's recent death. An encounter with two sisters in a cafe, and the blind one's claim that she can 'see' the deceased child sitting with her parents, launches a series of events that ends violently.
Author
Publisher
Virago
Pub. Date
2005
Description
As a young guide for Sunshine Tours, Armino Fabbio leads a pleasant, if humdrum life - until he becomes circumstantially involved in the murder of an old peasant woman in Rome. He gradually comes to realise she was his family's beloved servant many years ago, in his native town of Ruffano.
16) The parasites
Author
Publisher
Virago
Pub. Date
2005
Description
Maria, Niall and Cecila have grown up in the shadow of their famous parents - their father, a flamboyant singer and their mother, a talented dancer. Now pursuing their own creative dreams, all three siblings feel an undeniable bond, but it is Maria and Niall who share the secret of their parent's past.
17) Jamaica Inn
Author
Series
Publisher
Virago
Pub. Date
2015
Appears on list
Description
Her mother's dying request takes Mary Yellan on a sad journey across the bleak moorland of Cornwall to reach Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. With the coachman's warning echoing in her memory, Mary arrives to find Patience a changed woman, cowering from her overbearing husband, Joss Merlyn.
Author
Series
Publisher
Virago
Pub. Date
2003
Appears on these lists
Description
Janet Coombe was born with the loving spirit and she passed it on to her son Joseph. In Janet's great-granddaughter, Jennifer, it again reappears, breaking down the barrier of years. Wild and eerie, it is something that carries them beyond all prudence in their need to love and be loved.
Author
Series
Virago modern classics volume 528
Publisher
Virago
Pub. Date
2012
Description
Part memoir, part travelogue and part history, 'Vanishing Cornwall' is Du Maurier's famous tribute to the county that provided such a captivating background and inspiration for her novels.