The Doll: Short Stories

Writer: Daphne du Maurier

Publishing House: Virago Modern Classics

Date of Publication: 2011

Rating: 5 stars

”There was only the island. Beyond it lay the ghostly, the intangible; the truth was in the seared rock, in the touch of the soil, in the sound of the waves breaking against the cliffs.”

East Wind: The symbolism of the East Wind is used to perfection in the story of a remote community of islanders who are happily oblivious of the world ”out there”. But strangers arrive with the East Wind and the repercussions will be devastating…

”It’s easy enough to laugh, who wouldn’t crack their sides and split their tongues with laughing. Let’s laugh till the blood runs from our eyes – there’s fun, if you like. No, it’s the emptiness that hurts, the breaking up of everything inside me.”

The Doll: A man falls in love with an alluring violinist, a strange, haunting woman with a secret darker than anything you can imagine. An outstanding, tragic story…

And Now to God the Father: A narcissistic, despicable priest who dares to use the name of Jesus to justify his absolute lack of decency finds himself stained with the blood of the innocents.

”There must be no shadows between us, no quiet corners in our hearts.”

A Difference in Temperament: A husband and a wife who have forgotten how to communicate, poisoning their lives with the temperament.

Frustration: Ah! The torture of young, newly-married couples with no means to provide for themselves and a wonderous string of bad luck…

Piccadilly: A pathetic woman tries to find all the proper excuses to justify her desperate desire for easy money. But the only one responsible for her failure is her own weak and disgusting self and no one else.

Tame Cat: A caricature of a mother sees her daughter as a rival for the affections of a heinous gold-digger.

Mazie: Poverty and loneliness become more acute in a glittering, unforgiving metropolis like London.

Nothing Hurts for Long: A woman prepares for the return of her husband but her efforts don’t seem to be enough to satisfy a ignorant, heartless brute from Berlin.

Week – End: A silly young couple discovers that ”love” about cute names and week- end getaways.

The Happy Valley: A haunting story in which reality and visions, premonitions and vagueness form a peculiar dance.

And His Letters Grew Colder: The letters of a capital arsehole to a woman who was desperate enough to fall for his lies were almost painful to read…

The Limpet: ”What I want to know is this: where have I gone wrong in life? Why is that no matter how kind I am to people, how truly generous, it never seems to pay dividends?”

”Don’t forget your coat, there’s a bitter east wind.”