eBook - The Birds: and Other Stories

eBook - The Birds: and Other Stories

By : Daphne du Maurier

Rating : 9.5/10 (57/60, if I count the 6 scores *)

Year : 1952 (original); 2013 (kindle edition)

Publisher : Little, Brown and Company

ISBN : 978-0-316-25360-4 (kindle)

Pages : 293 

Language : English 

In my previous review, you read my thoughts about Du Maurier's story which had been loosely adapted by Hitchcock, The Birds.  For the other stories in this ebook, also published in 1952, I attempt a new format, with individual scoring and details. 

List of stories in this review : 

• Monte Verità
• The Appletree
• The Little photographer
• Nouvelle - Kiss me again, stranger
• Nouvelle - The old man 

* In the above score, I announce having taken into account the 9/10 from The Birds. 

Before that, I want to discuss the three topics shared in this whole collection, which are 

• World War II trauma and possible effects on individual persons ; 
• The male gaze is seen over and over in all these stories, except the titular birds ; 
• And lastly, presence, in various degrees, of masochism, sometimes accompanied by representations of sadism - not in sexual scenes that aren't ever described in these stories, but in attitudes that embody enough to infer these characteristics. 

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Short Story - Monte Verità

Score : 9/10

Pages : 81 (from 55 to 135)

A 70 year old, unnamed narrator, starts a story at its end : he recall how he had been helped by two men to carry his friend, Victor, to be buried, some years prior. He recalls important events that he shared with Victor, starting in 1912 (there is a line about the Titanic disaster being a fresh event), when they were about 30 years old each. Both had been mountaineers and, their lives would intersect a few times despite breaks caused by their mutual busy lives. 

He recalls, most particularly, of a trip taken to an isolated mountain, Monte Verità, whose peak was dreaded by the villagers. Indeed, men testified that young women would often be compelled to climb further up and would never be heard of again -  perhaps linked to rumors of a community of immortal women, forever retaining their youth and beauty, and who never interact anymore with their past - away from these men. 

The narrator ponders about such fantastic possibilities, in light of Ancient Greek beliefs and other religious faiths that might explain to him the various experiences that he soon details, and concludes the story, once more, with Victor's body. He also wonders, at some point, about destiny, predestination and other such notions - the answer left ambiguously in the air, perhaps just as a much as his three theories. 

The narrator's philosophical musings and mystical-like experiences climbing mountains intertwine with events which raises, within Du Maurier's sometimes melodramatic phrasing, subtext discussions about subjective memory, as well as questions about love and sexuality, all revolving about a central question : that of outrage. 

Right from the start, the narrator recalls destruction and anger spent, after people had been driven to fury. Then, there are mentions of dreams being kept, and illusions being shattered, both of these in relation to male gaze, albeit in less evident ways - and not as fast - than those of the following story in this collection (The Appletree). 

I think I can summarize the conclusion towards the (second) ending of this novella : a contented disillusionment. 

I won't detail exactly, but these subjects are also linked to masochist attitudes, personal search for truth : the narrator talks about each person's individual Monte Verità, their own Mountain of Truth to find. He himself passes through doubts about material, financial success as a businessman, contrasted with his poetic approach to life and mystical feelings in his physical mountain climbing - but leaves enough to let others ask their own questions. 

Because of this metaphorical mountain of Truth, he doesn't place the geographical one, which is in Switzerland - and which apparently inspired a few other authors to write about. I suggest you learn about it only after reading at least this Du Maurier story, if not also after the other stories - which I plan to check in the future (perhaps after I forget the details I just learned).

Here's a short list : 

A.S. Byatt's 2009 novel The Children's Book (A.S stands for Antonia Susan). 

Robert Dessaix's 1996 novel Night Letters.

Tony Wolf's graphic novel trilogy Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons (2015).

If you want to know a tad more, I warn the next section discusses some aspects and may have spoilers.

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The spoiler-ish section : 

So, in discussing outrage, there are a few important moments, the first about the villagers frustration, growing into anger, about the disappearance of their daughters, the young women who go, presumably, to join an exclusionary sect. This is exacerbated by the myth of their consequent immortality. 

The narrator meets a woman he loves and remember in one way, but years after he last saw her ; he is shocked at her appearance, his personal outrage driving him away.

Characters are depicted to be, basically, sexless and, perhaps, genderless : here we have both the outrage, and masochist actions taken by these characters for their general demeanor. 

Masochism is repeated by a character denying their life, in absolute devotion, returning year after year seeking after his almost pious reverence - with some detrimental effects. 

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Short Story - The Appletree

Score : 10/10

Pages : 51 (from 136- 186 )

The Appletree is so well written, with prose similar in style to that of Rebecca's ; it is delightful and exquisite to read, from start to end. Midge has been dead for three months. Her husband, whom she'd nicknamed "Buzz" is living his life, feeling freer than ever - from her yawns, her complaints, constant overworking and critic, even spoiling the newspaper's content. 

But, one spring morning, as a shaves, he notices more fully what he'd always felt just 'the third apple tree on the left, a little apart from the rest and leaning more closely to the terrace' that this particular tree is very different from the others. On that morning, this tree was scraggy and of a depressing thinness... it looked as a if in martyred resignation, and he remembers often he's seen Midge in this very same dejected position and air. 

From this point on, he feels his freedom hampered ; the tree becoming as overbearing to him as his wife had been prior to her death. Anything done with this tree feels like poison to him, as if the tree was inhabited by a malevolent spirit. 

In The Appletree, Du Maurier's narrative verges on the supernatural - and yet, deeply rooted (pun intended) in a certain reality : that this 'Buzz' (the character's real name isn't revealed) love to his wife wasn't at all what he imagined - he felt rather oppressed by her. 

This tree takes on a personality of its own, much like Rebecca, who acts like an ever present ghost, ever-haunting the narrator in that novel, that second Mrs De Winter who keeps being compared to the dead first wife of her current husband, Max de Winter. 

Through all the descriptions of his experiences with this one tree ever gnawing at his sight, we observe the male gaze and a reluctance admitting his own guilt as a creature of habit and the various comforts his wife, in her ever-increasing masochist and self-sacrificing overwork had all been done to see to all his needs and done to please him. But, contrary to the kind of love and adoration seen in Monte Verità, we see a sort of dissolution of a marriage in The Appletree, a sort of thawing in the relationship. 

'Buzz' never showed appreciation, causing Midge to be rather passive-aggressive in her daily routine. He still won't thank even his cook and gardener, so he  tastes all kinds of bitter flavors throughout the story - right down to an open-ended conclusion that leaves but a small margin to his possibilities. 

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Short Story - The little photographer

Rating: 10/10

Pages : 51 (from 187 to 237 )

An undisclosed summer ; a rich Marquise is holidaying on the French Mediterranean coast with her children, Céleste and Hélène, for a month or so, away from Édouard, the Marquis, an "Homme Sérieux, who knows what he wants, of over 40 years of age" as Du Maurier describes him. She feels dissatisfied that he won't make an effort to come join them and enjoy the vacation, his numerous business ventures taking all his time. 

She partially misses her humdrum life, back in Lyon, as a simpler existence, though not as rich.  Her father was a surgeon, and her mother was ailing. She imagines that without this sliding-door moment when she met the Marquis, she might have had a whole different life. On the other hand, she starts fantasizing how other women - even Élise, her own lycée friend who'd been married 6 years now, had love affairs... and, venturing into the city beyond the hotel, on this very hot day, ends up having just that, a form of affair, with the titular little photographer. 

In this story, just like the Appletree and Monte Verità, we have more masochism, but also a clear representation of a sadistic person taking advantage of her position, in a vain use of the admiration she receives, based on her extreme beauty. 

Other aspects of the male gaze are further explored, as one can be imagined by this story's title. 

Not only the composition of this story contains many exquisite prose phrasings like Rebecca, it feels like it's almost a companion story ; indeed, Rebecca herself was "chillingly beautiful", and very mean, even more sadistic than what is shown here ; but also there seems to be a similar, yet lessened age gap. The Marquis is over 40, the Marquise is clearly younger and feels out of touch with all the middle-aged persons. I assume that the daughters aren't very old, and that the Marquise is in her mid-twenties. My theory holds as to the age lycée ends, and the announcement that Élise had been married for 6 years now. Assuming the Marquise and her share the same age and that Élise married as early as 18, upon exiting lycée, that makes them 24. (the second mrs De Winters, in Rebecca, was just 21, whilst Max was 42). 

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Short Story - Kiss me again, stranger

Score : 10/10

Pages : 28 (from 239 to 266)

This one mixes one aspect from The Birds, specifically World War II trauma, with the leitmotiv of this (e)book, which is the subject of the male gaze. After having been in the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) during WWII - he was stationed at Port Said- this narrator works as a mechanic in a garage by Hampstead Way - he loves the smell of oils and exhaust, and tinkering on machinery. 

To be closer to work, he lodges with Mr and Mrs Thompson. This evening, they are to attend their daughter's wedding at Highgate, so the narrator prefers to go to the picture palace (aka the cinema), and there, despite having never had any notions of changing from his celibacy, falls 'in love' with the usherette. 

Here, the dialogues that Du Maurier gave this narrator on how he becomes infatuated with her revolve all around appearances and comparisons to Doris, the one other 'girl' (in the text, that is) that he would've kisses, except that he was repulsed by her prominent teeth. 

The story contains icky aspects to read, because after the movie and whatever interaction they had, he waits outside, follows and steps into the bus with her. This tantamount to stalking, never named as such, is a deliberate choice, I believe, from the author. It's part of that leitmotiv I mentioned earlier, and because this unnamed usherette smiles and accepts his presence, even his shoulder as a pillow, the narrator starts then and there to think of her as 'his girl', as a direct continuation to the gaze he'd given. 

They end up late at night, around 11, at the terminal, and overhear a discussion the driver and others who also stopped for a quick meal, about the negative effects the war had on people, and this conversation is the key to understand the ending of the story, which I won't spoil but was unexpected - a bit like the surprise conclusion for the previous story. 

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Short Story - The old man

Score : 9/10

Pages : 13 (from 267 to 279)

Addressing some invisible audience, a narrator tells of observing a family of 6, lead by the old man, living secluded from the rest of civilization and whose language he's sure he wouldn't understand. They appear to live solely on fishing, the old man and his missus, later also with their 4 kids.

The old man seems to him very stern, set in his ways ; he nicknames the only male child as Boy, and one of the three girls he names Tiny. As time passes, this narrator sees their growth, and on a fine Saturday in late autumn, he sees the entire family making for Pont - at the head of a creek going eastward from the harbor. There are a few cottages, a farm and a church there.

That weekend, the narrator is shut-in due to constant gale and rain, calming down only by Tuesday. He spies once more on the family, only to see the old man pottering as usual, and the missus. 

He tells his captive audience of the ensuing weeks and doubts about the girls who never returned, Boy's body being found murdered, and the suspicions he has of the old man doing away with them all. 

But, the ending made me really think, a sort of "what did I just read?" sort of questioning ; are we still talking about the same subject, or a whole other ? did we have more male gaze, more stalking, this time from a guy with spyglass ? or is a whole other thing ? I let you discover for yourselves.