George du Maurier

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

George du Maurier
BornGeorge Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier
(1834-03-06)6 March 1834
Paris, France
Died8 October 1896(1896-10-08) (aged 62)
Hampstead, England
OccupationCartoonist, illustrator, novelist
Spouse
Emma Wightwick
​
(m. 1863)​
Children5, including Guy, Sylvia, and Gerald
Punch

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (6 March 1834 – 8 October 1896) was a Franco-British cartoonist and writer known for work in Punch and a Gothic novel Trilby, featuring the character Svengali. His son was the actor Sir Gerald du Maurier. The writers Angela du Maurier and Daphne du Maurier and the artist Jeanne du Maurier were all granddaughters of George. He was also father of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and grandfather of the five boys who inspired J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.

Early life

George du Maurier was born in

tradesman who left Paris, France, in 1789 to avoid charges of fraud and later changed the family name to the grander-sounding du Maurier.[1]

Du Maurier studied art in Paris, France, in the studio of Charles Gleyre,[2] and moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost the vision in his left eye. He consulted an oculist in Düsseldorf, Rhineland, Prussia, German Confederation. He was reportedly studying chemistry at University College, London, in 1851.[3] He is recorded in the 1861 England Census as a lodger at 85 Newman St in Marylebone.[4]

He met Emma Wightwick in 1853 and married her a decade later, on 3 January 1863, at St Marylebone, Westminster.[5][6] Moving frequently over the course of their marriage, the couple first settled in Hampstead in 1869, initially at Gang Moor near the Whitestone Pond for three years, before moving to 27 Church Row and later at New Grove House in Hampstead Grove in 1881.[7][8][9] In 1891, the family is recorded as residing at 2 Porchester Rd in Paddington.[10] They had five children: Beatrix (known as Trixy), Guy, Sylvia, Marie Louise (known as May) and Gerald.[11]

Career

George du Maurier's former home at 91 Great Russell Street, London

Cartoonist

Du Maurier became a member of staff at the British satirical magazine

videophone conversation in 1879, using a device he called "Edison's telephonoscope".[15]

While producing black-and-white drawings for Punch, du Maurier created illustrations for several other popular periodicals:

Harper's, The Graphic, The Illustrated Times, The Cornhill Magazine, and the religious periodical Good Words.[16] Furthermore, he did illustrations for the serialisation of Charles Warren Adams's The Notting Hill Mystery, which is often seen as the first detective story of novel length to have appeared in English.[17] Among several other novels he illustrated was Misunderstood by Florence Montgomery in 1873.[18]

Writer

George du Maurier in the middle of his career

His deteriorating eyesight caused du Maurier to reduce his involvement with Punch in 1891 and settle in Hampstead, where he wrote three novels. His first, Peter Ibbetson (1891), was a modest success at the time and later adapted for stage and screen, most notably in a 1935 film, and as an opera.[19]

His second novel, Trilby, published in 1894, fitted into the gothic horror genre that was undergoing a revival. Hugely popular, it tells of a poor artist's model, Trilby O'Ferrall, transformed into a diva under the spell of an evil musical genius, Svengali. Soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and even the city of Trilby, Florida, were named after her, as was the variety of soft felt hat with an indented crown worn in the London stage dramatisation of the novel. The plot inspired Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Phantom of the Opera and innumerable works derived from it.[20] Du Maurier eventually came to dislike the persistent attention the novel was given.

The third novel was a long, largely autobiographical work entitled

The Martian, published posthumously in 1898.[citation needed
]

Death and legacy

George du Maurier's grave at St John's at Hampstead churchyard. Also interred in the same grave are Emma, his wife and Gerald du Maurier, his son.

Du Maurier died on 8 October 1896 and was buried in

St John-at-Hampstead churchyard in Hampstead. The success of his writings and illustrations allowed du Maurier to leave a then staggering amount of £47,555 in his will.[21]

Du Maurier was a close friend of Henry James, the novelist; their relationship was fictionalised in David Lodge's Author, Author (2004).[22]

Pre-Raphaelitism

Bibliography

  • Peter Ibbetson (1891), also 1917
    Saturday-Night Theatre by David Buck.[23]
  • Trilby (1894) published first as a magazine serial in 8 parts
  • The Martian (1898)
  • Social Pictorial Satire (1898) (Harper's New Monthly Magazine)

Film adaptations

See also

  • Trilbymania

References

  1. ^ "George Du Maurier, Illustrator and Novelist". www.victorianweb.org.
  2. ^ Ainger, Alfred (1901). "Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson" . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). Vol. 2. pp. 161–166.
  3. ^ London, England: Oxford University Press; Volume: Vol 22; Page: 370. Ancestry.com. Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1–22 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Stephen, Sir Leslie, ed. Dictionary of National Biography, 1921–1922. Volumes 1–22. London, England: Oxford University Press, 1921–1922. Dictionary of National Biography, 1921–1922, Oxford University Press, London, England.
  4. ^ Class: RG 9; Piece: 66; Folio: 57; Page: 37; GSU roll: 542567. Ancestry.com. 1861 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1861. Data imaged from The National Archives, London, England.
  5. ^ "George du Maurier, Illustrator and Novelist".
  6. ^ London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P89/mry1/235. Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Church of England Parish Registers. London Metropolitan Archives, London.
  7. ^ "A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington. British History Online". Victoria County History. 1989. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  8. ^ Class: RG10; Piece: 192; Folio: 4; Page: 2; GSU roll: 823312. Ancestry.com. 1871 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1871. Data imaged from the National Archives, London, England.
  9. ISBN 0491018274
  10. ^ The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Class: RG12; Piece: 15; Folio: 174; Page: 3. Ancestry.com. 1891 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1891.
  11. ^ Class: RG11; Piece: 166; Folio: 99; Page: 19; GSU roll: 1341036. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1881 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1881.
  12. ISBN 9780300105100
    .
  13. ^ "The Curate's Egg: Parts of It Are Excellent". Quote Investigator. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  14. ^ Benham, W. Gurney. A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words: A Collection of Quotations from British and American Authors, Ancient and Modern. J. B. Lippincott, 1907, p. 458.
  15. S2CID 191910615
    .
  16. ISBN 9781845734732
    .
  17. ^ The original edition illustrated is available at the Internet Archive: Section 1 Retrieved 1 February 2013. Once a Week, Vol. 7, p. 617, 29 November 1862 and at weekly intervals.
  18. ^ The Feminist Companion to Literature in English, eds. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 752.
  19. ISBN 9780873386999
    .
  20. ISBN 9781316184431
    .
  21. ^ Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England.
  22. ^ Harrison, Sophie, "'Author, Author': The Portrait of a Layabout" The New York Times, October 10, 2004.
  23. ^ Saturday-Night Theatre: Peter Ibbetson – BBC – Radio Times

Further reading

  • Simon Cooke and Paul Goldman. George Du Maurier: Illustrator, Author, Critic. Beyond Svengali. Routledge, 2016
  • Richard Kelly. George du Maurier. Twayne, 1983
  • Richard Kelly. The Art of George du Maurier. Scolar Press, 1996
  • Leonée Ormond. George du Maurier. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1969
  • "
    Florence Earle Coates
    first published in 1898

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to George du Maurier.
Wikiquote has quotations related to George du Maurier.
Wikisource has original works by or about:
George du Maurier
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson".

Online editions

Physical collections

Biographic information

Other

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_du_Maurier&oldid=1220188429"