Reviews

The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

sandytfrench's review against another edition

4.0

The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars 
Thank you to Little Brown Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book, on the occasion of its reissue, in exchange for an honest review. 

A masterful collection of dark and mysterious tales that will captivate readers who delight in exploring the complexities of human relationships, the power dynamics between men and women, and the eerie consequences of playing with the natural world.

I had not re-read The Birds in many years so this was a treat. Du Maurier's writing is gorgeous, of course, and I loved how the tension and sense of threat ramped up.
The other stories were new to me. The two stand-outs were The Apple Tree (which was the original title of this collection,) which was slow, dark and disturbing, and The Old Man, which didn't do a lot for me until the very end; that last sentence was ✨️ chef's kiss ✨️
This really put me in the mood for a re-read of Rebecca, which I have done a few times since I first read it in college (some 30-odd years ago! 😳) but is probably overdue by now. 

tempscire's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

jazzrj's review

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

periwinklcs's review

5.0

q buena the birds uf chills

rannum's review

dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

bellisk's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

getupkid10's review

dark

4.5

pauline_b's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 stars

What a wonderfully whimsical, gritty and chilling collection. Du Maurier's storytelling is just as good in the short story format as in "Rebecca" and she sure knows how to build up tension.

The Birds 3☆
Monte Verità 4☆
The Apple Tree 5☆
The Little Photographer 4☆
Kiss Me Again, Stranger 5☆
The One Man 3☆

closteroven's review

4.0

(7/10)- This was a mixed bag, but overall I liked the stories. I’ll try to get into it with a bit more detail:

The Birds: I enjoyed this story a lot, and even if a few things bothered me a bit (the way it was written was very impersonal and I had trouble relating to the characters) I found other things were really good, like the idea behind the story and the implications of what could happen next.

Monte Verità: This was decent. It was long, and I found the ending wasn’t great, since I was pretty confused by what the characters chose to do, but it was still a good story. I don’t think much of it.

The Apple Tree: This one was an interesting metaphor, but I didn’t particularly like the main character. The story was fine, not bad but not astounding, and the ending was good. There’s not much else to say.

The Little Photographer: I really liked the study of the character of the Marquise in this one, and while I didn’t particularly love the end end of the story, I liked the way it decided to turn. While some of the character’s boredom translated to me while I was reading it, it was overall a very interesting story.

Kiss Me Again, Stranger: This was fine. I liked the character but didn’t love him. I felt I would’ve liked more of his present day opinion in the story. I didn’t really like the story itself, since it wasn’t surprising, and I think I’ve read a better interpretation of this type of idea.

The Old Man: I really enjoyed the ending of this story. The plot twist at the end was incredible. It was short and sweet, and while I was confused as I was reading it all became clear at the end.

moonpix's review

4.0

I thought both Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel were stronger than this collection as a whole but there was still a lot to love, especially the titular story and The Little Photographer. I’ve been in a short story phase lately, there’s just something uniquely fun about reading a full collection and finding the thematic through-lines between each piece. This work is also an important part of the Isak Dinesen/Shirley Jackson/Angela Carter legacy of gothic short stories by women and so it was interesting to think about the through-lines across all of their works as well.

The comparison to Dinesen’s Winter Tales is especially resonant here, for despite many of the stories historical settings both collections are clearly reactions to the recent world war. This work in particular gives insight into the psychology of post-war Britian— characters struggle with forces beyond their control, and are consumed by repressed guilt. There are many crimes that take place in these stories, as well as some burials and attempted burials. The Birds and The Old Man, the stories that book-end this collection, along with burials also involve seagulls and swans. The role of animals and the ancient ritual of burial lends the whole book a sacrificial, fabulistic quality. In the context of the war, these fables do not have a traditional moral lesson, but rather seem to ask if it is possible to move on knowing that you have done wrong.

Interestingly, this work is also deeply concerned with the power of the landscape, in what after the technological destruction of the war could be seen as a romantic, backward facing turn. But these natural disasters are often directly compared to the effects of the fighting— “It was, Nat thought, like air raids in the war. No one down this end of the country knew what the Plymouth folk had seen and suffered. You had to endure something yourself before it touched you”. In the aftermath of the technology of war the landscape gains more power, and in its uneven distribution of punishment it further alienates people from each other. In fact it seems as if the deeply repressed guilt over the war has been manifested in this new landscape.

For the characters it then follows that the only hope of escaping guilt and regret is if the consequences of violence are returned into the land through burial. After one such burial two characters feel a sense of relief: “It was both a requiem and a benediction. An atonement, and a giving of praise. In their strange way they knew they had done evil, but now it was over … they were free to be together again”. But du Maurier questions this resolution, for another story ends with a character leaving the site where she murdered her lover, writing in a delicious echo of Rebecca that “they turned out of the hotel grounds into the road. Behind her lay the headland, the hot sands, and the sea. Before her lay the long straight road to home and safety. Safety…?”. Even if you have acknowledged wrongdoing, even if you have buried the evidence out of sight, and even if you have left this landscape behind, guilt can still follow you.

“When he reached the beach below the headland he could scarcely stand, the force of the east wind was so strong. It hurt to draw breath, and his bare hands were blue. Never had he known such cold, not in all the bad winters he could remember. It was low tide. He crunched his way over the shingle to the softer sand and then, his back to the wind, ground a pit in the sand with his heel. He meant to drop the birds into it, but as he opened up the sack the force of the wind carried them, lifted them, as though in flight again, and they were blown away from him along the beach, tossed like feathers, spread and scattered, the bodies of the fifty frozen birds. There was something ugly in the sight. He did not like it. The dead birds were swept away from him by the wind.”