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George du Maurier

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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, includingGuy,Sylvia,andGerald
"Now then, Mossoo, your Form is of the Manliest Beauty, and you are altogether a most attractive Object; but you've stood there long enough. So jump in and have done with it!"

Cartoon by du Maurier fromPunch

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier(6 March 1834 – 8 October 1896) was a Franco-Britishcartoonistand writer known for work inPunchand aGothicnovelTrilby,featuring the characterSvengali.His son was the actor SirGerald du Maurier.The writersAngela du MaurierandDaphne du Maurierand the artistJeanne du Maurierwere all granddaughters of George. He was also father ofSylvia Llewelyn Daviesand grandfather of thefive boyswho inspiredJ. M. Barrie'sPeter Pan.

Early life

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George du Maurier was born inParis,France,son of Louis-Mathurin Busson du Maurier and wife Ellen Clarke, daughter of theRegency courtesanMary Anne Clarke.He was brought up to believe hisaristocraticgrandparents had fled fromFranceduring theRevolution,leaving vast estates behind, to live in England asémigrés.In fact, du Maurier's grandfather, Robert-Mathurin Busson, was atradesmanwho 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 ofCharles Gleyre,[2]and moved toAntwerp,Belgium, where he lost the vision in his left eye. He was reportedly studyingchemistryatUniversity College, London,in 1851.[3]He is recorded in the 1861 England Census as alodgerat 85 Newman St in Marylebone.[4]

He met Emma Wightwick in 1853 and married her a decade later, on 3 January 1863, atSt Marylebone, Westminster.[5][6]Moving frequently over the course of their marriage, the couple first settled inHampsteadin 1869, initially atGang Moornear the Whitestone Pond for three years, before moving to 27Church Rowand later at New Grove House inHampstead Grovein 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) andGerald.[11]

Career

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

Cartoonist

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Du Maurier became a member of staff at the British satirical magazinePunchin 1865, drawing two cartoons a week. His commonest targets were the affected manners ofVictorian society,thebourgeoisieand members of Britain's growing middle class in particular. His most enduring cartoon,True Humility(1895), popularised the expressions "good in parts" and "acurate's egg".In it, a bishop addresses a humblecurate,whom he has invited to breakfast: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr. Jones." The curate replies, "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you – parts of it are excellent!"[12]The gag was not original to du Maurier, however, as it had appeared in a similar cartoon a few months earlier inJudy,a less widely read competitor toPunch.[13]In an earlier (1884) cartoon, du Maurier coined the expression "bedside manner",with which he satirised medical care.[14]Another of his notable cartoons depicted a fancifulvideophoneconversation in 1879, using a device he called "Edison'stelephonoscope".[15]

While producing black-and-white drawings forPunch,du Maurier created illustrations for several other popular periodicals:Harper's,The Graphic,The Illustrated Times,The Cornhill Magazine,and the religious periodicalGood Words.[16]Furthermore, he did illustrations for the serialisation ofCharles Warren Adams'sThe 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 wasMisunderstoodbyFlorence Montgomeryin 1873.[18]

Writer

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George du Maurier in the middle of his career

His deteriorating eyesight caused du Maurier to reduce his involvement withPunchin 1891 and settle inHampstead,where he wrote three novels. His first,Peter Ibbetson(1891), was a modest success at the time and later adapted forstageand screen, most notably ina 1935 film,and as anopera.[19]

His second novel,Trilby,published in 1894, fitted into thegothichorrorgenre 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 ofTrilby, 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 inspiredGaston Leroux's 1910 novelPhantom of the Operaand 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 entitledThe Martian,published posthumously in 1898.[citation needed]

Death and legacy

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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 inSt John-at-Hampstead churchyardin 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 ofHenry James,the novelist; their relationship was fictionalised inDavid Lodge'sAuthor, Author(2004).[22]

"A Legend of Camelot"
Illustration by du Maurier forPunch,17 March 1866, parodyingPre-Raphaelitism

Bibliography

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  • Peter Ibbetson(1891), also 1917play;adapted in 1935 byHenry Hathawayintoa filmstarringGary Cooper;also adapted asan operabyDeems Taylorin 1931; and in 1988 dramatised as aradio playforBBC Radio 4Saturday-Night TheatrebyDavid 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

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See also

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References

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  1. ^"George Du Maurier, Illustrator and Novelist".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.Dictionary of National Biography,Volumes 1–22 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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.1861 England Census[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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.London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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.Retrieved26 June2020.
  8. ^Class:RG10;Piece:192;Folio:4;Page:2;GSU roll:823312.Ancestry.1871 England Census[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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. ^Mary Cathcart Borer (1976),Hampstead and Highgate: The story of two hilltop villages.London:W. H. Allen & Co.,p. 169.ISBN0491018274
  10. ^The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Class: RG12; Piece: 15; Folio: 174; Page: 3. Ancestry. 1891 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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 and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.1881 England Census[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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. ^Egan, Kieran (2004).Getting It Wrong from the Beginning: Our Progressivist Inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget.Yale University Press. pp. 22–23.ISBN9780300105100.
  13. ^"The Curate's Egg: Parts of It Are Excellent".Quote Investigator.Retrieved5 March2019.
  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. ^Roberts, Ivy (2017). "'Edison's Telephonoscope': the visual telephone and the satire of electric light mania ".Early Popular Visual Culture.15(1): 1–25.doi:10.1080/17460654.2016.1232656.ISSN1746-0654.S2CID191910615.
  16. ^Souter, Nick and Tessa (2012).The Illustration Handbook: A guide to the world's greatest illustrators.Oceana. p. 32.ISBN9781845734732.
  17. ^The original edition illustrated is available at theInternet 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. ^Flieger, Verlyn (2001).A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie.Kent: Kent State University Press. pp. 30–35.ISBN9780873386999.
  20. ^Nancy, Glazener (24 March 2011)."The novel in postbellum print culture". The Cambridge History of the American Novel. Edited by Leonard Cassuto.Cambridge University Press. p. 337.ISBN9781316184431.
  21. ^Ancestry.England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry 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

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  • 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
  • "Du Maurier",a poem byFlorence Earle Coatesfirst published in 1898
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