Lost ‘macabre male-sex doll’ story by Daphne du Maurier found after 70 yrs
By ANIMonday, February 21, 2011
LONDON - A lost ‘macabre’ short story written by celebrated novelist, Daphne du Maurier, has been found by an enthusiast after more than 70 years.
‘The Doll’ - one of 13 du Maurier short stories to be published in a new anthology, was discovered by Ann Willmore.
Billed as “a dark story of obsession and jealousy”, ‘The Doll’ is the peculiar tale of a man who becomes infatuated with a woman he meets at a party. He visits her home only to discover the real object of her affection: a life-size, mechanical male doll, reports the Telegraph.
Written around 1928, the story found reference in Daphne’s biography, but biographers and academics failed to find it.
Ann Willmore spent years on the case before finally unearthing it in a 1937 compendium, ‘The Editor Regrets’, featuring short stories that had been rejected for publication.
Willmore said, “I have had a long interest in Daphne du Maurier and I collect examples of her work from old magazines or journals in the UK or America.
“It was by complete chance that I was searching online one day and found The Editor Regrets. Realising what I had found was very exciting and it was just luck - a one-in-a-million chance.”
Du Maurier died in 1989.
Her son, Kits Browning, said that The Doll story was “riveting and quite ahead of its time”.
“I only wish it had been discovered when my mother was still alive. It’s a very dark and disturbing story for someone who was 21 when she wrote it, and from the sort of background she came from. It’s all about a male sex doll. I would have loved to have teased her about it.” (ANI)
