Author Guide · Gothic & Suspense Fiction
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“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Daphne du Maurier wrote that line in 1938, and Rebecca has not been out of print since; it sold close to three million copies in its first 27 years. Three of her books became Alfred Hitchcock films, and a short story set in Venice became Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. Born in London in 1907, the daughter of the actor-manager Gerald du Maurier, she spent most of her life in Cornwall, and set most of her best-known fiction there: smugglers on Bodmin Moor, a pirate in a creek on the Helford, a Civil War siege, a drug that sends a man back to the fourteenth century. This guide covers her 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1931–1977 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Daphne du Maurier wrote 17 novels, plus short story collections, biographies and plays. Her best-known books are Rebecca (1938), Jamaica Inn (1936), Frenchman’s Creek (1941), My Cousin Rachel (1951) and the stories “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now”. Start with Rebecca; the guide below shows where to go after it, from historical adventure to time travel.
Where to Start with Daphne du Maurier
If you want her defining book
→ Rebecca (1938) — the second Mrs de Winter at Manderley.
If you want a suspense novel built on doubt
→ My Cousin Rachel (1951) — did Rachel poison her husband, or not?.
If you want the stories behind the films
→ The Apple Tree (1952) — “The Birds” and “The Apple Tree”.
If you want something stranger
→ Rule Britannia (1972) — time travel in her own house in Cornwall.
12 Daphne du Maurier Books, in Order
The Loving Spirit
Her first novel follows four generations of a Cornish boat-building family, the Coombes, in a harbour village she calls Plyn, modelled on the Fowey estuary where she was living. The young army officer Frederick “Boy” Browning read it, sailed to Fowey to meet her, and married her in 1932.
Jamaica Inn
After her mother dies, Mary Yellan goes to live with her aunt Patience and her uncle Joss Merlyn, landlord of a lonely inn on Bodmin Moor, and finds that the inn is the centre of a gang of smugglers and wreckers. Hitchcock filmed it in 1939, with a rewritten ending that neither he nor du Maurier liked; the BBC adapted it again in 2014.
Rebecca
A shy young woman, never named, marries the widower Maxim de Winter after a few weeks in Monte Carlo and comes home with him to Manderley, his house in Cornwall, where the housekeeper Mrs Danvers keeps the memory of his first wife Rebecca alive. It sold nearly three million copies between 1938 and 1965 and won the American Booksellers Association’s award for favourite novel of 1938. Hitchcock’s 1940 film, with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Frenchman’s Creek
In Restoration England, Lady Dona St Columb leaves the London court for her husband’s empty house on the Helford River in Cornwall and falls in love with a French pirate who anchors his ship in the creek below it. Mitchell Leisen filmed it in Technicolor in 1944.
The King’s General
Honor Harris, disabled in a riding accident as a young woman, tells the story of her love for Sir Richard Grenville, the Royalist commander in Cornwall during the English Civil War. The siege and the secrets at its centre take place at Menabilly, the house near Fowey where du Maurier was living as she wrote it.
My Cousin Rachel
Philip Ashley, raised by his cousin Ambrose on a Cornish estate, suspects that Ambrose’s new wife Rachel had a hand in his death in Florence — until she arrives in Cornwall and he falls in love with her. The book never settles whether she is guilty. It was filmed in 1952 with Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland, and in 2017 with Rachel Weisz.
The Apple Tree
Her first collection of mature stories, later reissued as The Birds and Other Stories. In “The Birds” a farm worker on the Cornish coast, Nat Hocken, barricades his family in as the birds begin to attack; Hitchcock moved it to California for his 1963 film. The book also contains “The Apple Tree” and the novella “Monte Verità”.
The Scapegoat
John, an English lecturer in French history on holiday in France, meets his exact double, the Comte Jean de Gué, in a bar in Le Mans; the next morning he wakes up in Jean’s place, with Jean’s family, chateau and failing glass factory. Alec Guinness played both men in the 1959 film.
The House on the Strand
Dick Young stays at Kilmarth, near Tywardreath in Cornwall, and tries a drug made by his friend Magnus Lane, a biophysicist, which takes his mind back to the same place in the early fourteenth century. He can watch the steward Roger and the lady Isolda Carminowe but cannot touch them, and he grows more addicted with each trip. Kilmarth was her own home when she wrote it.
Not After Midnight
Five long stories, published in the US as Don’t Look Now. The title story follows John and Laura, a couple grieving their young daughter in Venice, who meet two elderly sisters, one of whom says she can see the dead girl. Nicolas Roeg filmed it in 1973 with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.
Rule Britannia
Her last novel: Britain has left the Common Market and joined a union with the United States, and American troops arrive on the Cornish coast. An elderly actress, Mad, her granddaughter Emma and a household of adopted boys lead the local resistance.
Growing Pains
Her memoir of her first 25 years, also published as Myself When Young: a theatrical London childhood as the daughter of Gerald du Maurier, school in Paris, the discovery of Cornwall, and the writing of her first novel, ending with her marriage in 1932.
In What Order to Read Daphne du Maurier
Apart from a few characters and places that recur, her books are separate, so there is no series to follow. They do fall into groups: the Cornish historical novels (Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, The King’s General); the suspense novels with a narrator who cannot be sure of what he or she sees (Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat); and the stories, which are darker than most of the novels.
Read Rebecca first, then My Cousin Rachel, which works the same ground from a man’s side. The stories in The Apple Tree and Not After Midnight show the side of her that Hitchcock and Roeg found; The House on the Strand is the best of the late novels.
A reading path
1. Rebecca (1938)
2. My Cousin Rachel (1951)
3. The Apple Tree (1952)
4. Jamaica Inn (1936)
5. The House on the Strand (1969)
Everything Else Daphne du Maurier Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 23 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other novels
8
8 books · 1932–1965
- 1932I’ll Never Be Young Againher second novel, narrated by a young man
- 1933The Progress of Juliusa Frenchman’s rise in London
- 1943Hungry Hillan Irish mining family over five generations
- 1949The Parasitesthree children of a theatrical family
- 1954Mary Anneher great-great-grandmother, mistress of the Duke of York
- 1961Castle Dorcompleted from the manuscript of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
- 1963The Glass-Blowersher French glass-making ancestors in the Revolution
- 1965The Flight of the Falcona tour guide in an Italian university town
Other story collections
4
4 books · 1959–2011
- 1959The Breaking Pointalso published as The Blue Lenses
- 1959Early Storiesstories written 1927–1930
- 1980The Rendezvous and Other Storiesearlier stories collected
- 2011The Doll: The Lost Short Storiesearly stories rediscovered after her death
Biography, memoir and Cornwall
8
8 books · 1934–1980
- 1934Gerald: A Portraither father
- 1937The du Mauriersher family
- 1951The Young George du Maurierher grandfather’s letters
- 1960The Infernal World of Branwell Brontëthe Brontës’ brother
- 1967Vanishing Cornwallthe county and its history
- 1975Golden LadsAnthony Bacon and his circle
- 1976The Winding StairFrancis Bacon’s rise and fall
- 1980The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memoriesher working notes for Rebecca and essays
Plays
3
3 books · 1940–1948
- 1940Rebeccaher own stage version
- 1945The Years Betweena soldier returns home after being reported dead
- 1948September Tidefirst staged at the Aldwych Theatre
The years · 1907–1989
Quick facts about Daphne du Maurier
- Known for
- Gothic suspense set mostly in Cornwall, above all Rebecca (1938), and stories that became films by Alfred Hitchcock and Nicolas Roeg.
- 1907
- Born in Regent’s Park, London
- 1931
- First novel, The Loving Spirit
- 1938
- Rebecca
- 1963
- Hitchcock’s The Birds
- 1969
- Made a Dame (DBE)
- 1989
- Dies at home in Par, Cornwall
- Born
- 13 May 1907, Regent’s Park, London
- Died
- 19 April 1989, Par, Cornwall, aged 81
- Family
- Daughter of the actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and the actress Muriel Beaumont; granddaughter of the writer George du Maurier
- Married
- Frederick “Boy” Browning, in 1932; three children
- Honours
- Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1969)
- Films
- Three Hitchcock films: Jamaica Inn (1939), Rebecca (1940), The Birds (1963)
The red mark is 1938: Rebecca, the novel that has never gone out of print.
How Daphne du Maurier Writes: Houses, Doubt and Cornwall
Her books are usually built around a house: Manderley in Rebecca, the inn on Bodmin Moor, Menabilly in The King’s General, Kilmarth in The House on the Strand. Several of those houses were real and close to her own; she wrote The King’s General while living at Menabilly and set The House on the Strand in Kilmarth, the house she lived in at the time.
She often hands the story to a narrator who cannot see clearly. The second Mrs de Winter is never given a first name; Philip Ashley in My Cousin Rachel cannot decide whether the woman he loves is a poisoner, and the book does not decide for him. Several of her narrators are men, including those of My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat and The House on the Strand. The critic Kate Kellaway called her “mistress of calculated irresolution”.
Her short stories go further than the novels: birds that turn on people for no reason given, a grieving couple in Venice who misread a warning. That darkness is what drew Hitchcock and Nicolas Roeg. Her non-fiction shows where her interests lay: her father’s theatrical family, the Brontës’ brother Branwell, and the history of Cornwall.
Watch
Daphne du Maurier at 70, interviewed at home in Cornwall
For her 70th birthday in 1977, Cliff Michelmore interviewed du Maurier at her home in Cornwall about her life and books, in a film directed by her son Christian Browning and first shown on ITV.
Frequently asked questions about Daphne du Maurier’s books
How many books has Daphne du Maurier written?
She wrote 17 novels, from The Loving Spirit (1931) to Rule Britannia (1972), as well as short story collections, biographies, books about Cornwall, a memoir and three plays. This page covers 12 key books; the rest are listed under “Everything Else”.
What are Daphne du Maurier’s books in order?
The key books are The Loving Spirit (1931), Jamaica Inn (1936), Rebecca (1938), Frenchman’s Creek (1941), The King’s General (1946), My Cousin Rachel (1951), The Apple Tree (1952), The Scapegoat (1957), The House on the Strand (1969), Not After Midnight (1971), Rule Britannia (1972) and Growing Pains (1977).
Where should I start with Daphne du Maurier?
With Rebecca (1938). After that, My Cousin Rachel for more of the same suspense, or the stories in The Apple Tree, which include “The Birds”.
What is Daphne du Maurier’s most famous book?
Rebecca (1938). It sold nearly three million copies between 1938 and 1965, has never gone out of print, and came 14th in the BBC’s Big Read survey in 2003. Its first line, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”, is one of the best known in English fiction.
Which Daphne du Maurier books were filmed by Alfred Hitchcock?
Three: Jamaica Inn (1939), Rebecca (1940), which won the Oscar for Best Picture — the only Hitchcock film to do so — and The Birds (1963), based on her short story. Other films include My Cousin Rachel (1952 and 2017), The Scapegoat (1959), Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973) and Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca (2020).
Was Rebecca plagiarised?
It was accused twice; neither claim was proven. Brazilian critics said Rebecca resembled A Sucessora (1934) by Carolina Nabuco, and Nabuco and her editor said plot, situations and whole passages of dialogue had been copied. Du Maurier and her publisher denied it, and no evidence of copying has been produced. Nabuco never sued. Separately, in the 1940s the American writer Edwina MacDonald sued du Maurier, her publisher and the makers of the film, saying Rebecca copied her novel Blind Windows; the court found it had not been copied and dismissed the case.
Is Don’t Look Now a book?
It is a short story, first collected in Not After Midnight (1971), which was published in the US as Don’t Look Now. Nicolas Roeg filmed it in 1973.
Where did Daphne du Maurier live?
Mostly in Cornwall. Her family had a house at Fowey, she lived for many years at Menabilly, the model for Manderley, and later at Kilmarth, the house in The House on the Strand. She died at Par, Cornwall, on 19 April 1989.
Was Daphne du Maurier related to George du Maurier?
Yes. The writer and Punch artist George du Maurier, author of Trilby, was her grandfather, and the actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier was her father. She wrote about both, in The Young George du Maurier (1951) and Gerald: A Portrait (1934).
Footnotes
- Daphne du Maurier — Wikipedia
- Rebecca (1940 film) — Wikipedia
- Carolina Nabuco — Wikipedia
- MacDonald v. Du Maurier — Film Suits
- Film and TV — The Daphne du Maurier Website
- 11 Facts About Rebecca — Mental Floss
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
— Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (1938), the first line
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