This is George du Maurier's tale of beautiful lost Trilby O'Ferrall -- graceful, ingenuous, and captive to the hypnotist Svengali, a creature so foul -- so nearly demonic -- that his name has become a part of our language. Vile Svengali captivates the girl, transforming her from a beautiful but unmusical artists' model into an amazing operatic diva -- and, in process, binding her so tightly to his wants and needs that she becomes literally dependent on him for the breath of life. Trilby appeared in the years when Freud and similar thinkers were making the observation that not everything that happens in our hearts and minds is subject to our control -- nor even to our understanding. Du Maurier's observations on mesmerism, sexuality, and the occult haunt us even now.

Author Biography

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834 - 1896) was a Franco-British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Sir Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier. He was also the father of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and grandfather of the five boys who inspired J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Du Maurier studied art in Paris and moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost vision in his left eye. He consulted an oculist in Dusseldorf, Germany, where he met his future wife, Emma Wightwick. He followed her family to London, where he married Emma in 1863. The couple settled in Hampstead around 1877, first in Church Row and later at New Grove House. They had five children: Beatrix (known as Trixy), Guy, Sylvia, Marie Louise (known as May) and Gerald. Owing to his deteriorating eyesight, du Maurier reduced his involvement with Punch in 1891 and settled in Hampstead, where he wrote three novels. His first, Peter Ibbetson, was a modest success at the time and later adapted to stage and screen, most notably in a film and as an opera.