I don’t know what to say about du Maurier’s depiction of Jewishness. His thick, heavy, languid, lustreless black hair fell down behind his ears on to his shoulders, in that musicianlike way that is so offensive to the normal Englishman… He went by the name of Svengali, and spoke fluent French with a German accent … His companion was a little swarthy young man-a gypsy, possibly-much pitted with the small-pox, … and carried a fiddle and a fiddlestick under his arm, without a case, as though he had been playing in the street. He was very shabby and dirty, and wore a red béret and a large velveteen cloak, with a big metal clasp at the collar. Taffy and the Laird paint for popular consumption, while Little Billee is more serious.įirst, a tall, bony individual of any age between thirty and forty-five, of Jewish aspect, well-featured but sinister. The studio is occupied by three English artists – Taffy, an ex-soldier, the Laird, and Little Billee. Listening, there’s quite a bit of French which went straight over my head, but reading, I can make out the gist – and goes on to describe the large, airy studio above with views out over the street and to the Seine in the distance, walls lined with reproductions of famous paintings, a kitchen in one corner, a piano, and lots of sporting equipment. The novel opens with some lines from a French popular song – If you want to see more, the Project Gutenberg ebook ( here) is fully illustrated.

I couldn’t find a name for the crowd scene in the artists’ studio but the others are “Au clair de la lune”, “Wistfull and sweet”, and “Repentance”. He joined the staff of Punch as an artist in 1865 and all the drawings on this page are by him. George studied art in Paris but seems to have lived mostly in London. You’ll be pleased to learn that George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was not of French aristocratic stock, escaped to London to avoid the guillotine, but was in fact the grandson of a tradesman, Busson, who left Paris in a hurry to avoid fraud charges. Then to my further surprise I learned also that Svengali was was not an historical figure but du Maurier’s invention. But of course Trilby (1894) is by George du Maurier (1834-1896), Daphne’s grandfather. When I saw a few of you were reviewing du Mauriers I thought, I’ve got a du Maurier on a flash drive somewhere, Trilby, started listening, sounds C19th, must be historical.

Trilby de george du maurier