House on the Strand - Softcover

Daphne du Maurier (1907-89) was born in London, the daughter of the famous actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and granddaughter of George du Maurier, the author and artist. In 1931 her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published. A biography of her father and three other novels followed, but it was the novel Rebecca that launched her into the literary stratosphere and made her one of the most popular authors of her day. In 1932, du Maurier married Major Frederick Browning, with whom she had three children.Many of du Maurier's bestselling novels and short stories were adapted into award-winning films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now. In 1969 du Maurier was awarded a DBE. She lived most of her life in Cornwall, the setting for many of her books.

Michael Maloney's tense reading, punctuated by musical interludes, at first gives this production the feel of a soap opera. But his intensity energizes this bleak, chilly novel of a man unhappy in his own life and obsessed with the past, which he can visit, or view, through an experimental time-travel drug. In a novel filled with unsympathetic characters, Maloney makes protagonist Dick seem more sympathetic than he would otherwise be. He indicates various characters skillfully through small shifts of voice; his American accent for Dick's wife is flawless. No one could make this novel fun; Maloney makes it involving. A printed insert on the story's background is helpful but contains many spoilers. W.M. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine