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Average customer rating:

Sometimes Laughable, but Overall Good
Quaint, but Not Remarkable.
Very ahead of it's time.
High-spirited 1890's hit
Read it for the atmosphere

Trilby (Oxford World's Classics)
George Du Maurier , and Dennis Denisoff
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192833510

Book Description

'You shall see nothing, hear nothing, think of nothing but Svengali, Svengali, Svengali!' First published in 1894, the story of the diva Trilby O'Ferrall and her mesmeric mentor, Svengali, has entered the mythology of the time alongside Dracula and Sherlock Holmes. Immensely popular for a number of years, the novel led to a hit play, a series of popular films, and the trilby hat. The setting of the story reflects the author's bohemian years as an art student in Paris; indeed James McNeill Whistler was to recognize himself in one of the early serialized instalments. George Du Maurier was a celebrated caricaturist for Punch magazine and his drawings for the novel form part of its appeal - this edition includes his most significant illustrations.

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Mon ami, an apple is an excellent thing -- until you have tried a peach! Her voice to that of Alboni is as a peach to an apple--I give you my word of honour! but bah! the voice is a detail. It's what she does with it--it's incredible! it gives one cold all down the back! it drives you mad! it makes you weep hot tears by the spoonful! Ah! the tear, mon fy! tenez! I can draw everything but that! Ca n'est pas dans mes cordes! I can only madden with love! But La Svengali! . . . And then, in the middle of it all, prrrout! . . . she makes you laugh! Ah! le beau rire! faire rire avec des larmes plein les yeux--voila qui me passe! .. . Mon ami, when I heard her it made me swear that even I would never try to sing any more.

Customer Reviews:

Sometimes Laughable, but Overall Good.......2007-05-04

There were times when I was laughing at the characters and at the plot of the book. For instance there is plenty of filler and then comes the wait to find out who the great new singer taking Europe by storm is. And then the line. "It was Trilby!" If only they could see themselves. It was so obvious to the reader for pages and pages of filler.

The characters are a bit flat. Little Billee is some type of enamoured artist and Svengali is a demonic master of music, a simple sort of lovably dumb love interest, there's a disapproving worrying mother worried about social rank and you plug them in to the formula and you get a classic novel.

Sometimes I wonder where the art is in a book like this. In this instance it's mostly in the balance of the plot and the timing of suspense and the way the truth all unfolds at the end.

Like I said Svengali and Little Billee are a little one dimensional and at that their images are basically used as a plot device, and for the most part the author just tells you what the characters are like more than showing. So my main complaint is that Svengali wasn't as wicked or as mesmeric as I anticipated, basically he's just cheap and spits on Little Billee. Take it up another level of vagueness (hard to call it abstraction) and you've got a guy with a messed up face, a mask, and a protege calling himself the phantom of the opera.

These are the shortcomings of the book as I see them, but I can see why it's a classic the story/plot is well done, and the filler is well written, and occasionally entertaining, and occasionally you or I sort of laughed and identified with the the character-introspective passages, but I rarely felt for the characters genuinely.

Quaint, but Not Remarkable........2006-04-03

I was assigned this book for a class on Aesthetic and Decadant movements in Victorian British literature, and had never heard of it before then. However, I did enjoy it. It has a sardonic but good-natured tone that is winning, and it's not surprising that Du Maurier was greatly influenced by Thackeray; they share the same subtle sting in their prose.
Unfortunately, contrasting with the entertainment value in the novel, there is little of substance, unless one wishes to dig back into the social mileau of the time, which included many anxieties expressed in this book. It is interesting in this context, but I don't know if I would have done the work on my own without the class to guide me.
So, if you want some light entertainment of the Victorian variety, I definitely recommend this book to you--otherwise, look elsewhere.

Very ahead of it's time........2005-03-19

The story essentially centres on the competition between two men for love of one woman, but ultimately each of them abuses her with their own notoins of ownership. It seems to focus on the nature by which we can kill those we love with strangulating beliefs of ownership and imposing standards of behaviour which kill the spirit of the being we direct them at.
Given that "ownership" was a strong theme in Victorian marriage, this book was being ultimately brave but it seems the audience at the time of it's release, revelled in it's horror form a gothic point of view, a hugely popular novel movement at the time.
It has taken time and changes in attitudes to see the themes beyond the story. This book still has enormous contempary resonance and is a disturbing but important read.

High-spirited 1890's hit.......2003-02-02

Reading "Trilby" is like listening to a lively, friendly raconteur taking you into his confidence. All the characters are interesting and lovable despite their faults. Ultimately, du Maurier even has a soft spot for Svengali. Sentimental, yes...but effervescent and with a broad tolerance for life and human weaknesses. It's a fun, memorable read and easy to see why it was a huge hit of the 1890's.

Read it for the atmosphere.......2002-09-24

The book which put "Svengali" into the English language. I had heard of this book long ago, of course, though i can't remember whether it was first from learning about Svengali or finding out that du Maurier was Daphne du Maurier's father. But i had never read it. In a way i'm glad i didn't, becuase that has given me the opportunity to read it now, for the first time. It has taken me a little longer than i might have expected, but was well worth the time. The story of the tragic Trilby, who cannot sing a note to save her life, and how she is moulded into the singer who takes Europe by storm, by the evil (?)(i'm not sure) musician Svengali, who uses mesmerism of some kind to play her as an instrument. The story is told from the persepective of three Englishmen who lived in Paris during the time Trilby was an artists' model, before she fell under Svengali's spell. The three, Taffy, the Laird, and Little Billee, who was her fiancé at one point, briefly, are artists, of a sort; they love Trilby for herself, and are devastated when she is removed from them by events. Naturally, they are shocked by her reappearance in the world of Culture. But they are delighted at the possibility of renewing her acquaintance.

I could wish that du Maurier had not been so cute with his French as "spoken" by the English. I could wish that there is less French altogether, as it does slow down the reading ~ perhaps one reason "Trilby" isn't read any more (is it?). It does generate an atmosphere, though, and you begin to know what Western Europe was like in the middle years of two centuries ago. This edition, Dover, has over a hundred illustrations by du Maurier, who had made his name as a cartoonist for Punch. They are lovely, and add immeasurably to the book.

Trilby and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)

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Trilby and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy (Norton Critical Editions)

ASIN: 019282984X

Book Description

Trilby and Other Plays is a new selection of English plays that had wide success on both sides of the Atlantic. Each achieved its greatest fame through the talents of a particular star performer. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with a scholarly Introduction and detailed annotation. Included in this volume are Jack Sheppard, The Corsican Brothers, Our American Cousin, and Trilby.

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