Daphne

When I read about this book last month on Random Jottings I developed a strong desire to read it. Why? I'm not entirely sure. I am not a huge Du Maurier fan though like most people I had a phase, rather a long time ago, of reading everything she wrote. And I am not a huge Bronte fan either -- and that's not to say I don't love the novels, because I do, and I have read numerous biographies of the sisters, though never one of Branwell, in whom I have never had all that much interest. So you might think this book, which is about Daphne's struggles to write a biography of Branwell, would not really be my cup of tea. But nevertheless I fancied it, got it, and have just read it. And I enjoyed it very much.
As you may know, the novel is tripartite, by which I mean there are three separate stories which intertwine throughout. They are all connected, of course. There's Daphne's story, and a rather disturbing one it is, really. Stuck, most of the time, at Menabilly, the house she has restored and on which she based Manderley, she is suffering greatly because of her husband Tommy's state of mental and physical health. A heavy drinker -- probably an alcoholic -- he has been having an affair with a woman only referred to as the Snow Queen, his relationship with Daphne has hit rock bottom, and he is in the throes of a nervous breakdown. And in the midst of all this she is trying to write a biography of Branwell. This brings her into contact with the subject of the second story, Alex Symington, a very sad character indeed. A librarian and a great lover of all things Bronte, he has been sacked from both the Bronte museum and the Brotherton library because he has stolen manuscripts from both. Aging, unwell, unhappily married, he lives in a crumbling house surrounded by huge numbers of boxes full of papers and has always hoped he would write a biography of Branwell himself. The third story, set in the present, concerns a young woman academic who is trying to research these facts herself for a PhD, but finds herself trapped in an unhappy marriage with a much older man whose beautiful first wife Rachel seems destined to wreck the relationship. Sounds familiar? Well, yes. Although this strand is quite cleverly done, and although the girl herself does admit that she is somehow constructing her marriage to make it conform to du Maurier's plots, it does seem at times a little contrived. But nonetheless I found this book pretty rivetting. I am a sucker for anything to do with academics and research, and I liked the fact that Justine Picardie had based most of the Daphne/Symington plot on actual fact and that the letters she quotes between them are real letters. Nicely done. I must say, though, that these two peoples' lives become almost unbearably painful -- I could hardly bring myself to read about poor Symington, who really is in a dreadful state. All jolly good stuff, and well worth a read.