Full of the author's joie de vivre, this tale revels in the artistic life of 19th Century Paris.

Three friends, perfect companions for each other, try to make their way as painters in the Bohemian climate of the left bank of the Seine, but then Little Billee falls in love. The object of his affections is Trilby, a gamine figure of the streets and artists' model.

Trilby is under the influence of the strange Svengali who hypnotises her to make her sing. It is not Svengali, however, who is responsible for Trilby's downfall. Du Maurier surely lays that blame on the class system of the time. It is not Trilby's lifestyle that brings tragedy but Victorian attitudes - the worthy encompassed by the inevitable.

It is a love story brim full of rumbustious reminiscence with dark undercurrents about mesmeric possession of the soul - an obsession of the period.

Collection	Narrator	Length
Victorian	Peter Joyce	10 hrs

Media	Compact Disc	Audio Tape
Media Qty	10	6
Audio Format	CD-DA	Analogue
Book Code	VI-115CD	VI-115TA
ISBN	978 1 86015 002 9	978 1 86015 462 1
Price	£25.99	£19.99

George du Maurier (1834 –1896) was a British author who was born in Paris, France. He studied art in Paris, and moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost vision in his left eye. He consulted an oculist in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he met his future wife, Emma Wightwick. He followed her family to London, where he married Emma in 1863. He became a member of the staff of the satirical magazine Punch in 1865, drawing two cartoons a week.

Owing to his deteriorating eyesight, du Maurier retired from Punch in 1891 and settled in Hampstead, where he wrote three novels. His novel, Trilby, the story of the poor artist's model Trilby O'Ferrall transformed into a diva under the spell of the evil musical genius Svengali, created a sensation. Soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and a town in America were all named for the heroine, and a variety of soft felt hat with an indented crown (worn in the London stage production of a dramatization of the novel) is still sometimes referred to as a trilby.

Click here to find out more about George Du Maurier.

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