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| The Desperate People | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Desperate People |
| Author | Daphne du Maurier |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English language |
| Genre | Gothic fiction, Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd |
| Pub date | 1932 |
| Media type | |
The Desperate People is a 1932 novel by Daphne du Maurier set in a remote coastal community on Dorset's Isle of Purbeck and the nearby town of Swanage. The work combines elements of Gothic fiction, regionalism, and psychological suspense, and it engages with motifs common to du Maurier's contemporaries such as Agatha Christie, Graham Greene, and Virginia Woolf. The novel established du Maurier's reputation among readers of Victor Gollancz Ltd and influenced later adaptations in British literature and film.
The Desperate People draws on du Maurier's intimate knowledge of Dorset and its coastal landscape, echoing earlier regional novels like Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge and contemporaneous works by Ford Madox Ford and E. M. Forster. Du Maurier situates personal crisis amid seascapes and cliffs, invoking settings associated with Cornwall and the English Channel. The narrative structure reflects techniques used by Wilkie Collins and Charlotte Brontë, blending first-person testimony with omniscient narration in a manner akin to Henry James's psychological realism. Publication by Victor Gollancz Ltd placed du Maurier alongside writers promoted in interwar Britain such as Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell.
Set largely around Swanage and the fictionalized environs of the Isle of Purbeck, the plot follows an outsider drawn into the lives of a coastal family after a disappearance that echoes past tragedies from the era of the Victorian seaside economy. The protagonist, who arrives from London and has previously lived near Paris, becomes embroiled in local suspicions when a child vanishes near the cliffs that border the English Channel. Regional tensions reminiscent of those in Hardy's novels surface as neighbors from Wareham and Bournemouth speculate, and authorities from Dorchester and the County Constabulary investigate. Du Maurier orchestrates a crescendo of discovery that involves clandestine meetings at a local manor house, revelations about inheritance linked to an old marriage in a coastal parish, and a final confrontation on jagged rocks above the sea reminiscent of famous set-pieces in Gothic tradition.
Major characters include the narrator, an unnamed observer with connections to London salons and provincial families reminiscent of figures in Henry James; a matriarchal landowner whose lineage recalls names from Hardy's Wessex; a devoted local doctor influenced by archetypes in E. M. Forster; and a mysterious outsider whose past ties trace back to Paris and the Channel Islands. Supporting roles feature villagers from Swanage, clergy attached to the parish church, constables dispatched from Dorchester and Poole, and a solicitor with offices in Bournemouth and London. Du Maurier populates her community with characters who echo those in works by Agatha Christie, Barbara Pym, and Ruth Rendell, while maintaining a psychological complexity associated with Graham Greene and Virginia Woolf.
Du Maurier explores isolation and social cohesion in a coastal community, invoking imagery of cliffs, tides, and storms that align her with landscape-focused writers such as Thomas Hardy and John Masefield. Themes include secrecy rooted in lineage and property disputes reflective of legal contests commonly depicted in Victorian literature, memory and repression akin to motifs in Henry James and Wilkie Collins, and the tension between metropolis and periphery evoked through contrasts with London and provincial towns like Swanage. The novel interrogates moral ambiguity in characters reminiscent of those in Graham Greene and probes gendered expectations similar to concerns raised by Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen. Critics note du Maurier's use of setting as a psychological mirror, an approach used by Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë to externalize inner turmoil.
Originally published in the United Kingdom by Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1932, the novel appeared in serial formats in periodicals read in London and provincial reading rooms, following a common interwar practice exemplified by publications of A. A. Milne and Dorothy L. Sayers. The book was later reissued in editions from Penguin Books and specialty presses in the late 20th century during a revival of interest in du Maurier prompted by retrospectives at institutions such as the British Library and the National Trust properties associated with du Maurier's life. Adaptations have included radio dramatizations broadcast by BBC Radio and stage interpretations performed in regional theaters in Dorset and Cornwall, with visual references later echoed in films inspired by du Maurier's oeuvre, including works by directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski who drew on similar coastal and psychological motifs.
Contemporary reviews in The Times and literary journals placed du Maurier among prominent interwar novelists such as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene, praising her atmospheric evocation of place while noting derivations from Hardy and Wilkie Collins. Literary historians link The Desperate People to a strand of British fiction that foregrounds regional identity and psychological suspense, influencing later novelists including Pat Barker, Penelope Lively, and Jeanette Winterson in their treatment of locality and memory. The novel remains of interest to scholars studying interwar popular fiction, regional studies centered on Dorset and the Isle of Purbeck, and adaptations in radio and theatre linked to du Maurier's wider legacy. Category:1932 novels