We hope the example of Daphne's family will encourage you to post on this webpage your favourite lines other than the universally well-loved opening to Rebecca. Perhaps you'll be inspired to re-read her books and discover other lines with a special meaning for you.

Virago Press has published almost thirty of Daphne's books in paperback with a delightful hardback edition of Vanishing Cornwall. These have introductions by established authors, some of whom have presented at our Festival and submitted their own favourite lines below.

If you have already REGISTERED as a Member, please use the SUBMIT form to send your favourite lines to us, where they will be reviewed by Ann Willmore.

"Your Favourite Lines" is based on an original idea by Collin Langley.

Jennie Liebenberg
My Cousin Rachel

'Rachel,' I said, 'why did not Ambrose sign the will?'
... 'I never knew,' she said; 'we did not speak of it again. But I think when he realised that I could not, after all, have children, he lost belief in me. Some sort of faith went, though he never knew it.'
As I knelt there, with my arms about her, I thought of the letter in the pocket book beneath the granite slab, with this same accusation said in other words, and I wondered how it could be that two people who had loved could yet have such a misconception of each other and, with a common grief, grow far apart. There must be something in the nature of love between a man and a woman that drove them to torment and suspicion.
...How little she had understood of Ambrose after all. And what small knowledge he had had of her.'
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.19, p.215-216, Virago (2003).

It seems to me that these words of Philip's are pivotal - he has recognised the gulf of misunderstanding between Ambrose and Rachel. If he had only had the insight at this point to relate this discovery to his own relationship with her, perhaps the story could have had a very different end. From this passage I also recognise Daphne du Maurier's skill in presenting dialogue between her characters. Whilst direct answers seem to be given to direct questions, in fact there is no seeking confirmation by any party that what they think they've understood is what was actually meant, and the reader becomes aware how much at cross-purposes the different characters can be with one another. This shows, it seems to me, keen observation of human conversation, which can often conceal more than it reveals, and, despite apparent candour, obscure the whole truth with often tragic and sometimes fatal consequences.
Jennie Liebenberg.

Deborah Bevan
My Cousin Rachel

'I love the stillness of a room after a party...'
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.12, p.121, Virago (2003).

This line is mirrored in the movie 'Daphne' and is tremendously important. Fabulous.
Deborah Bevan.

Josie Dolan
My Cousin Rachel

When I stood upon the grass at sunrise, before the servants had wakened and come down to open the shutters and let in the day, I wondered if any man before me had been accepted in marriage in quite so straight a fashion. It would save many a weary courtship if it was always so. Love, and all its trappings, had not concerned me hitherto; men and women must do as best they pleased, I had not cared. I had been blind, and deaf, and sleeping; now, no longer.
What happened on those first hours of my birthday will remain. If there was passion, I have forgotten it. If there was tenderness, it is with me still. Wonder is mine forever, that a woman, accepting love, has no defence. Perhaps this is the secret that they hold to bind us to them. Making reserve of it, until the last.
I would not know, having no other for comparison. She was my first, and last.
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.21, p.253/4, Virago (2003).

I love this because it is the turning point of the novel. It follows Philips's sexual awakening before he is consumed with what transpire to be murderous jealousy and suspicion of Rachel. The writing is beautifully nuanced since it captures the young man's joy whilst also registering wisdom of hindsight of the bitter experience and guilt to come. It really displays to full advantage the economic lyricism of du Maurier at her best.
Josie Dolan.

Amanda Craig
My Cousin Rachel

'In England,' I said, 'especially down here, we lay great stress upon the weather. We have to, by the sea. Our land isn't very rich, you see, for farming; not as it is up-country. The soil is poor, and with four days out of seven wet we're very dependent on the sun when it does shine…'
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.8, p.82, Virago (2003).

Everything you need to know about Phillip Ashley's Englishness, his emotionally stunted nature, is in this paragraph as he talks uncomprehendingly to his Italian cousin Rachel, for whom generosity like the sun is natural. Amanda Craig.

Amanda Craig wrote the introduction to the Virago edition of The Flight of the Falcon. AW.

Caroline Metcalfe
My Cousin Rachel

They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more, though.
…Tom Jenkyn, battered specimen of humanity, unrecognisable and unlamented, did you, all those years ago, stare after me in pity as I went running down the woods into the future?
They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more, though.
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.1, p.1, 7 & Ch.26, p.335, Virago (2003).

I love the beginning and ending of My Cousin Rachel. Caroline Metcalfe.

Jemma Hatt
My Cousin Rachel

She had so many faces, so many guises, and that name contessa, used by the servant Giuseppe and by Rainaldi too, in preference for Mrs Ashley, gave to her a kind of aura she had never had with me at first, when I had seen her as another Mrs Pascoe. Since my journey to the villa she had become a monster, larger than life itself. Her eyes were black as sloes, her features aquiline like Rainaldi's, and she moved about those musty villa rooms sinuous and silent, like a snake.
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.6, p.52/53, Virago (2003).

These lines stand out in my memory because they suggest how dangerous loneliness combined with imagination can be, as well as how carried away Philip gets when he thinks about Rachel. Although he likens Rachel to a snake, it is Philip who appears to have all of the venom! Philip's fallibility as a narrator renders Rachel's character all the more mysterious and compelling. Jemma Hatt.

Sam Rimington
My Cousin Rachel

The words were scrawled, almost illegible.
'For God's sake, come to me quickly. She has done for me at last, Rachel my torment. If you delay, it may be too late. Ambrose'
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.3, p.27, Virago (2003).

Yet I was in error even then, she called me Ambrose....
They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more though.
My Cousin Rachel, Ch.26, p.335, Virago (2003).

I read somewhere that even Daphne herself didn't know the truth of the matter; was Rachel angel or devil. When as a teenager I saw the Richard Burton, Olivia de Havilland film, I remember spending an age trying to decide, but eventually gave it up! Sam Rimington.