Trilby (English, Paperback, George Du Maurier)

Complete and unabridged.

100 years ago, Trilby, the story of the beautiful artists’ model and her sinister mentor, Svengali, burst upon an astonished world. It is a tale of Bohemian Paris that is by turns evocative, funny and poignant as it describes Trilby;s rise to musical stardom under Svengali’s influence.

The story brings together a number of strands that fascinated the Victorians. It combines the almost demonic possession of a young woman with hypnotism, mesmerism and sheer animal magnetism. A year after its publication, Sir Henry Beerbohm Tree starred as Svengali in a dramatised version of the best-selling novel, and the profits from the play enabled him to build Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.

Though it is a century old, Trilby still has an amazing power to involve the reader in its ingenious plot. Although the world in which it is set may have passed away, the issues and emotions it describes are still very much with us.

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