George Du Maurier Books

Easton Press George Du Maurier books:
Peter Ibbetson - Library of Famous Editions - 1963

 

Peter Ibbetson
First published in 1891, Peter Ibbetson was the first of three novels with Trilby and The Martian that du Maurier wrote and illustrated in the last five years of his life. Peter 'Gogo' Pasquier, an inmate at an English lunatic asylum, records the unfortunate chain of events that led from his idyllic Parisian childhood to the brutal murder of his adoptive Uncle Ibbetson. But the reason for this memoir is not to seek forgiveness for his crime: it is to tell of his love for the Duchess of Towers and their shared ability to 'dream true' - to dream so lucidly that they can travel back through time and space to any moment of their (or their ancestors') lives...

Of the non-natural part of his story I will not say much. It is, of course, a fact that he had been absolutely and, to all appearance, incurably insane before he wrote his life. There seems to have been a difference of opinion, or rather a doubt, among the authorities of the asylum as to whether he was mad after the acute but very violent period of his brief attack had ended. Whichever may have been the case, I am at least convinced of this: that he was no romancer, and thoroughly believed in the extraordinary mental experience he has revealed. At the risk of being thought to share his madness if he was mad I will conclude by saying that I, for one, believe him to have been sane, and to have told the truth all through.