Trilby (Oxford World's Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Worth a read or two...
Review: I have to disagree with the reviewer who commented that this novel is at best a curiosity and that it deserved to fade into obscurity. I read this in a course on 19th century novels and fell in love with du Maurier's writings and his drawings. He uses such wonderful devices to flavor the text and in many ways this satirical view of the aesthetic movement informs the period as much as Oscar Wilde's work does. That the work has some anti-Semitic sentiment it is no more worrisome than anything in Shakespeare (meaning that you must take the work as a work in a period of time). The character types are common enough and the message of the story is timeless--I'll leave the discernment of the message to the reader. Reading this was like uncovering your grandad's favorite toy in the attic and realizing it was still fun to play with today.

Rating:
Summary: High-spirited 1890's hit
Review: Reading "Trilby" is like listening to a lively, friendly raconteur taking you into his confidence. All the characters are interesting and lovable despite their faults. Ultimately, du Maurier even has a soft spot for Svengali. Sentimental, yes...but effervescent and with a broad tolerance for life and human weaknesses. It's a fun, memorable read and easy to see why it was a huge hit of the 1890's.

Rating:
Summary: Read it for the atmosphere
Review: The book which put "Svengali" into the English language. I had heard of this book long ago, of course, though i can't remember whether it was first from learning about Svengali or finding out that du Maurier was Daphne du Maurier's father. But i had never read it. In a way i'm glad i didn't, becuase that has given me the opportunity to read it now, for the first time. It has taken me a little longer than i might have expected, but was well worth the time. The story of the tragic Trilby, who cannot sing a note to save her life, and how she is moulded into the singer who takes Europe by storm, by the evil (?)(i'm not sure) musician Svengali, who uses mesmerism of some kind to play her as an instrument. The story is told from the persepective of three Englishmen who lived in Paris during the time Trilby was an artists' model, before she fell under Svengali's spell. The three, Taffy, the Laird, and Little Billee, who was her fiancé at one point, briefly, are artists, of a sort; they love Trilby for herself, and are devastated when she is removed from them by events. Naturally, they are shocked by her reappearance in the world of Culture. But they are delighted at the possibility of renewing her acquaintance.

I could wish that du Maurier had not been so cute with his French as "spoken" by the English. I could wish that there is less French altogether, as it does slow down the reading ~ perhaps one reason "Trilby" isn't read any more (is it?). It does generate an atmosphere, though, and you begin to know what Western Europe was like in the middle years of two centuries ago. This edition, Dover, has over a hundred illustrations by du Maurier, who had made his name as a cartoonist for Punch. They are lovely, and add immeasurably to the book.

Rating:
Summary: High-spirited 1890's hit
Review: Three British artists go to paint in the Bohemian Latin Quarter of Paris, in the 1860s. Taffy Wynn, a reserved and good-natured English giant, resigned his cavalry commission after missing, by mischance, death or glory in the Charge of the Light Brigade. Sandy, the Laird of Cockpen, is a Scottish lawyer's son. Little Billee Bagot is the youngest, slight of build, of almost childish innocence, and yet the others realise that as a painter, he may someday tower above them.

The life and characters of the Latin Quarter are marvellously described, and we can only guess, nowadays, at some of the identities. Whistler the painter was much aggrieved. The three strike up a friendship with Trilby, daughter of a deceased Irish drunkard and Scottish barmaid, who is a laundress and artists' model. She is deeply unsettled by the sinister Svengali, a Jewish pianist with hypnotic powers.

The book is often accused of crude antisemitism, but "crude" seems unjust. Du Maurier claims that Little Billee has some proportion of that Jewish blood which is best diluted, but adds something to all others. Svengali's cruelest jest - they think - is to encourage Trilby to sing, saying she has the finest voice he knows. For she is tone-deaf, and the exhibition is grotesque.

Billee proposes marriage, and Trilby, who loves him, is induced to flee Paris. For besides being a laundress, she sits for "the altogether", and would destroy Billee's life in respectable society. She disappears, and only many years later is she discovered, as Madame Svengali, the singer whose fame is taking Europe by storm. For Svengali spoke nothing but the truth. She did indeed have the finest voice in Europe, which she was entirely unable to use, and that consummate but warped artist, by skill as much as hypnotism, has taught her to be the nightingale of her age.

The story ends tragically, as Victorian melodramas do. But high tragedy arises when a great and noble hero comes to grief through some fatal misconception. Trilby, in her last years, is highly enough respected to have elevated even the great William Bagot, rather than dragged him down. Suppose he and his family had realised? Suppose Svengali, although partially redeemed, had been unselfish enough to tell all, and teach her in Paris?

Joseph Heller wrote of a character whose girlfriends had to wait until a play was over, to know whether they were enjoying it, and then they knew at once. The literary establishment does not like sentiment, because the ordinary reader does not need any help to know if he likes it. But if you want to sample Victorian sentimentalism at its best, this is where to start.

Rating:
Summary: a curiousity piece...
Review: Trilby is the popular 1890s novel which introduced the word "svengali" into the English language. Simply stated, Trilby is story of three male British artists living the carefree life of 1850s bohemian Paris. Amongst their clique of artists and musicians is Trilby, a peasant girl with a heart of gold but no artist (or musical) talent, and Svengali, a talented yet sinister character. Svengali, through mysterious means, "possesses" Trilby's mind/soul and transforms her into a operatic zombie. Although a bit contrived by today's standards, this "evil man possessing young, innocent girl" theme has been repeated in such enduring pieces as Dracula (written only a couple years after Trilby) and Phantom of the Opera.

Unfortunately, Trilby is not fine literature. The portrait of bohemian life is definitely viewed through rose-colored glasses, and du Maurier's anti-semitic descriptions of the Jewish Svengali is rather vulgar (by today's standards).

Overall Trilby is a curiousity piece which probably won't appeal today's readers. It's decline into obscurity is justified.