Although I enjoyed Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, I haven’t actually read any of Daphne du Maurier’s short stories. Until now, that is. The blurb for The Doll describes it as “short fiction in which she explored the images, themes, and concerns that informed her later work” so I was cautiously excited about what the stories she wrote when she was younger would be like.

The first thing I noticed was that some of the stories were linked with each other. For example, a character named Mazie appears in Picadilly to first tell her story of how she got to where she was. In what feels like a continuation, Mazie goes on to talk about her present life. They could be separate characters but they feel like the same.

And as the blurb mentioned, there were stories with similar themes. Sometimes, one was better than the other; both And Now to God the Father and The Limpet feature self-righteous characters who would ordinarily be the antagonist of the story. But while And Now to God the Father felt a little incomplete – more like a snapshot of Reverend James Holloway than a story involving him – The Limpet managed to flesh out Dilly’s self-centered and manipulative character more and turned it into a short but captivating story about how one person can keep seeing herself as the good person while being an unpleasant person.

At other times, the twist at the end of the story was pretty expected. Both Frustration and Week-End are about love gone awry but I wasn’t really surprised by what happened. For Frustration, it had echoes of The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry so I pretty much expected the ending it had. Likewise, Nothing Hurts for Long and And His Letters Grew Colder, both of which give the ending away in the title, carried the story to an expected conclusion.

That said, there were stories in here which really made an impression. The titular story, The Doll, reminded me strongly of Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, with the unscrutable female protagonist. The atmosphere in the story was excellent and the twist was unexpected. Tame Cat, about a girl who grows up when she goes home, was quieter but equally good. It’s not creepy in the same way The Doll is, but it is such a cynical tale about innocence lost that I found myself returning to it.

Overall, this was a really interesting collection of stories to read. Given that these are mainly her younger works, it’s no surprise that not all of them are going to be as amazing as her full-length works. But there are some great stories in here and they have piqued my interest enough that I want to read another one of her later works.