In this volume we present two short stories by Daphne Du Maurier. Like Many of Du Maurier's works, the two included here, "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now," have been adapted for other media. Though we perhaps know these two disturbing tales better from Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Birds and Nicolas Roeg's masterful occult thriller Don't Look Now, listening to their original versions still produces a terrifying, dramatic effect that typifies the work of this first-rate storyteller.
In "The Birds," Cornwall, England is under attack by flocks of kamikaze seagulls. Soon, all of England is under fire and a national emergency is declared.
In "Don't Look Now," a grieving couple travels to Venice in an attempt to overcome the death of their young daughter. There, they encounter psychic sisters and an uncanny red-cloaked figure, foretelling of a future tragedy.
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"The claustrophobic intensity of Daphne Du Maurier's "The Birds" was well captured in this narration by Peter Capaldi. In this respect, it's superior to the 1963 Hitchcock film, which padded the tale with superfluous love interest and diluted the story in the process. Here we get a sense of stifling, encroaching menace where, as in some of Poe's stories, the walls seem literally to be closing in. Unlike Hitchcock, Du Maurier offers few moments of daylight: the tale begins when the sudden transition from autumn to winter darkens the weather at the same time an avian army invades a rural home. The turn of the seasons, moreover, is paralleled by the turning of the sea-tides, tides which seem to "govern" the bird attacks; and there is, finally, the turning of a man who must change abruptly from a family provider to a family protector. While the ambiguous ending seems to annoy some readers, it is precisely this ambiguity which sharpens the sense of foreboding. Where else, we might ask, could the author have taken it? She would either have the family die a grisly death or, alternatively, serve up a "happy ending." No --- this was the ending the story merited. And in this age of climate change, who knows what forces may yet provoke the animal kingdom and spread a cloak of darkness over humanity?"
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Paul Kesler (5 out of 5 stars)