Daphne Du Maurier in overalls: Kiss me again, stranger!

The poet Keats once famously avowed that writers were like ‘camelions’- chameleons in the sense that they enter ‘into’ their characters  and then even ‘become’ their characters for a while. This seems as much a form of creative possession as ventriloquism and Mamie Dickens watched her father ‘perform’ his creations in a mirror, a spectacle she found understandably fascinating and disturbing.

 

Reading Du Maurier’s short story, ‘Kiss me again, stranger’ I felt a sudden surge of elation as I enjoyed the palpable delight of Du Maurier’s narrator dressing up in oily overalls and getting stuck in underneath a faulty car.

The joy of engine oil is clearly felt and part of the pleasure of Du Maurier I find is her zest for cross dressing. Angela Carter made a similar point brilliantly about DHLawrence or ‘ Lorenzo the closet queeen’ as she fondly calls him as he carefully puts on Gudrun’s stockings in Women in Love. Du Maurier seems liberated at the sight of the overalls and then of course she gets to create her own femme fatale through the deployment of a  male perspective which works very well indeed. Heterosexuality is very much a fluid construct here!

Margaret Forster’s biography of Du Maurier raised the question of Du Maurier’s sexuality and this story seems very much to explore sexuality and seduction from a very playful and then slightly unnerving perspective.

Do read the story and see how you feel about the grave yard, nay grave stone scene!

In other words, it reads as if the femme fatale is the author’s dream date as much as the mechanic in his  overalls, and I cannot help but laugh at my own image of Du Maurier stretching out her legs in oily overalls, heading off to the cinema  and finding the hottest date in town! ( With the laziest, cat like eyes of course) ….

‘I’m not paid to advertise. I’m paid to look like this and lure you inside.’

Even the use of the comma in the title of the story, seems to involve an intake of breath and a sultry pause before seduction!

Dr Janet Lewison English tutor, Bolton, Bury and Manchester

Tags: creative writing, English Tuition, reading for confidence, short story, Tuition private english tuition Bolton Manchester

Posted in Book Reviews, Favourite Books?, Feedback! Feedback! Feedback!, General blog Chat, Memorable Short Stories, Reading Diary, Reading for Life!