Three couples go to a remote house in the mountains for the weekend. Some of them were high school friends and have a long history. Not all of them return. I devoured this

I'm usually fond of DuMaurier's writing, but this romantic novel, set in early 19th century England, seemed fussy and busy to me. I had a sensation almost like hyperventilating while reading it. That may have been the intent, as the protagonist is somewhat manic. I was glad to turn the last page on this one.

Based on the true story of Mary Anne Clark, but feels influenced by classic tales of a woman against the world, like Moll Flanders or Vanity Fair. Also good for fans of historical romance or courtroom dramas.

Daphne Du Maurier is one of my favorite authors but this is not her best book. While it is a fast read, it is simply chapter after chapter of fictional conversations, which is an odd and somewhat grating writing style. I wish there had been more historical context and background given, rather than relying so heavily on speculated conversations. I wanted to know more about the characters and how they fit into the history/culture of the day, but instead it felt like a very surface level book.

I am a massive Du Maurier fan, so this is going to be very biased and no surprise that I really enjoyed it.

Mary Anne is a historical novel based on Du Maurier's great-great-grandmother, who was the mistress of Fredrick, Duke of York. Later on when the relationship fizzled out, she testified against him in the House of Commons that she had sold army commissions and that he knew all about it. This is the main focus of the story although it charts both her life before the Duke and touches on her being prosecuted for libel (which she was imprisoned for) and her time in France.

There's no doubt about it, Mary Anne Clarke is a fascinating woman and makes for a wonderful main character. Du Maurier brings her to life and makes her into a feisty, independent woman and portrays all her bad attributes as well as her good. She is probably the most feminist of all the Du Maurier characters I've read. She doesn't need a man and is determined to make it herself. Her precarious position as mistresses meant that she could be cast off at any time, a fate which not only happened to her but many many mistresses of the nobility.

The only downside is that after part 3, the writing style changes and it starts to read more like a newspaper. Du Maurier herself criticized the book for this very reason (Mary Anne was one of her least favourite novels). It really gives the novel a disjointed feel and it's a pity because we start to lose Mary Anne's character and the well written pace of the previous two parts. It never fully recovers although the ending comes close.

The subject is fascinating and there's so many components that are things I love but I just found it quite dry.

Insightful
Bleak
Informative

This is a mixed bag: far too long; Mary Anne is quite ghastly; and it was quite hard to find any character I really liked, but the descriptions of the court scenes were so interesting, and DdM's writing style is always enjoyable even in this, my least favourite book of hers!

At first this book was interesting— it’s about Daphne du Maurier’s great-great-grandmother, who was mistress to the Duke of York during the Regency era. I like the Regency era. It was fun at first reading about how she was so crafty and resourceful and independent in getting to where she wanted to be and escaping poverty, and the first part did read like a good novel. But then it started to feel like a really technical biography, and I couldn’t follow all of the names and titles and events that are so specific to that context without having more explanation, which we didn’t get. du Maurier herself said she was disappointed in this novel and thought it read like a newspaper report, and I agree.

The most interesting part was the idea that Mary Anne was encouraged to write memoirs of her life but gave up those rights so she could get a settlement basically, and in this fictionalized version, she says that her children can write her book. There’s something Louisa May Alcott-adjacent about the discussion of copyright to her story in that bit. And it was beautifully written in a lot of parts— just so, so boring for too many pages.