This day in history: George du Maurier was born on this day in 1834. Du Maurier was a cartoonist and writer best known for writing the novel Trilby. You may not have heard of Trilby and it was a huge success in the 1890's when it was released. Trilby tells of a poor artist's model, Trilby O'Ferrall, who was transformed into a diva under the spell of an evil musical genius, Svengali. Soap, songs, dances, toothpaste, and even the city of Trilby, Florida, were named after her, as was the variety of soft felt hat with an indented crown worn in the London stage dramatization of the novel. The plot inspired Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Phantom of the Opera and innumerable other works derived from it. Du Maurier eventually came to dislike the persistent attention the novel was given.
The dark figure of Svengali resonated with the public and the word “svengali” has come to refer to a person who, with evil intent, dominates, manipulates and controls another.
In court, the Svengali Defense is a legal tactic that portrays the defendant as a pawn in the scheme of a greater, and more influential, criminal mastermind.
No comments:
Post a Comment