Echoes from the Macabre by Daphne du Maurier
"Echoes from the Macabre" is a collection of unsettling stories that explore the intertwining of the ordinary with the surreal, often featuring characters who experience psychic phenomena and existential crises. The narratives delve into themes of grief, guilt, and the uncanny, as seen in "Don't Look Now," where a couple grapples with the loss of their daughter and encounters psychic revelations that lead to a shocking conclusion. In "The Apple Tree," a man confronts his feelings of regret and retribution through a gnarled tree he believes embodies his deceased wife’s spirit, culminating in a tragic fate.
"The Blue Lenses" presents a woman's unsettling journey of self-discovery as she temporarily gains a unique perspective on those around her, revealing hidden truths about their natures. Timothy Grey, the protagonist of "Not After Midnight," faces moral corruption influenced by mythological themes during his holiday in Crete, showcasing the dangers of losing oneself to decadence. Lastly, "The Birds" depicts a chilling scenario in which nature's avian creatures turn predatory, leading to a harrowing struggle for survival. Together, these stories create a tapestry of psychological horror, reflecting human fears and the haunting echoes of past traumas.
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Echoes from the Macabre
First published: 1976 (“The Apple Tree,” “The Birds,” “Kiss Me Again, Stranger,” and “The Old Man” previously published in The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Some Stories, 1952; “Not After Midnight,” “Don’t Look Now,” “The Pool,” “The Blue Lenses,” and “The Chamois” previously published in Not After Midnight, 1971, also released as Don’t Look Now)
Type of work: Stories
Type of plot: Fantasy—extrasensory powers
Time of work: The recent past
Locale: England, Crete, and Greece
The Plot
The best stories in this collection are about ordinary persons who have psychic or surreal experiences. In “Don’t Look Now,” John and Laura, an English couple who have gone to Venice to recover from the death of their daughter, Christine, encounter two elderly twin sisters, one of whom is blind and psychic. She tells them that Christine is alive. When they hear that night that their son is ill, Laura flies back to England alone. While she is gone, John is convinced that he sees Laura, in Venice, and in the company of the mysterious sisters. Things become more sinister when he calls England and Laura answers the phone. He is then told by the blind sister that he has had a psychic experience. What he saw, she says, was Laura returning to Venice for John’s own funeral. The story comes to a bizarre conclusion when John pursues a little girl he thinks is Christine but who turns out to be a dwarf with a sharp knife.
“The Apple Tree” is the story of a man who is convinced that a gnarled old apple tree outside his bedroom window is the spirit of his dead wife, come back to take revenge on him for being glad she is gone. Its wood smolders instead of burns, its blossoms are ugly, and its fruit is inedible. When at last, in a blind rage, the man chops the tree down during a snowstorm, his foot gets trapped in the stump, and there is no one around to hear his cries for help.
“The Blue Lenses” is the story of a woman who is given a special implant to restore her sight. Temporary blue lenses are implanted first. When she looks through them, she sees animal heads on humans and realizes that she is seeing people for what they really are, particularly her husband, who has the head of a vulture, and the night nurse, who has the head of a snake. After a second implant restores her perception of others, she looks at herself in the mirror and sees the head of a submissive doe.
“Not After Midnight” is the story of Timothy Grey, an English schoolmaster and amateur artist who, while on holiday on Crete, comes under the evil influence of mythological deities as personified by the Stolls, an obnoxious American couple. When they catch Greg spying on them, Mr. Stoll sends him a small urn in the shape of Silenus, drunken tutor to the god Dionysus. When Grey finds Mr. Stoll’s dead body and realizes that Mrs. Stoll has killed him, he finds himself helplessly drawn toward the same Dionysian excess that corrupted Mr. Stoll.
“The Birds” is an apocalyptic story of what happens when birds turn predatory and set out to destroy civilization. An isolated farmhouse on the coast of Cornwall in England becomes the focus of an attack being launched all over the world. At first, the farmer is able to board the windows and block the chimneys, but eventually he is outmaneuvered by the birds. In the end, he waits helplessly as the birds concentrate their attack on his front door.