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    The Birds & Don't Look Now
    The Birds & Don't Look Now
    The Birds & Don't Look Now
    Audiobook2 hours

    The Birds & Don't Look Now

    Written by Daphne Du Maurier

    Narrated by Peter Capaldi

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Du Maurier is of course world famous for many of her novels. These two stories are perhaps even better known as films (The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock and Don't Look Now by Nic Roeg), but here we bring you the full terrifying texts, superbly read by Peter Capaldi, who brings the true dimension of these works to the imagination.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Copyright Group
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780001630
    The Birds & Don't Look Now
    Author

    Daphne Du Maurier

    Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) has been called one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Among her more famous works are The Scapegoat, Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, and the short story "The Birds," all of which were subsequently made into films—the latter three directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

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    Reviews for The Birds & Don't Look Now

    4/5

    143 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Five stories that were classic DuMaurier. Each one as mysterious as the next, two of them had been made into movies in the '70's. Very enjoyable! :)

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Don’t Look Now is a collection of nine short stories that Daphne Du Maurier published between 1952 and 1980. Daphne Du Maurier’s writing runs the gamut from straight historical to suspense/thriller, so I was intrigued to see what her stories would be like.These stories cover much of Du Maurier’s career, and they’re all stunning. She takes what are seemingly ordinary people and subjects and turns the story into something far more sinister. From the arresting opening story, in which a couple are grieving the loss of their child and take a holiday to Venice, to a story in which England’s birds attack the human population, to a story in which a woman has eye surgery and wakes to view the inner beast in humans, these stories are amazing and contain a lot of significance, even though some of them are a couple of pages long. Any one of these stories could have been made into an Alfred Hitchcock film; and I’d swear that M. Night Shyamalan used “Split Second” as inspiration for The Sixth Sense. The collection itself is great because all of these stories connect in some way to the others. My personal favorite story in this collection is the titular “Don’t Look Now”—Daphne Du Maurier at her best. This is a collection not to be missed if you’re a fan of the author like I am, or like short stories.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The Birds builds into a fabulous thriller, elegantly written with excellent thematic issues and Capaldi just nails the read.
      I enjoy Hitchcock’s movie, but now that I’ve read the original tale I feel like he ditched a lot in his very loose translation.
      Both stories are worth the brief time it takes to read them, and both were made into very stylish and memorable films.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      If you have not read the short story upon which Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds” is based, then you have not… (Wait a minute. You haven’t seen “The Birds”? NO! Well, leave, right now, rent it, steal it, whatever you have to do. Go watch that. Okay. Done? Watched it now? Sheesh, who are some of these people? Where was I? Oh, yeah.) If you haven’t read the short story, then you have only tasted a piece of the terror that this story can bring. I’m old enough to remember when people were shocked by the ending of the movie (I won’t give it away), how they were appalled at the non-ending. Read the short story. You’ll gain a greater understanding of how an unresolved conflict really tells a greater story.So, to say I’m a fan of this story is a bit of an understatement. Which means I feel that any book containing this Daphne Du Maurier classic is already worth the purchase. But this is more than one of Du Maurier’s stories – this is a collection. Prior to this book, my only experience was with that one short story. This collection proves that I need to get moving and discover more of her work.The stories contained here are suspenseful, macabre, creepy, and, above all, compelling. Du Maurier generally starts simply – you feel you are visiting the lives of everyday people. But the normalcy starts to turn, and ordinary residents of these stories soon find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. For example, the first story (“Don’t Look Now”) starts with a couple who, we eventually learn, are visiting Venice to try and get away from the recent death of their young daughter. The wife meets two sisters who are psychic and, as the husband dismisses their visions, he finds himself wrapped up in them. In the story “Split Second”, we learn about a widow who is coming to grips with being alone – both because of her husband’s death a few years ago and her daughter attending a boarding school. The woman goes for a walk and returns home to find things turned completely around.My descriptions are boring. That is because, as I said, the stories seem to start with the mundane. But Du Maurier, even in describing the mundane lives of people, draws you into the tales. And, before you know it, the story has been warped and you are wrapped in the lives and the story.Not every story is perfect. The editor has purposely chosen a broad range of stories and it seems that this effort has resulted in the selection of some weaker ones. And speaking of that editor, an important warning about this particular collection: Do not read the Introduction prior to reading the stories. It describes every story and would, I imagine, take away the enjoyment of discovery within the stories. I can only imagine because I saw where the Introduction was headed and avoided it until I was done with the collection. Avoid the introduction. Do not avoid the collection.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The story of the book is mystery. There are four main character in the story. First the man and his wife met two strange old girls .And they met two strange people many times and occur strange things.I think this story is easy to read. And a little interesting.
    • 4/5
      DuMaurier's short stories, the source for so many films, including The Birds, are gems. She is a gifted writer at building suspense and creating an eerie or disconcerting atmosphere. Yet she also seems to tap into deeper human fears and her novels and short stories far surpass other writers of thrillers.The Birds in particular is strikingly different than the film. Set in a remote British coastal town not long after the end of World War II the fears the bird evokes in the war veteran narrator resonate with his war experiences while still maintaining the mystery and fear of nature gone awry and at odds with humans.The other stories include a woman who leaves her house and returns to find other people living there, a woman who recovers from eye surgery only to see the beast within others, a couple with escaping their grief over a dead child in Italy end up having an appointment in Samara.DuMaurier's success has perhaps overshadowed her consummate skill as a writer and it is worth rediscovering that skill in these short stories.
    • 4/5
      Two good stories, excellently read, but Don’t Look Now is the superior one.
    • 5/5
      Quick, creepy classic listens. The source material for two of my favourite creepy films. Well read by Peter Capaldi.
    • 4/5
      Quite a few glitches in the sound file unfortunately, however good stories and great reading by Capaldi.
    • 3/5
      John and Laura met two strange women. They are sisters. they can see John's daughter but she have already died. As the story was moving, it puzzled me a lot. The end of story was different from what I have expected.
    • 3/5
      The married couple who lost the daughter goes out to travel. There were aged sisters who saw staring when the married couple was eating. It is said by one of the women, "A young girl is seen to be sitting between you".The heart throbbed feeling eeriness when this book was read.
    • 2/5
      John and Laura are on holiday in Venice.Their daughter, Christine, is dead and they want time to forget,time to live again and be happy. But it is not going to be easy. When they see the two tall, thin old woman, they know that something is wrong.And then woman say Christine is here, with them, and there is something she wants to say...It looks like interesting,but the explanation is too few.So I don't like this book so much.
    • 3/5
      This book is very mysterious.And this book has many mystery. So it was too difficult for me to understand.I wondered where Laura was really.
    • 3/5
      The main character John and his wife Laura are on holiday in Venice.They lost their daugher, she was dead, and they want time to forget her.But in Venice, they met strange old sisters and happen mysterious things around them.I like the end of this story, it is like a my favorite movie "six sense".This is very suprised us very much, but I have many inexplicable thigs after finish reading.Who is the murder? What happened to him? Why? and so on.I was very confused by this book.
    • 3/5
      John and Laura go to Venice on holiday.they meet two sisters.And there murder happen.In the end I was a little surprised.It was good story.
    • 3/5
      John and Laura lost their daughter. They went to trip because they wanted to forget about that. They met strange old sisters at the place where they are staying, Venice. The sisters said a message and that makes them confusion.This story is really mysterious from first to last. I like this story.
    • 4/5
      A word of caution: Do not confuse this book, Don't Look Now and Other Stories with Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne Du Maurier. They are not the same book. The only things they have in common are the the title story and the author. Both books are fine, mind you, but if you are participating in a group discussion and the stories you are reading aren't the same as what everyone else is reading, you will likely feel left out in the cold. That said, this is a fine collection of stories by an exceptional author. I really enjoyed her writing style and the the way that she was able to bring various settings around the world to life. That said, I don't think any of the stories really hit it out of the park. Maybe I expect more from the author of Rebecca and Jamaica Inn but I felt like she set up several of the stories for a big finish and then....they just ended. I award this anthology ★★★½ stars out of five although at least half a star is awarded out of respect for Dame Daphne.My thanks to the folks at the Goodreads Horror Aficionados group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books.
    • 3/5
      Five strange short stories. My favorite was the first one and the least favorite was the third one. The ending on the third story left a lot of questions unanswered. Interesting stories and a good read.
    • 5/5
      Mine is the Folio Society edition, which is different to two of the three reviews below (but the same as 'overthemoon's)What can I say. Absolutely riveting read - I got through 300 pages in just two days, and at times could not put the book down. All the tales have a twist in them, some bordering on horror, others - if not most of them - supernatural.If you have the same edition as me, don't read the introduction first - it is really full of spoilers!