Well....that was....dark. I love du Maurier's very descriptive writing, it really does shine in this tale. Most, if not all, of the characters are unlikable, but that's the point. Each uses his or her own talents for getting ahead. Does the use of those talents pay off in the end? Read it to find out...

2.5 stars? The third novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Still a few books before Rebecca. While the writing on a technical level has definitely improved from her first two, the main character was really unenjoyable to read. He is manipulative, gaslighting, abusive, lying, murderous, lacking compassion and any true human connection. He treats everything and everyone like a project to be completed, and when he can no longer control them, he destroys them. By the end of his life nothing has any meaning for him. It makes you wonder why Daphne wrote this book. A moral story about greed? An exercise in unlikeable and unreliable protagonists? I wouldn’t recommend this one to anyone other than Du Maurier completists.

I think re-reading this has dramatically increased my enjoyment, if you can enjoy such a bleak and dark book.
For a book in which every character is unlikeable, I couldn't put it down and was utterly enthralled by the writing.

Another one of Daphne du Maurier's novels that starts off with such promise and then drags. I mean, how long can we really dislike Julius? It's exhausting. And so much of it is just straight exposition that I found it rather dull. He did this, then he did that, and then this was the result.

I do love this author, but sometimes I feel like I'm plodding through some of her work.

I have been reading Du Maurier's novels in more-or-less chronological order. Julius is the third of her novels, and it shows a marked change -- in tone, plotting, writing, and characterization -- from her first two. I think that it is with this novel that Du Maurier really hints at the measure of her talent.

*** SPOILER ALERT -- PLEASE DON'T READ ANY MORE OF THIS REVEIW BEFORE YOU READ THE BOOK! -- THANK YOU! ***

The book tells the life story of Julius Lévy, a Parisian whose father is Jewish. Some have suggested that there are hints of anti-semitism in Du Maurier's work (apparently, there was far less subtle anti-semitism in her Grandfather Du Maurier's book, "Trilby"). Julius's father is represented as a loving father, and a not terribly resourceful provider. While he murders his wife (Julius's mother) in a fit of rage (that Julius does much to help along), he seems otherwise a gentle and blameless flute-player.

In contrast, Julius is a sociopathic monster who has no compunction about using, abusing, and casting aside anyone. Early in the book, as a child, he drowns a cat that he cannot take with him, lest anyone else every enjoy the feline's affection, and this utterly possessive, exploitative love follows him through all of the relationships in his live.

When, finally, inevitably, he murders his beloved daughter whose spirit he cannot break, he is so out of touch with his own feelings that he seems unable to realize what a tragic end to his own life that he has engineered for himself.

This is a book, a character, who will long stay with me, and for that alone, I have to give it high marks.