Peter Ibbetson (The Works Of George Du Maurier) [Library Binding]

George Du Maurier (Author)

Product Details

• Library Binding: 440 pages
• Publisher: Reprint Services Corporation (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781200229
• ISBN-13: 978-0781200226
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,152,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Life of the Mind, April 7, 2007

By 

Tyler R. Tichelaar "Superior Book Promotions ... (Marquette, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peter Ibbetson (Hardcover)

Peter Ibbetson is one of the strangest, yet most remarkable books I have ever read. I read it because I had seen the old black and white film version, which I have to admit is more interesting than the book in terms of plot since it takes a few liberties with the text to move the story along. However, the book is definitely worth reading.

The book begins by describing Peter's early life in France in the 1840s, the glorious world of his childhood. The first half of the book reads like a regional history or travel tract about the town where he lived, and all the activities of his childhood, especially his friendship with Mary, a friendship which becomes remarkable later. Due to family tragedies, Peter and Mary's friendship comes to an end when they both have to leave their little town. When they meet years later, Peter is an architect and Mary has become the Duchess of Towers. This change in their status does not affect the friendship. As soon as they recognize each other, they embark on a long friendship in their minds.

The glamour of the novel is this friendship and how they create it. Peter ends up in prison for killing his uncle, who has acted the villain toward him. Mary, because of her position, must travel about a great deal, yet she and Peter are always together in their dreams. It is difficult to explain the situation if the reader does not read the book, but in their dreams, they are able to meet and recreate their past childhood world in France, revisiting their old haunts and even to see themselves as children. Part of this amazing power they possess may be the result of sharing mutual great-great-grandparents as they discover. More specifically, they are pioneers in the life of the mind. When they learn they are related, they are able to go back and recreate in their minds the scenes of their mutual ancestors, first in the eighteenth century, and then soon farther back to medieval times, even back to glimpses of the caveman world. This extraordinary journey of theirs is what makes the book fascinating.

"Peter Ibbetson" is largely forgotten today, and Du Maurier overshadowed by his daughter, Daphne, famous for the novel "Rebecca", yet I think Du Maurier more fascinating because of his interest in exploring the human mind. He is better known for "Trilby" with its villain Svengali, a novel that explores hypnotism. But "Peter Ibbetson" is the novel that really was greatly ahead of its time. Long before Einstein, or "The Secret", Abraham-Hicks and the Law of Attraction, Du Maurier was asking questions in the novel about the concept of time, quantum physics, cellular memory, and evolution. The reader is urged to forge through the overly descriptive first half of the book to the interesting philosophies of the last. The book can hardly be called a novel, there is little plot to it, but it is a book far ahead of its time, and one that would be of interest to many open-minded and spiritual people today.

- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of The Marquette Trilogy (Iron Pioneers, The Queen City, and Superior Heritage) available on Amazon

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy to see this book back in print, October 23, 2008

By 

K. Wagner "Uniquely K" (Copperas Cove, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peter Ibbetson (Paperback)

I am very happy to see this book back in print. This book has in it "dreaming true" as the author calls it or OBE [out of the body experiences]. While he sleeps, his mind or soul leaves and has wonderful adventures. He and his love who joins him on these outings create a home to live in and even travel back in time.