Rule Britannia [Paperback]

Daphne Du Maurier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1974

Emma, who lives in Cornwall with her grandmother, a famous retired actress, wakes one morning to find that the world has apparently gone mad: no post, no telephone, no radio, a warship in the bay and American soldiers advancing across the field towards the house. The time is a few years in the future. England has withdrawn from the Common Market and, on the brink of bankruptcy, has decided that salvation lies in a union - political, military and economic - with the United States. Theoretically it is to be an equal partnership; but to some people it soon begins to look like a takeover bid. Daphne du Maurier is concerned not only with what would happen to this country under what is virtually occupation, but also with the effect on human relationships. In Emma, looking at it all with clear young eyes, Daphne du Maurier has drawn one of her most enchanting heroines; and this engrossing book shows once again what a versatile and perceptive writer she is.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Consistently entertaining' SUNDAY TIMES 'The spirit of Britannia embodied' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Dame Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) wrote more than twenty-five acclaimed novels, short stories, and plays, including Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, Jamaica Inn, and The House on the Strand. She was also a passionate and skillful chronicler of her own remarkable, famously artistic family. Now, this is one of three of her fine novels that have been reissued in the distinguished Virago Modern Classics series. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon (June 1974)
• ISBN-10: 0380000628
• ISBN-13: 978-0380000623
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,441,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Orwell meets Cold Comfort Farm, March 25, 2006

By 

Jeremy Gilien (Los Angeles,CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rule Britannia (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)

After reading The Scapegoat, and The Flight of the Falcon, set in France and Italy respectively, it is good to be back on familiar Cornish ground with this good-humored yet pointed and poignant work. However, Travanel and its inhabitants are a world removed from the Gothic romance of Manderley or Jamaica Inn. This, Du Maurier's final novel, comes across more as an Orwellian style cautionary tale set in Stella Gibbon's Cold Comfort Farm. While her usual bounds of propriety are never overstepped, she doesn't shrink away from the occasional vulgarity; the bits where the youngest boys in the adopted family are learning to use profanities by way of faltering Spoonerisms are actually charming; and the acronym for the United States teamed with the United Kingdom - USUK - has been appropriated as an epithet by a younger generation(at least in America). Though the mood of hi jinks and good humor is maintained throughout the novel, many serious ethical and political issues are touched upon. It's a pity that this very enjoyable, extremely well-written, and still quite topical book isn't better known!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Wasted Premise, March 25, 2005

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rule Britannia (Hardcover)

I generally read about 100-150 books a year, and of that, there are usually only two or three I don't finish. This is one of them. I picked this up intrigued by the Du Maurier name and the premise of a union between the United States and United Kingdom. Alas, around halfway through this last of Du Maurier's seventeen novels, I realized I was bored to distraction by the tepidness of the satire and generally lackluster prose. The story is set contemporarily (it was published in 1972), and like so many of her works, in Cornwall. The idea is that a former stage actress of some repute and wealth has retired to a large mansion where she has taken in a series of orphan children, allowing them a great deal of freedom to develop their imaginations. To a certain extent, this character seems semi-autobiographical, and the way the children are raised parallels her own relatively unrestrained upbringing. One day the household arises to discover American planes flying overhead, marines landing on the shores near the house, and an announcement of a political union between the U.S. and U.K. This is apparently in response to some kind of European Unionish fiasco that is left to the reader's imagination. The real point seems to be that Britons will never never never become slaves, nor even the little brother to America's big brother. The household's first sighting of the Americans occurs when a nervous Marine shoots a neighbors beloved dog, which sets the standard for the subtlety of satire. Soon, the elderly lady is predictably leading a local revolt against the occupation, American soldiers are brawling with locals over girls, and so on. The problem is that the Du Maurier can't seem to decide if the story is supposed to be a satire, a farce, cautionary, realistic, or what. And since none of the characters were developed enough or interesting enough to care about, I realized my time might be better spent reading something else.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternative history of England, October 28, 2009

By 

thereadaholic (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rule Britannia (Virago Modern Classics) (Paperback)

One of Daphne du Maurier's lesser-known books, Rule Britannia envisages an alternate history of England in the 1970s. In this alternate universe, plunged into economic depression and soaring unemployment, England decides not to join the European Economic Community (forerunner to the European Union). Its residents wake up one day to find communications cut, an American warship in the harbour, US marines setting up roadblocks and news that Britain was joining forces with the United States to form the USUK.

A group of Cornish villagers becomes increasingly unhappy with the take-over of their land and start a shadowy rebellion, centring on an 80-year-old former actress, his brood of adopted troubled boys and her neighbours. The story is told through the eyes of her 20-year-old grand-daughter. A fascinating read.