Trilby

George du Maurier (1834–96), father of Daphne, was himself a painter and novelist who in Trilby (1894) captured the essence of bohemian life in Paris in the late nineteenth century, a time when English painters crossed the channel as much to escape Victorian prudery as to learn their trade.

Trilby, one of the most popular novels of the fin de siecle, tells the story of an artist's model who falls under the influence of the evil hypnotist Svengali.

Extracts are read by actors from the Godot Company.