Rose Tremain's 'The Housekeeper' Offers a Bloodless Origin for Du Maurier's Mrs. Danvers

Rose Tremain's seventeenth novel, "The Housekeeper," is a literary expansion, transforming her 2014 short story of the same name into a full-length novel. This new work delves into the imagined origins of Daphne du Maurier's iconic character, Mrs. Danvers, from her seminal 1938 novel "Rebecca." Tremain's original short story, featured in her critically lauded 2014 collection "The American Lover," introduced Lilianne Danowski, a Polish Jewish woman who fled pogroms in her youth with her father. In "The Housekeeper," Danowski is depicted as a woman of "reserved efficiency," presiding over a large staff at Manderville Hall, a grand estate situated near Fowey in Cornwall. The narrative posits a pivotal moment when Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall for lunch. It is Danowski, referred to by her employers as Danni (a simplification of her "mouthful of fishbones" surname), who is tasked with guiding the celebrated author through the estate. Danowski proudly showcases the meticulously maintained belongings in her deceased mistress's bedroom and leads Du Maurier to the boathouse. The novel's central premise is that this encounter sparks a passionate, year-long affair between Danowski and Du Maurier. Following this intense relationship, the novel suggests, Danowski is irrevocably transformed, becoming the malevolent and obsessive figure of Mrs. Danvers, the sinister housekeeper who haunts the Manderley estate in "Rebecca." This literary endeavor by Tremain aligns with a rich tradition of authors who have developed earlier short stories into longer works. Examples include Virginia Woolf, whose short story "Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street" served as a precursor to her novel "Mrs. Dalloway." Similarly, Evan S. Connell's "Mrs. Bridge" and Jeffrey Eugenides' "The Virgin Suicides" both originated as short stories published in "The Paris Review." More recently, Rachel Cusk's short story "Project," published in "The New Yorker" in September 2025, forms the verbatim opening of her novel "Life of M." Tremain's "The Housekeeper" thus contributes to this lineage of literary evolution, offering a compelling, albeit "bloodless" as described by critics, exploration of a fictional character's potential backstory and the complex relationships that might have shaped her.