Trilby (novel)

This article is about the 1894 novel by George du Maurier. For other uses, see Trilby (disambiguation).

Trilby
Cover of the first edition of the novel (1894)
AuthorGeorge du Maurier
LanguageEnglish
GenreSensation novel
PublisherHarper & Brothers, Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.
Publication date
1894
Publication placeUnited States

Trilby is a sensation novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time. Published serially in Harper's New Monthly Magazine from January to August 1894, it was published in book form on 8 September 1894 and sold 200,000 copies in the United States alone.[1] Trilby is set in the 1850s in an idyllic bohemian Paris. Though Trilby features the stories of two English artists and a Scottish artist, one of the most memorable characters is Svengali, a rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist.

Trilby O'Ferrall, the novel's heroine, is a half-Irish girl working in Paris as an artist's model and laundress; all the men in the novel are in love with her. The relationship between Trilby and Svengali forms only a small, though crucial, portion of the novel, which is mainly an evocation of a milieu.

Lucy Sante wrote that the novel had a "decisive influence on the stereotypical notion of bohemia" and that it "affected the habits of American youth, particularly young women, who derived from it the courage to call themselves artists and 'bachelor girls,' to smoke cigarettes and drink Chianti."[2]

The novel has been adapted to the stage several times; one of these featured the lead actress wearing a distinctive short-brimmed hat with a sharp snap to the back of the brim. The hat became known as the trilby and went on to become a popular men's clothing item in the United Kingdom throughout various parts of the 20th century, subsequently gaining popularity elsewhere and seeing a resurgence in popularity in the early 1980s, when it was marketed to both men and women to capitalise on a retro fashion trend.[3]

  1. ^ "Trilby". www.mtholyoke.edu. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  2. ^ Sante, Luc (1991) Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Page 331.
  3. ^ Hofler, Robert; Zarco, Cyn.; Vann, Doug (1985). Wild Style. The Next Wave in Fashion, Hair and Makeup. Simon & Schuster.