Trilby (novel)
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.[4] The extraordinary initial sales of the book — almost 100,000 copies were sold in the first two months— were, no doubt, greatly enhanced by the pre-publication controversy created when the eminent artist, James McNeill Whistler, initiated legal action against du Maurier and Harper Brothers, demanding that all textual and visual references to "Joe Sibley", the pompous and eccentric "idle apprentice" (obviously based upon Whistler), be removed from the proposed book.[7] Three English art students in Paris (Talbot Wynne, called 'Taffy', a distant heir to a baronetcy; Sandy McAlister, the Laird of Cockpen and William Bagot, alias 'Little Billee') meet musicians Svengali and Gecko and the artist's model and laundress Trilby O'Ferrall.Trilby is cheerful, kind-hearted, bohemian, and tone-deaf: "Svengali would test her ear, as he called it, and strike the C in the middle and then the F just above, and ask which was higher; and she would declare they were both the same".Some years later, Taffy, who has married Little Billee's sister, meets Gecko again and learns how Svengali had hypnotised Trilby and damaged her health in the process.It was popularly believed that the hypnotic control Svengali has over Trilby was modelled after the relationship between the French harpist and composer Nicolas-Charles Bochsa and the English operatic soprano Anna Bishop.She sang in many opera houses on their extensive travels throughout Europe (particularly in Naples, Italy), North America and Sydney, where Bochsa died suddenly in 1856 and is buried.[16] The word "trilby" became a jocular slang term to refer to a foot, but would later be used to describe a type of hat inspired by an adaptation of the novel.[18] The novel was adapted into a long-running play, Trilby, starring Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Svengali, first presented in 1895 in London.The play was so popular that it was travestied, including as A Model Trilby; or, A Day or Two After Du Maurier by Charles H. E. Brookfield and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz, at the Opera Comique, produced by the retired Nellie Farren.
Trilby; or, The Fairy of Argyllfirst editionSensation novelGeorge du MaurierHarper's New Monthly MagazinebohemianSvengalihypnotistmilieuLucy SantebohemiaChiantitrilbyJames McNeill WhistlerChicago Sunday Tribunetone-deafBen Boltscarlet feverNicolas-Charles BochsaAnna BishopHenry BishopHome! Sweet Home!NaplesWilliam Makepeace ThackerayGeorge GissingGaston LerouxThe Phantom of the OperaTrilbyanafootreadinga type of hatan adaptationGeorge OrwellantisemiticJewishnessHerbert Beerbohm TreeWilton LackayeVirginia HarnedApollo TheatreCharles H. E. BrookfieldWilliam YardleyMeyer LutzOpera ComiqueNellie FarrenElsa GalafrésAnton KolmLuise KolmJacob FleckViva BirkettHarold M. ShawClara Kimball YoungMaurice TourneurArthur Edmund CareweCreighton HalePaul WegenerAnita DorrisWarner BrothersJohn BarrymoreMarian MarshDonald WolfitHildegard KnefPeter O'TooleJodie FosterFrank WildhornMighty MousePearl PureheartOil Can HarryfandomWilliam GaddisDavid LodgeThomas BulchPolishWorld War IISpecial Operations ExecutiveKrystyna Skarbeka.k.a.metaphorFoot fetishismSimon & Schustervon Dassanowsky, RobertSenses of CinemaAustralian Town and Country JournalMadeleine MassonChristine GranvilleMasson, MadeleineFrancis CammaertsWeliver, PhyllisStandard EbooksProject GutenbergInternet ArchiveWayback MachineMount Holyoke CollegeLibriVoxSvengarlicLucifer's WomenThe MartianForeverPeter IbbetsonThe Guilt of Janet AmesPeter Ibbetson (play)Peter Ibbetson (opera)