The Parasites

Daphne du Maurier began work on The Parasites in early 1949, taking inspiration from her time in the theater world and from her family life. The novel was published in the fall.[2]

The members of the Delaney family lead complex and frequently scandalous lives, and their strange relationships with one another closed their circle to all outsiders. The world in which they lived was sophisticated, gay, and sometimes tragic.

Maria Delaney was a beautiful, successful actress, the wife of Sir Charles Wyndham. Niall Delaney wrote the songs and melodies that everyone sang and played. Celia their sister, generous and charming, took care of their father and delighted in Maria's children. Between Maria and Niall there existed a strange affinity—sometimes physical, sometimes spiritual. They were both subtly aware of it, and so was Sir Charles. Perhaps it was this that impelled Maria's husband to exclaim bitterly:

"Parasites, that's what you are. The three of you. You always have been and you always will be. Nothing can change you. You are doubly, triply parasitic; first, because you've traded since childhood on that seed of talent you had the luck to inherit from your fantastic forebears; secondly, because none of you have done a stroke of honest work in your lives but batten on us, the fool public; and thirdly, because you prey on each other, living in a world of fantasy which bears no relation to anything in heaven or on earth."

Though the novel sold well, it received several poor reviews from critics who found it overly titillating.[3] These included John Betjeman of the Daily Herald, who criticized du Maurier's "heavy, dull and obvious sentences" and caused publisher Victor Gollancz to send him a rare rebuke. Ivor Brown of The New York Times Book Review, however, praised the book as "magnetic."[2]