INITIAL LETTER FROM _The Cornhill_ ILLUSTRATION FOR "THE STORY OF A FEATHER": 1867 ILLUSTRATION FOR "THE STORY OF A FEATHER": 1867 "CAUTION": _Punch_, 1867 BERKELEY SQUARE, 5 P.M.: _Punch_, 1867 ILLUSTRATION FOR "ESMOND" ILLUSTRATION FOR "THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY RICHMOND": _The Cornhill_, 1870 ILLUSTRATION FOR "THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY RICHMOND": _The Cornhill_, 1871 "PROXY": _Punch's Almanack_, 1874 QUEEN PRIMA-DONNA AT HOME: _Punch_, 1874 HONOUR WHERE HONOUR is DUE: _Punch_, 1880 CANON AINGER, from a Portrait in Water-colour by du Maurier THE MUTUAL ADMIRATIONISTS: _Punch_, 1880 MANUSCRIPT GEORGE DU MAURIER, from a Photograph SPEED THE PARTING GUEST: _Punch_, 1883 SKETCH FOR INITIAL LETTER IN _The Cornhill_, 1883 "Sic TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI!" _Punch_, 1884 POST-PRANDIAL PESSIMISTS: _Punch_, 1892 THINGS ONE WOULD RATHER HAVE EXPRESSED DIFFERENTLY: _Punch_, 1893 There are also several Tailpieces, chronologically arranged GEORGE DU MAURIER I THE WORLD OF DU MAURIER §1 We have in the portfolio of du Maurier the epic of the drawing-room. Many of the Victorians, including the Queen, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, seem to have viewed life from the drawing-room window. They gazed straight across the room from the English hearthrug as from undoubtedly the greatest place on earth. They were probably right. But some of this confidence has gone. Actually in these days there are people who won't own up to having a drawing-room at all. If they have a room that could possibly answer to such a description, they go out of their way to call it the library, though its only available printed matter is a Bradshaw; or the music-room, though the only music ever heard in it is when the piano is dusted. In turning over the old volumes of _Punch_ it is surprising how many of the points made by du Maurier in his drawings and in the legends beneath them still hold good. As a mere "joker" he was perhaps the least able of the _Punch_ staff. His influence began when he started inventing imaginary conversations. In many cases these do not represent the discussion of topical subjects at all, but deal with social aberrations, dated only in the illustration by the costume of the time. In these imaginary conversations he is already a novelist. They record the strokes of finesse and the subterfuges necessary to the attainment of the vain ambitions which are the preoccupation of human genius in superficial levels of Society in all ages. We realise the waste of energy and diplomacy expended to score small points in the social game. His art is a mirror to weed-like qualities of human nature which enjoy a spring-time with every generation. But it also provides a remarkable record of the effect of the sudden replacement of old by new ideals in the world which it depicted.