Peter Ibbetson

George Louis Palmella Busson du MaurierProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 506K words
Chapters: 51

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Peter Ibbetson by George Du MaurierAuthor: Du Maurier, George, 1834-1896,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2006

Editor's review

Peter Ibbetson is another novel by George Du Maurier besides Trilby, marked by a distinct vein of fantasy and psychological interest. The story revolves around the protagonist's growth, love, and dream experiences, most notably its depiction of a shared world in dreams—a premise remarkably ahead of its time for late nineteenth-century fiction, giving the work a further layer of inquiry into memory, desire, and inner life beyond popular storytelling. Du Maurier was an illustrator by training, and his prose often carries a pictorial quality, with character emotions rendered with delicacy and restraint. For today's readers, the book's value lies not in thrilling plot but in how it uses a fantasy framework to address themes such as loss and emotional compensation, rewarding comparison with psychological novels of the same era. It suits as supplementary reading for understanding late Victorian popular literature and the fantasy tradition, and for readers interested in dream narrative to savor slowly. There is no need to press for the plausibility of the premise; better to follow the narrative into its half-waking, half-dreaming emotional atmosphere.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in late Victorian fiction and the fantasy tradition
Literary readers who enjoy dream narrative and psychological description and do not demand strong plot
Scholars and students of late nineteenth-century popular fiction and emotional themes
Readers seeking to explore Du Maurier's work beyond Trilby

Not a good fit for

Contemporary genre-fiction readers who prefer fast pacing and strong conflict
Readers impatient with slow-burn narrative and introspective description
Readers expecting strict realism and averse to fantasy premises

Reading tips

Familiarize yourself with common themes of late Victorian fiction before entering the text to better grasp its emotional tone.
Mark the dream passages separately and revisit them after finishing to appreciate how the fantasy premise echoes reality.
Read alongside other works by Du Maurier to observe the continuity of his pictorial description and character portrayal.
Do not chase the plot chapter by chapter; one or two chapters a night suits the slow accumulation of emotional atmosphere.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How is this book related to Trilby?

Both are by George Du Maurier and share features of fantasy and emotional description, but Peter Ibbetson is an independent story whose characters and plot are not directly connected to Trilby. It can be read on its own or compared with Trilby to study the author's handling.

Is the dream premise hard to understand?

The shared-dream premise was quite ahead of its time, but the narrative is not obscure. Readers need not scrutinize its feasibility with science-fiction logic; treat it as a literary device for expressing emotion and memory and follow the characters' feelings.

Is it suitable as English-learning material?

The language is late nineteenth-century literary English, with long sentences and period vocabulary. Readers with some foundation in English who wish to approach classic fiction may try it, but it is not suitable as beginner-level language-learning material.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier Author · British · 1834–1896

George du Maurier (1834–1896) was a French-born British cartoonist, illustrator and novelist, born in Paris and died in London. From 1865 he contributed to the satirical magazine Punch and became known for his cartoon True Humility, his drawing style and humour shaping contemporary British social observation. In later life he turned to fiction; his representative novels Peter Ibbetson and Trilby both carry elements of fantasy and psychological interest, and the character Svengali from Trilby became a classic literary figure, later adapted many times. His subjects often involve artistic circles and British social life, with a style combining satire and warmth. Five of his works are held here, including Social Pictorial Satire, The Martian: A Novel and English Society. Public information is limited, and his novelistic reputation rests mainly on the two representative works above.