You know Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ — but she also wrote these terrifying tales

“Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” That’s the immortal opening sentence of Rebecca , Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 masterpiece.

How often have I been lured in to both the novel and the 1940 Hitchcock film of Rebecca by that sentence? Is it an incantation? A curse? A virus that infects the imagination? Whatever mojo du Maurier conjured up in that sentence, its potency lingers. Perhaps, just by hearing it, you, too, have become spellbound.

Rebecca dominates du Maurier’s legacy, but she wrote plenty of other macabre novels and short stories in her over 40-year-career. A new collection called After Midnight gathers together 13 of her stories, appropriately introduced by long-reigning Master of Horror, Stephen King. With so much to be nervous about in this world of ours, it