The Parasites

The novel follows an emotionally entangled bohemian family, the Delaneys,[1] who lead complex and frequently scandalous lives, and their strange relationships with one another.

The book explores both their childhood and adult life, creating a circle seemingly closed to all outsiders.

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.

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.