Legendary horror author Stephen King recently wrote an introduction for “After Midnight: Thirteen Chilling Tales,” a collection of dark short stories from the late legendary Gothic novelist Dame Daphne du Maurier.
In a The Guardian piece promoting the release, King spoke about his thoughts on the concept of spoilers and how Du Maurier’s style was to leave things up to the readers to decide to come to their own conclusions. He says:
“I am impatient with the idea of ‘spoilers,’ a term that’s come into vogue along with other unpleasant side-effects of the internet in general and social media in particular. I find ‘You spoiled it!’ to be, typically, the cry of spoilt people. I’d argue you can rarely spoil a good story, because the joy is in the journey rather than the arrival.”
He adds that Du Maurier is an exception to this because so much of the joy in her work comes from going in blind:
“Du Maurier’s stories are a notable exception to that rule. To talk about any of them at length would destroy their effect. Suffice it to say that you are in the hands of a master storyteller. A diabolical one, at that.”
du Maurier wrote novels like “Rebecca,” “Jamaica Inn,” and “My Cousin Rachel” along with the short stories “The Birds” and “Don’t Look Now,” all of which have been adapted for the screen.
