Du Maurier's reputation has been defined by the fact that most critics do not consider her to be a writer of "serious literature." According to Nina Auerbach in British Writers, "the name Daphne du Maurier was synonymous with atmospheric, feminine romance that was escapist rather than artistic." While many critics toss du Maurier in with a group of women writers who primarily wrote romances and simple horror stories, Auerbach argues that she may be more closely aligned with writers such as Joyce Carol Oates, Isak Dinesen, Shirley Jackson, and Angela Carter—like these writers, du Maurier "extracts fear from ordinary social transactions." Auerbach believes that du Maurier has been wrongly categorized as a writer of escapist romances and that she is actually "an author of extraordinary range and frequent brilliance." However, as Wayne Templeton notes in Dictionary.....
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