Peter Ibbetson
Peter Ibbetson is the first novel from the pen of the English writer and caricaturist George du Maurier . The story of his first work, published in 1891, takes place in places that were all too familiar to du Maurier. The author spent his childhood with his parents and younger brother in the Rue de la Pompe in the then Paris suburb of Passy . In the same street he also lets his fictional character Peter Ibbetson and his great love Mimsey Seraskier grow up. Du Maurier came to London in 1860 to work for Punch magazine . When his parents died, Peter Ibbetson was already transported to London as a child, where he grew up with his uncle. In 1874 Du Maurier moved with his family to the north of London suburb of Hampstead , which he and his five children loved. He also lets his fictional character rave about Hampstead and make comparisons with the place where he lived when he writes: "Hampstead was his passion". The story of Peter Ibbetson began in Passy and this is where the threads come together again and again; because in memory of happy childhood days and the only earthly place where he was united with his great love, Passy becomes the place of inner longing for Peter Ibbetson.
Peter Ibbetson is certainly one of the most impressive love stories, albeit far less known than world successes such as Sturmhöhe , Gone with the Wind or Romeo and Juliet . The novel describes the mixing of dream life and reality, with the dream event itself taking on a higher reality than earthly life. It becomes a second life, the real life; something that today would be called an out of body experience rather than a dream .
action
Two children - the girl Mimsey Seraskier and the boy Pierre Pasquier de la Malière - who live in the immediate neighborhood in the Paris suburb of Passy and are very fond of each other, are torn apart by the death of the boy's parents, who was brought to London by a relative of his mother's is fetched. At the same time he gets the new name Peter Ibbetson; after the English translation of his first name and his mother's maiden name.
Since then there has been a deep longing in the young man that he cannot explain. One day he meets the Duchess of Towers and feels strangely drawn to her. He soon finds out that the Duchess is none other than Mimsey, the little girl he spent his childhood with. Although she too feels drawn to him and is strangely touched inwardly when she recognizes little Pierre in Peter, they have to part ways. Because Mary, the Duchess of Towers, is married. To make matters worse, about a year later Peter kills his uncle in an argument and is sentenced to life imprisonment. But Peter knows that he can never forget Mary again. She became the ideal of his lonely life, and the memory of her henceforth dominates his life.
The two lovers, who cannot be together in “real” earthly life, instead meet in their shared dreams over many decades. Peter soon realizes that these are not ordinary dreams, but a kind of transcendent earth life. Their common nocturnal experiences become the real essence of their life, while the earthly existence during the day becomes as unimportant as a dream. Like twin kernels in a shell, they are more closely related than the rest of humanity. Their connection is permanent and will survive death.
filming
The director Henry Hathaway filmed the material in 1935 for the film of the same name with Gary Cooper (as Peter Ibbetson) and Ann Harding (as Mary, Duchess of Towers) in the leading roles. He essentially sticks to the novel, although he also incorporates a few different sequences. In order to give the film an additional drama, Peter Ibbetson does not kill his uncle, but the Duke of Towers, who has not escaped the deep affection between his wife and the architect Peter Ibbetson, who is visiting the Duke's estate. The Duke "catches" the lovers just at the moment when they are embracing and he points his pistol at them. To protect Mary, Peter pushes her aside and in the next instant hurls a chair at the Duke, which hits him so unhappily that he dies in this action.