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East Wind

Daphne du Maurier

First published November 2011
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

"On the island of St. Hilda's, the people are content. They live off the sea, they have their families and their livelihood. Until one day, a shift in the wind sends a brig to their shores. From the brig comes strange people, foreign practices and new sins. The inhabitants of St. Hilda's begin to indulge in excesses as if the arrival of the strangers violently woke the passions they kept carefully bottled up. It is when these long dormant passions run amok that violence rattles the once peaceful island community." -- <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://janwrites03.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/short-story-review-east-wind/">Jan at <em>Chapter One</em></a>

To judge by reviews, although this story is wrapped in an atmosphere one describes as "mythic" and although the sailors' evil influence suggests something Biblical, it is nonetheless not a speculative story. Written early in Du Maurier's career but first published posthumously in The Rebecca Notebooks (Doubleday, 1980).

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
November 2011 Cover The Doll: The Lost Short Stories Harper Collection 1
November 2011 Cover The Doll: The Lost Short Stories William Morrow / HarperCollins Collection |1
March 2012 Cover The Doll: The Lost Short Stories Cemetery Dance Publications Collection 1