11 h 45 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In a Paris studio full of laughter, a musician’s strange power casts a shadow over first love.
In George du Maurier’s Trilby, three young painters share a studio in the Latin Quarter. Their circle opens to Trilby O’Ferrall, a kind, outspoken model and laundress who wants honest love. The shy painter Little Billee falls for her goodness, humor, and courage. But his family sees her work and way of life as threats to his future.
Then there is Svengali: a gifted musician who believes he can bend others to his will. When Trilby suffers sharp nerve pain, he offers help. His strange power brings a darker tension into this warm world of friendship and art. Alongside the lovers’ struggle with class and family, the novel asks what it means to hold power over another person.
What you’ll discover
- A studio full of life Enter a Paris of paint, pipe smoke, laughter, and loyal friendships among young artists.
- A woman worth knowing Meet Trilby, whose frank speech and generous heart win over the painters around her.
- Love under pressure Follow Little Billee as deep affection meets the weight of family expectations and class.
- The shadow of Svengali Encounter a musician whose gifts sit uneasily beside his hunger to control other people.
- A warm storytelling voice Enjoy a chatty narrator who makes room for jokes, digressions, and moments of sadness.
Who will love it
For readers who love the Paris of artists, warm friendships, fond narrators, and love stories shadowed by a sinister musician. It suits anyone who enjoys music, painting and old songs.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Trilby enters a world of friendship
- Musical genius does not guarantee kindness
- Relief from pain becomes a threat
- Everyday kindness creates a shared home
- Billee's reaction changes Trilby's self regard
- A joyful feast carries unease
- Respectability puts love under pressure
- Care and control pull people apart
Who’s who
- Trilby O'FerrallA tall, freckled, kind and funny artist's model and laundress who longs to be good and loves Little Billee, though she cannot sing a note in tune.
- Little BilleeA small, gifted young English painter, tender and impressionable, who falls deeply in love with Trilby and sets out to make his name.
- TaffyA giant Yorkshireman, former soldier and realist painter, loyal and quick-tempered, who guards Little Billee and quietly admires Trilby.
- The LairdSandy, a jolly Scot and friend of Taffy, who paints bullfighters he has never seen and shares the studio with warm humor.
- SvengaliA brilliant, dirty, vain musician and bully, who wants fame and wants Trilby, and who has hypnotic powers over her.
- GeckoA small, devoted violinist and one of Svengali's two friends, who adores Trilby in silence and plays with moving beauty.
- Mrs. BagotLittle Billee's anxious, loving mother, who wants to protect her son and fears the consequences of his engagement.
- DurienA fine young sculptor in Trilby's building, who admires her and helps her through her troubles.
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- Large print hardcover
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Trilby in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Trilby
by George Du Maurier · 1894
A tone-deaf model with beautiful feet charms three young painters in Paris while a sinister musician watches.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“We have in the portfolio of du Maurier the epic of the drawing-room.”
In short
Picture a studio in the Latin Quarter of Paris on a sunny, showery April day. Three young friends enjoy their new home.
Trilby at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 40 min5 h 15 min fast, 7 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 94,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1894by George Du Maurier
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Three friends and a model share Paris
The story opens in a big studio on the Place St. Anatole des Arts. It is a young man's paradise, with a piano from London, fencing foils, a trapeze, plaster casts and a vast divan under the north window. Three English friends share it, and their happiness comes first, because everything later is measured against it.
Taffy is a huge Yorkshireman who served in the Crimean War and missed the charge at Balaklava through a sprained ankle. The Laird is a cheerful Scot who paints bullfighters he has never seen. Little Billee is the youngest, small, graceful and gifted, raised at home by his mother and sister. His friends see his true genius and guard his innocence.
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Details
- First published
- 1894
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Du Maurier, George. Trilby. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/trilby.
Du Maurier, G. (2026). Trilby. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/trilby (Original work published 1894)
Du Maurier, George. Trilby. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/trilby.
@book{dumaurier2026trilby,
author = {Du Maurier, George},
title = {Trilby},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/trilby},
note = {First published 1894}
}
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What is Trilby about?
Trilby follows three English art students in 1850s Paris and Trilby O'Ferrall, a warm-hearted artist's model. Their friendship becomes a love story that is tested by class, reputation and the hypnotic influence of the musician Svengali.
Who is Svengali in Trilby?
Svengali is a gifted pianist and singing teacher who is also greedy, cruel and vain. He claims to have rediscovered the lost art of beautiful singing, and he has mesmerizing eyes. His name now means a person who controls another.
Is Trilby a true story?
No, it is a novel, written in the 1890s by George Du Maurier. It draws on his own student years in Paris, and vividly evokes the studios, streets and cafés of the Latin Quarter.
The author
George Du Maurier
1834–1896 · British cartoonist and novelist
George du Maurier (1834–1896) was a French-British cartoonist and novelist. He was born in Paris and later lived in London, where he worked for Punch magazine. He wrote Peter Ibbetson (1891) and Trilby (1894). His novel The Martian appeared after his death, in 1897. He died in London.
“Because she loved much!”
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