The Birds by Daphne du Maurier

I've seen the movie version of 'The Birds' starring Tippi Hedren and made by the legendary filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock, decades ago now. I really don't remember that much about the movie version of 'The Birds' aside from its basic premise.

In recent years, I discovered that the movie version of 'The Birds' is based on the short story written by English author, Daphne du Maurier. As a side note, I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier last year. I wasn't too impressed with Rebecca, which is billed as one of Daphne du Maurier's finest, if not more famous works of fiction.

Not to be deterred by my first experience reading something written by Daphne du Maurier, I decided to give the audio version of 'The Birds' a try and I wasn't disappointed with it. 'The Birds' is a tightly written short story, which gives off very creepy vibes with regards to social isolation and separation from society due to large groups of birds that will aggressively attack and kill all those that leave their homes. These birds will even try to find their way inside homes to attack. The psychological and emotional toll on people due to the fear caused by being cut off from the world, access to food, social interactions, not knowing what's going on, etc. makes this story all the more horrific. 

I saw parallels between this short story with that of the covid-19 pandemic. During the covid-19 pandemic, people were told to shelter in place, stay home to save lives, etc. There was loads of fear and isolation during the pandemic. Granted a pandemic caused by a virus is very much different from an attack by aggressive birds that will kill you, but the fear and isolation in 'The Birds' was captured well by the author and gave the same vibe as dealing with the fear, isolation, etc. we felt during the pandemic.

Click on the above link to listen to the audio version of 'The Birds' I listened to for FREE through YouTube.

I am giving 'The Birds' by Daphne du Maurier a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!