DU MAURIER, dii
George Louis Palmella Busson, English artist, caricaturist and novelist : b. Paris, 6 March 1834; d. London, 8 Oct. 1896. He belonged to an old French family which had been driven to England by the Revolution. He spent some years in France and Belgium and afterward went to school in London. He soon adopted art as a profession, working as a student in the galleries of the British Museum. Then, returning to Paris, he entered the studio of Gleyre and next went to Antwerp to continue his artistic training, where he lost the sight of an eye. Returning to Lon don, he began to draw on wood for Once a Week, the Cornhill Magazine, etc., and also ex hibited at the Royal Academy. He joined the Punch staff in 1864 and became famous through his weekly drawings of the fashionable and ar tistic world for that publication. He also illustrated a large number of books, including Thackeray's
tion of his Punch woodcuts was published in 1880 under the title 'English Society at Home.' In 1891 appeared his first novel, 'Peter Ibbet son,' and it was succeeded in 1894 by (Trilby,' which was first published in Harper's Maga zine and was overwhelmingly successful. The novel was dramatized and successfully produced in America by Paul M. Potter and in London by Sir Herbert Tree. An incomplete novel, (The Martian,' was published posthumously, also in Harper's Magazine. His novels can hardly be looked upon as very serious contribu tions to literature, but his Punch drawings and 'Trilby* will have permanent value as portray ing many of the peculiarities of contemporary society. See PETER ; TRILBY.