Summaries

Synopsis

Du Maurier's well-known story begins with the idyllic family life in an old French garden of the Pasquiers, and their neighbors, the Seraskiers. The children of the two families, Gogo and Mimsey, are loving comrades, sharing together the beauty and the peace that surround them. Young Pasquier is an inventor, poor, but happy in the wonderful love of his beautiful wife, and of their little son, Gogo. The two children learn from a friend what they call "dreaming true," falling asleep with their hands behind their heads and their feet crossed, that they may be happy in their dreams.

While he is completing the experiment which is to make him famous, Pasquier is killed. Madame Pasquier is unable to survive his death. In spite of his childish protestations, Gogo is obliged to bid a tearful farewell to Mimsey and the kind Monsieur and Madame Seraskier, for his uncle, Roger Ibbetson, insists upon taking him to England for his upbringing. At the castle of the dissipated old fellow, Peter Ibbetson (as he is now called) is thoroughly unhappy. He grows into a moody, sorrowful young man. Because he will not indulge in the Roman orgies that continually take place at the castle, his uncle insults him and casts him off.

He finds employment as an architect's clerk, but his longing for the happiness of his childhood days draws him back to Paris, to the old garden, now fallen into solitude and decay. As he is musing there over the past, a beautiful woman comes from the adjoining garden. When she tells him that her joyous childhood was spent in this place, he knows she is Mimsey. For years, she and her parents had tried to find him, never succeeding. Their loving reunion is marred by the fact that Mimsey is married. At the urgent request of her father, who did not want to die leaving her alone in the world, she had wedded a young Englishman, who later became Duke of Towers. His sudden access to the nobility had resulted in dissipation, so that he had become a drunkard. Mimsey tells Peter that they must meet only in their dreams.One evening at the theatre Peter encounters his uncle.

Jealous because the attractive Spanish dancer prefers the younger man to himself, old Ibbetson offers his nephew a gross insult, declaring that they are father and son, that Peter s mother only married Pasquier to have a name for her unborn child. Peter, insane with anger, threatens to kill the slanderer, if he does not take back his lie. Slyly picking up a dagger, Ibbetson is about to murder Peter, but Peter is too quick for him, and, striking him with a small stick he carries, causes his death.

Peter is sentenced to be hanged, but Mimsey, the Duchess of 'lowers, uses her influence and finally persuades the authorities to commute the judgment to life imprisonment. For years the lovers "dream true," and during the hours of sleep, live in a wonderful dreamland of their own. After her divorce, Mimsey finds comfort in her waking hours among the children of an orphans' home. But at night she and Peter meet in their dreams.

While they are always young in their dreamland, in reality they reach old age. One Christmas a fire breaks out in the orphan's home, and Mimsey heroically saves all of the children, but is too exhausted to save herself. Peter, who is "dreaming true," looks for her in vain. Terrified, he awakes and tries frantically to breakthrough the prison bars. The effort costs him his life. The two souls, passing together into "death," find in it the beautiful fulfillment of their dreams.