Reading Hitchcock - "We shan't be worried by those silly old birds tapping at the windows"

Daphne du Maurier - "The Birds" (1952)

As another project, I've long wanted to read the source material that Alfred Hitchcock chose to make into films. The start has been held up by circumstance - I'd meant to read them in order, but the Book that inspired Hitchcock's first film, Oliver Sandys' The Pleasure Garden, has been so far impossible to find.

So I decided to go in no particular order. My first choice was "The Birds," for a number of reasons:

1. I could get my hands on it.
2. There's going to be more by du Maurier, so I figured that if I'm going to pick semi-randomly, I should spread them out.
3. It's a short story, so I can finish it up faster.

And off we go:

Quick plot rundown:

A rural family manages to not be eaten by birds one day longer than just about everyone else in Europe.

What's different:

The location is moved from the California coast to the coast of England. While the film implies that the bird attacks are confined to a small area, the story makes it pretty clear that all of humanity is doomed. No Tippi Hedren/Rod Taylor meet cute love story.

What's the same:

Family trapped in farmhouse, being attacked by birds. Conversations in town about birds acting odd.

Are any of the set pieces in evidence?

The scenes of thousands of birds gathering on branches and watching the humans (the story explains that the birds don't attack at this point because they're gorged with, um, food from the night before). The scene of the children running from the school to their homes.

Bottom line:

Similar in spirit, but grander in scale and more crushing in tone.