Trilby is a novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the turn of the century era (often known as Fin de siècle) after Bram Stoker's Dracula.Published serially in Harper's Monthly in 1894, it was published in book form in 1895 and sold 200,000 copies in the United States alone. Trilby is set in the 1850s in an idyllic bohemian Paris. Though it features the stories of two English artists and a Scottish artist, one of the most memorable characters is Svengali, a Jewish rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist.Trilby O'Ferrall, the novel's heroine, is a half-Irish girl working in Paris as an artists' model and laundress; all the men in the novel are in love with her. The relationship between Trilby and Svengali forms only a small portion of the novel, which is mainly an evocation of a milieu but it is a crucial one.

This tale of love that transcends all obstacles relates the story of two young lovers who are separated in childhood and then drawn together by destiny years later. Even though they are separated in real life because Peter is unjustly convicted of murder, they discover they can dream themselves into each other's consciousness while asleep. In this way, they live out their life together.

Svengali, a rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young Irish girl. Svengali promises and makes Trilby a famous singer in Paris. It was popularly believed that the hypnotic control Svengali has over Trilby was modelled after the relationship between the French harpist and composer Nicolas-Charles Bochsa and the English operatic soprano Anna Bishop.

Barty Josselin and Robert Maurice are English boys attending the Institution F. Brossard, in Paris. Barty is a handsome, high-spirited, mischievous, and gifted fellow, thoroughly practical, yet with traits that have in them a strange idealism. After finishing school, they return to England, where Barty spends some time in the army, but resigns. His vision fails, and he travels seeking help with it, becoming suicidal. He learns in a dream that he has a kind of guardian spirit Martia, a female spirit from Mars, who communicates with him and offers him guidance. She inspires him to a successful career as an author.