Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Genre: Gothic, Thriller, Suspense, Classics, Historical fiction
Read: 25th August 2023
First published: August 1938
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
'Rebecca is a masterpiece in which du Maurier pulls off several spectacular high-wire acts that many great writers wouldn't attempt' JIM CRACE, GUARDIAN
On a trip to the South of France, the shy heroine of Rebecca falls in love with Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Although his proposal comes as a surprise, she happily agrees to marry him. But as they arrive at her husband's home, Manderley, a change comes over Maxim, and the young bride is filled with dread. Friendless in the isolated mansion, she realises that she barely knows him. In every corner of every room is the phantom of his beautiful first wife, Rebecca, and the new Mrs de Winter walks in her shadow.
Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow?
A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely...
Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the other woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.
'As a new generation of readers are introduced to the wicked housekeeper Mrs Danvers and learn Maxim de Winter's terrible secret, this chilling, suspenseful tale is as fresh and readable as it was when it was first written' DAILY TELEGRAPH
MY THOUGHTS:
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."
What a divine classic this is! After reading several novels recently set in Cornwall and channelling the late great Daphne du Maurier I felt I had to revisit Manderley again. And I was not disappointed. This is the second time I have read it and I've lost count of the number of times I have watched Alfred Hitchcock's rendition of it...and he does it wonderful justice. I rewatched it after finishing reading it and I recall several lines in the movie were word for word from the book.
So who is Rebecca? Or rather, who was Rebecca? REBECCA is the story of widower Max de Winter and his young bride who he met when she was serving as a companion to a wealthy and rather snobbish American woman, Edith Van Hopper, in Monte Carlo. Mrs Van Hopper was boorish and intent on an invitation to Manderley, a sprawling estate in the county of Cornwall known for miles around. It was rather amusing the way her companion and Max de Winter had hoodwinked her while she was laid up with influenza and they traipsed all about Monte Carlo. But the piece-de-resistance came when he announced that they were to be married and she was to continue on to New York without her companion.
And so became Mrs de Winter. And after honeymooning in Italy, the happy couple returned to greener shores and the new Mrs de Winter arrives at her new home on the arm of her husband Max. Manderley. It was all she had ever dreamed about. So beautiful, so grand and so big. The new Mrs de Winter is not used to such a lifestyle and soon finds herself lost in the sprawling structure.
Upon arrival, she meets the house staff headed up by the rather daunting Mrs Danvers. Polite she may be, her comments are cleverly barbed designed to injure. Danvers is not to be trusted, it is clear, though for reasons Mrs de Winter is not yet sure. She meets Max's sister Beatrice and her husband Giles as well as the estate manager Frank Crawley. All of whom are perfectly nice to her and bear no malice. Only Mrs Danvers seems to dislike her so. But why?
And then there is the silent whispers that tinker through the great halls of Manderley, and across the rose garden, and along the cove that runs into the sea. The shadows that are seen everywhere - in the morning room, in the west wing, everywhere she turns is the ghost of Rebecca, the late Mrs de Winter, Max's first wife. And Mrs Danvers is her greatest devotee, her ally. She ensures Rebecca's memory is kept alive even as the new Mrs de Winter tries to take her place she cannot command the same respect held for the late Mrs de Winter.
Perhaps this is the reason why du Maurier omitted to name our main character - as she is only known as Mrs de Winter - for where ever she turned, she stood in the shadow of Rebecca.
"Rebecca, always Rebecca. Wherever I walked in Manderley, wherever I sat, even in my thought and in my dreams, I met Rebecca. I knew her figure now, the long slim legs, the small and narrow feet. Her shoulders broader than mine, the capable clever hands. Hands that could steer a boat, could hold a horse. Hands that arranged flowers, made the models of ships, and wrote ‘Max from Rebecca’ on the fly-leaf of a book. I knew her face too, small and oval, the clear white skin, the cloud of dark hair. I knew the scent she wore, I could guess her laughter and her smile. If I heard it, even among a thousand others, I should recognise her voice. Rebecca, always Rebecca. I should never be rid of Rebecca."
So who was the main character of this classic gothic tale? The new Mrs de Winter? Or Rebecca, whose ghost of a memory remained everywhere at Manderley? Or was the main character Manderley? The amount of times it is mentioned gives its position credence. And after all, it is the epicentre of the tale. One would think that Manderley was Rebecca's childhood home, the way Mrs Danvers defined it, particularly in the closing scenes. And yet it is described in detail by the new Mrs de Winter which, at the time of narration, many years have since passed as the opening chapter suggests...she dreamt she was at Manderley again and the way she drifted through its ruins as she herself were a ghost. When Manderley itself was now just a ghost of itself.
REBECCA is a classic tale of gothic proportions, so atmospheric and chilling on the pages as well as on the screen under Hitchcock's expert hand. Du Maurier was ahead of her time in her characterisation as well as her ability to thrill and chill readers. From the terrifying housekeeper to the crashing waves of the sea to the echoing halls of Manderley. Such a clever twist towards the end that unfolded in superb detail by du Maurier's deftly written hand. I never tire of this tale and I doubt I ever will. A true classic.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Although she married Major Frederick Browning, she continued writing under her maiden name, and her subsequent novels became bestsellers, earning her enormous wealth and fame. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. While Alfred Hitchcock's films based upon her novels proceeded to make her one of the best-known authors in the world, she enjoyed the life of a fairy princess in a mansion in Cornwall called Menabilly, which served as the model for Manderley in Rebecca.
Du Maurier’s first novel, The Loving Spirit (1931), was followed by many successful, usually romantic tales set on the wild coast of Cornwall, where she came to live. She also wrote historical fiction, several plays, and Vanishing Cornwall (1967), a travel guide. Her popular Rebecca was made into a motion picture in 1940. Du Maurier was made a Dame Commander in the Order of the British Empire in 1969. She published an autobiography, Growing Pains, in 1977; the collection The Rendezvous and Other Stories in 1980; and a literary reminiscence, The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, in 1981.
Daphne du Maurier died 19th April 1989, aged 81, in Cornwall.
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