Rebecca

While I am a tremendous fan of Daphne DuMaurier’s uncanny short stories, in particular, The Birds and Don’t Look Now, I reserve my greatest love and admiration for her modern Gothic masterpiece Rebecca.

While Alfred Hitchcock’s film version is justifiably a classic, it cannot capture the richness of DuMaurier’s prose nor the powerful first-person perspective of the narrator, the unnamed newlywed of a wealthy widower who finds herself cursed to always be in the shadow of his first wife, the eponymous Rebecca. It also can’t quite evoke the oppressive atmosphere of Manderley, silent and secretive, ancient and beautiful,… show more.

You can’t mention du Maurier’s Rebecca without mentioning Manderlay. The estate is essential to the entire spooky tale. I loved the way the house on a cliff feels sentient and antagonistic without the story ever venturing into the paranormal or supernatural. The reader is in the narrator’s head the entire time, and we’re left wondering what she’s imagining and what’s real. It’s such a well-crafted, haunting story. 

I also enjoyed the exploration of realistic morally gray characters: Maxim, Rebecca, Mrs. Danvers, and Jack. Everyone was at odds with the second Mrs. DeWinter, and their motivations were all complex and wonderfully… show more.

You can’t have a discussion about gaslighting without including this book. 

From the first time the unnamed protagonist speaks, I felt a sense of dread as if I were trapped in Manderley with Rebecca. I suspected all wasn’t what it seemed to be, but the author made it difficult for me to recognize the truth behind the haunting fiction.

I was captivated from the beginning to the shocking but satisfying ending.

After watching two film adaptations of Rebecca, I decided it was time to read the book. It exceeded my expectations.

It wasn’t until the end I realized Mrs. DeWinter had no name. I was so captivated by the narrative I never noticed. Some stories I read as an outsider while merely observing the place, time, or plot. But Rebecca is a world, and I walked among the residents of her home, Manderley. 

I have never felt so attuned to the insecurities, fears, and temperaments of the personalities in a book as I did with this novel. Ms. Du Maurier doesn’t… show more.

I love this book as the heroine is so ordinary and so very unimportant in society that she isn’t even given a first name.

She’s simply the second Mrs de Winter. She marries on impulse and has to work out her relationship with her husband Maxim who is hiding so many secrets. There is a deep sense of mystery and danger that settles on every page and I couldn’t put it down.

She and her husband are worlds apart, and I love her loyalty and determination never to give up, but to discover the truth if she can. In the… show more.

Is it really a love triangle when one of the people is dead?

The unnamed English girl in this classic novel is up against it from the get-go because she thinks her new husband, Maxim, is still in love with his previous wife, the beautiful, sophisticated Rebecca, who drowned in a sailing accident.

The marriage is a bit crowded, seeing as there are three people in it. It’s a tough position to be in when you can’t confront the other woman because she’s now at the bottom of the bay (or, as in a case that I have an unfortunate… show more.

I adore the classics, and Rebecca is an exceptional example.

It is a haunting tale of a young woman who, when working as the companion of a wealthy, elderly lady, falls in love with the mysterious Max De Winter while holidaying in Monte Carlo.

After a brief affair, he proposes marriage and whisks his new bride off to his home, the ominous Manderley. The new Mrs. De Winter gets more than she bargains for when she meets Mrs. Davers, the late Mrs. De Winter’s loyal housekeeper, who is determined to make life difficult for her new mistress.

Dark and atmospheric,… show more.

I won't waste words here as I doubt I could say anything that hasn't been said before. I will say this, though. Rebecca will stand as one of my top ten reads of all time. I absolutely loved every single word and didn't want it to end.

I don't think I've ever connected with a main character as readily as I did here. Her thoughts, her anxieties, everything about her felt as though she was speaking from my subconscious.

It is a truly stunning read. I lost my heart to Manderley. 

From the first line, “Last night I went to Manderley again,” I was hooked. Though I read the book in my twenties, I never forgot that opening line or the sense of menace the book invoked in me.

Everything I love about gothic literature is in this book from the isolated setting to the sprawling manor house to the sinister servants. What interested me most about the book was the psychological suspense—how the specter of the first Mrs. de Winter haunts the second Mrs. de Winter. 

I hated my name growing up. It sounded too harsh and severe. Unpretty. When I was 16, I found a copy of Rebecca at a thrift store. I bought it, thinking, "Maybe this book will make me like my name."

I was shocked when I discovered Rebecca wasn't even the book's main character. Rebecca was dead and still managed to haunt the characters with a steely hand. I devoured this book as a teenager, savoring every twist and turn.

One of my teachers even caught me reading it and class and asked if I anything like Rebecca de Winter and… show more.