Rebecca

The Trope: The Gothic Suspense

Rebecca is a classic. I’ve read it and watched the movie so many times I’ve lost count. It was my introduction to what has become one of my favorite thriller tropes—Gothic Suspense. All the elements are there: the sprawling mansion, the romantic lead with a dark, mysterious past, the insecure heroine, and the evil servant.

For me, it’s a world that’s both familiar and unsettling. I love almost any book in this subgenre, but Rebecca is the star.

Daphne Du Maurier has made a permanent mark on my soul. Whether it was Hitchcock's adaptation of The Birds, which I watched when I was far too young, or the wrecked ships of Jamaica Inn, her imagery and ideas are unforgettable. 

And like the titular character of Rebecca, part of me still roams the halls and grounds of Manderley. I first encountered the story at a transitional moment in early adulthood. Having been a child drawn to spooky stories about ghouls and spectres, this book marked the moment I came to understand that not every haunted house… show more.

This book begins with only the most famous first line of a novel in English literature. (Move over, Jane Austen.)

Wistful, mysterious, and yearning, the unnamed narrator of Rebecca follows her much older husband to his luxe estate in England after a hasty marriage in France. There, she encounters a housekeeper bent on humiliating her (or worse) and the specter of her new husband’s perfect first wife, who died unexpectedly.

Even knowing what will happen, I am sucked in every time. This hits that great spot between outright horror and suspense, and my next book will be heavily influenced by… show more.

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.