Rebecca

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.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” That first line of Rebecca may be as famous as “Call me Ishmael.” And as soon as you come to the end of the very short first chapter, you realize what a haunting line it is, because Manderley is gone, burnt up in smoke.

Does anyone not like Rebecca? I’ve not met a single person who hasn’t liked the book. I know it’s cliché to say a place is like a character, but that’s exactly what Manderley is, a house suffused with the death of the previous wife, Rebecca. When… show more.

It’s a rare book indeed where there’s a twist with such profound implications that it throws the story off in a completely new direction and draws back the curtain to show everything that’s come before isn’t what it seemed.

It’s hard enough to pull that off in an ending, but to pull it off at the mid-point is as rare as it is wonderful to read. Rebecca (and Brat Farrar) are two of the only examples I know where it’s done successfully. Most authors who try to accomplish this focus on deceiving the reader – the best writers focus… show more.

I love everything about this book but especially the skillfully crafted inner journey of its emotionally insecure heroine.

When she marries dashing Maxim de Winter she is young, naïve, alone in the world and so self-effacing that we never even learn her name. After their arrival at his ancient family seat, she is thwarted and undermined by his housekeeper and she plunges into fear and self-doubt, constantly measuring herself against the beauty and accomplishments of his glamorous first wife.

Slowly however she begins to find an inner strength and when secrets from Maxim’s past threaten to destroy him it is… show more.

Novels written as contemporary narratives can age into historicals by the simple passage of time.

Rebecca is a classic and now can be read for the period as well as the fascinating mystery at the center of this, one of the best British manor house mysteries, psychologically intense, with a satisfying twist.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again,” famously begins du Maurier’s novel of a country estate that guards its secrets from the young, unnamed narrator who comes there as the innocent bride of mysterious Maxim de Winter. Out of her depth, she’s terrified by the imposing mansion, the specter of de Winter’s deceased first wife, and the creepy housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who urges her to commit suicide by jumping from a window. Gothic in tone, the unnamed heroine survives revelation after revelation, but the house itself—Manderley—is finally burned to the ground, leaving nothing but ruins.