Rebecca
With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.
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Community Reviews
What a wonderfully paced, dramatic, and tense story. The experience of reading this is like running through a maze with beautiful monsters on your trail.
There were parts of this I really liked and parts I really didn't
There were definitely parts that didn't age well
There were definitely parts that didn't age well
Don't read this book if you think it's gonna be romantic, in the sense of a modern chick-flick / Meg Ryan type of film. Don't read this book if you want a sexy hero à la Darcy, a tormented but attractive anti-hero à la Rochester, or a strong protagonist that provides witty dialogue à la Elizabeth Bennet...This book has none of those. The two main characters are not attractive. The male is an insufferable classist and has no heroic qualities. The female is extremely insecure and you might often want to shake her and slap her! However, I still felt sympathetic to her and sorry about him. I didn't admire or love Rebecca as other readers do, but she was definitely fascinating as the centre of the action. In a similar fashion, Manderley felt both beautiful and threatening throughout the novel.
The book is excellent. Well written, excellently plotted. A fantastic page turner that has a true literary quality. I read it after watching the Hitchcock film and after reading 'My Cousin Rachel' (which I loved and recommend too), and indeed my only complaint is that, having previously seen the film, I knew about the plot-twists!Nonetheless, I still found this thriller/gothic tale incredibly well crafted, and the mystery was still there, so much so that I wanted to read more and more, and that says a lot about Du Maurier's writing!
Unfortunately, I don't think this book would stand as many re-reads as 'Jane Eyre' does. Otherwise, it's a brilliant read.
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