Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989)

Rebecca is the world of film-noir as described in a single novel, and it is surpassed by none across the board of crime fiction and mystery alike. Du Maurier as a writer made Alfred Hitchcock the director that he would become, except that the latter always gets the credit over the former. As the reader, you share the same psychosis that imperils the narrator and are just as naïve, helpless and disoriented as you live her journey through grey, somber Cornwall and the silent, enigmatic corridors of Manderley. With Rebecca, Du Maurier transformed the romantic-gothic trope popularized by the likes of Jane Eyre and embellished it with a sensational modern air, and so became the birth of the thriller.… (more)

Another haunting and unsettling read by Dame du Maurier of the romantic gothic disposition and a fitting counterpart to the transcendental Rebecca. Philip Ashley bubbles over with unreliability here as the cynical teller of this bleak tale, which is made worse in twofold due to his gullibility and inexperience of a sickly sheltered lifestyle. I feel I know even less of the ever-elliptical cousin Rachel having finished the novel than I did before, and it is stunning to think du Maurier was able to pull it off so sleekly in this fashion without any serrated edges. To keep this review spoiler-free, I will say little more, only that I found at times the plot dragged a bit in the middle, but it makes up for it in its exemplary and disconcerting denouement.… (more)

Having seen 3 adaptations of the novel – Hitchcock's 1940s version with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, the 1997 version with Charles Dance and Emilia Fox, and Netflix's version in 2020 with Armie Hammer and Lily James – I greatly desired to read this. Out of all the versions, I loved Hitchcock's and I don't think anything could ever top that. It is always interesting to see adaptations and then read and find out where they got the scenes from and how it differs from the original.

I always liked that right off the bat, the novel is called "Rebecca" - it tells you all you need to know. This book is about Rebecca the late Mrs de Winter, not the woman who is telling it the new Mrs de Winter. Indeed, the heroine in her early 20s does not even give her own name, except of course the title of Mrs de Winter, recently married to 42-year-old Maxim de Winter after meeting him on holiday in Monte Carlo. All seems rather ideal to begin with, a blissful honeymoon – until of course it isn't.

They show up at Manderley his estate, run in his absence by the sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers. And here our heroine first gets compared to Rebecca by Mrs Danvers: essentially, Rebecca could do no wrong, was beautiful, accomplished, and perfect, but our poor heroine can do no right, is plain and not able to organise the household the same. This sentiment eats away at the heroine, especially when she visits relatives: everyone seems to be unable to get over the loss of the previous Mrs de Winter who mysteriously perished in a sailing accident. Or did she?

I love everything about this book. So many mysteries and plot twists, all very enticing! I remember enjoying every second reading this.… (more)