“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past the beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten… her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant—the sinister Mrs. Danvers—still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca… for the secrets of Manderley. – Avon Books
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What can I say except that Rebecca is spellbinding, intoxicating and a classic. Sometimes it was difficult for me to believe this book was written in the 1930s given some of the language Daphne Du Maurier uses. Her words flow together like poetry. She conveys thoughts as modern day writers do and they fit in effortlessly with the time period.
Not only does Du Maurier display a modern sense of writing, she portrays the naïveté and desire of our heroine to be older with panache. The narrative begins in the present time as our heroine remembers her life before she met the intriguing Maximilian de Winter. In these memories are her feelings of insecurity, which are played for us a like a movie as she daydreams. Sometimes her thoughts are repetitive, but it shows how her young mind works. She thinks as a child, she worries; she wants everyone to like her. She’s shy, but as the new wife, she is now the woman of the house—the great Manderley. Only, she acts like a visitor. Of course, that has to do with the creepy housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers’, initial treatment of her. We find all is not what it seems at Manderley, the home of the de Winters, but why is not readily disclosed.
This book is a big mystery and it remains so until the end. Does Maxim really love his new young wife? Is his time all spent thinking about his first wife, Rebecca? Will the new Mrs. de Winter ever truly feel at home at Manderley? The answers to those questions and more are shocking. More shocking is the secret Maxim reveals about Rebecca and his marriage to her. Not only does it surprise the reader, it surprises the new Mrs. de Winter as well.
One of the captivating things about Rebecca is we never actually learn the second Mrs. de Winter’s first name. I think it’s brilliant. Not only is the omission of her first name irrelevant after a while, it signifies the changes in her life. She goes from being an employee of Mrs. Van Hopper to the wife of Maximilian de Winter. She is no longer the girl she used to be, but a woman. A wife. Mrs. de Winter. This is who she grows to be, this is who she remains. It’s all that matters. The identification of oneself is curiously shrouded in the few syllables which travel with us from birth to death. What is in a name? We know Rebecca’s name. It’s the name most uttered and wondered about. And why? Because that is all she is. Rebecca. She’s no longer Mrs. de Winter and it’s possible she never was. But our heroine is the true wife to Maxim and we see that in every page. From the moment she falls in love with him to the heart-wrenching moment he reveals his secrets to her, she is Mrs. de Winter.
Speaking of his secrets, my mind warred with itself while reading the details of Maxim’s plight. On one hand, I felt sympathy for him but I also felt he had no one to blame but himself. There is always another way to handle things. On the other hand, I was relieved he found some way to free himself from the weight of the years that had been holding him down. He wasn’t himself unless he was with his wife, and she could see it but had no idea why. While I won’t disclose the details of his secret or what it relates to, just know that it leads to a happy (if you can call it that) ending for the de Winters.
While I loved the movie adaptation, the book has more detail and explains circumstances which may not have been too clear throughout the film. This book is absolutely one of my favorites and I will read it again and again, hoping to pick up something new each time.
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