Book: Rebecca
Author: Daphne Du Maurier
Publisher: Virago Modern Classics
Release Date: Out Now
Synopsis
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .
Working as a lady’s companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers . . .
Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.
Our Review
This review is slightly different from our usual content as the book we are discussing is much older than any we have reviewed before on The Bloom Stack. But this is for good reason as we are celebrating the release of the Netflix adaptation of Rebecca, dropping on 16th October. Who else is as exited as we are?
It is no secret that we love Rebecca here on The Bloom Stack as we have mentioned it once or twice (possibly more but who is counting, right?) in previous content. If you haven’t already, check out our post about I Killed Zoe Spanos – a contemporary YA retelling of Rebecca. Daphne Du Maurier’s classic novel is narrated by the new Mrs de Winter who seems to be haunted by the ghost of her predecessor. However, she is more so haunted by the other character’s adoration for Rebecca and is drowning in her shadow. As the reader, we never meet Rebecca but we feel as if we know her due to Mrs Danver’s obsession with her.
Rebecca is incredibly melodramatic and is not short of suspenseful moments by any means. The new Mrs de Winter is an optimistic romantic and some might say she is very naive, meaning that we experience the narrative from her innocent perspective which emphasises the horror of the events as she learns what happened to her husband’s first wife. I will refrain from spoiling the plot for those who have not read this book, but Rebecca seems to be punished unfairly for embracing her sexuality and the actions of Max de Winter are romanticised by the narrator. This could very well be an opinion that has changed over time due to our evolving views of female sexuality.
Rebecca is a brilliant novel which focuses on themes of jealousy, revenge and murder and is a timeless classic accessible to any reader. Have you already read Rebecca? If so, let us know in the comments below.
Rebecca is out now and available to buy from Amazon.