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Oct 25, 2011

Lora rated it:

Rebecca is a classic tale that weaves mystery, secrets, and romance into an intricate and stunning twine. It tells the story of a young girl who is swept off her feet by a much older man with money and possessions aplenty — and even more heartache in his recent past.
Since his wife's tragic death eight months ago, Maxim de Winter has been doing everything he can to forget the horrific part of his past that has left him feeling bereft of happiness and aloof from others.
But even with More...

15 comments like (26 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Madeline rated it:

"I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
Rebecca is the story of a young woman (her first name is never given) who marries wealthy Maxim de Winter, mostly to escape her life as a companion to a rich American woman. She moves with her new husband to his estate, Manderly, where she learns about her husband's previous wife, Rebecca. Although Rebecca drowned in the ocean near the house over a year ago, the house is still full of her prescence. Her old room is cleaned daily, and is left e More...

7 comments like (53 people liked it)

Feb 14, 2011

Libby rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

10 comments like (22 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2008

Arlene rated it:

HERE IS MY HEART...

REBECCA is my favorite book of all time -- bar none.

The opening line is famous, but I didn’t know that the first time I read it (I was about 14). I just remember that the magic began with that first line:

Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderly again....

The girl is young, clumsy, exquisitely sensitive. Impoverished and alone after her father’s death, she was employed by a wealthy and boorish social climber, Mr More...

13 comments like (67 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Kim rated it:

I first read this novel approximately forty years ago, when I was a teenager. I have an enduring memory of walking around my home, nose firmly in the book, unable to put it down. Yesterday, listening to the concluding chapters of the audiobook, I had the same experience. I could not stop listening until it was over.

When I was a teenager, what captivated me most about Rebecca was the plot: the relationship between the unnamed narrator and Maxim de Winter, the machinations of Mrs Danv More...

30 comments like (13 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

Valerie added it

It was quite a painful book and not really in a good way. The protagonist is so insecure. How can someone walk around feeling so...desperate, depressed, and doubtful about everything? It was depressing. I could not finish it.

It's not necessarily a bad book; I just couldn't stand how uncomfortable she felt all the time. It's like those people who had to do presentations in class that looked so flustered you felt bad for them and watching them was just out right painful. That was like More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Kelly rated it:

This is it. THE delicious, curl up next to the fire under a blanket with tea book. THE windowsill on a rainy day with your pet book. THE stay up all night book. A chill goes down your spine (but in a good way!) while reading it. It is a masterpiece of gothic literature, the inheritor of the tradition of novels like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I'd call it the 20th Century Jane Eyre, actually, with a modernist twist. It is written so that the characters and events are quite believable and ch More...

27 comments like (40 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Jo rated it:

"Sometimes I wonder if she comes back here to Manderley and watches you and Mr de Winter together..."

Holy moly. Where to start?
Well, it's probably best to point out that Rebecca is the best book to read on a dark, murky dismal day in a room with a roaring open fire and a sheepskin rug with pictures of long dead relatives lining the walls. However, due to unforseen circumstances (I was..um.. unable to move to a secluded mansion in the South with open roaring fire and More...

7 comments like (11 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2010

Luann rated it:

Why do I find it so much harder to write a review for a book that I really loved than for a book I really didn't? I also have a harder time writing a review for a book that is very well known and has had a lot written about it over the years. What could I have to say that would in any way add to what others have said? Especially when I just keep wanting to say things like "I loved this book!" "It's awesome, amazing, mysterious, and frustrating!" "Everybody should read th More...

19 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

Regine rated it:

I was actually pretty skeptical going into this book. I've heard so many people compare this to Jane Eyreand I didn't believe that anyone could ever do justice to it.I read past the famous opening line:

Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

I was hooked.

I admire du Maurier. She had the balls to take elements from such an iconic piece of literature--gothic mansion, young bride, Byronic hero,-- and she makes it her own. Let's star More...

7 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 10, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

Books like Rebecca remind me from time to time what quality literature really is. Sometimes I forget, buried under stacks of entertaining but often poorly written popular fiction.

At first, Rebecca is very reminiscent of another favorite book of mine - Jane Eyre. The main character is a young, innocent, poor girl who falls in love with a rich older man. The happiness is so near, but the shadow of the man's first wife stands in the way of it. A family secret, a haunted mansion, a dera More...

24 comments like (31 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

Whatever Daphne Du Maurier owes to the Brontes for Rebecca, Stephenie Myers owes twice that to Du Maurier for Twilight. I was surprised how many times I thought of Twilight while reading this book. We all know that Myers drew a lot from Wuthering Heights but this is a much more tangled web. Not only do both Rebecca and Twilight have those elements of dark, gothic love, but they also have the simpering, neurotic, needy young first-person narrator that can only come from a misreading of Jane Eyre. More...

6 comments like (27 people liked it)

Feb 15, 2008

Beth rated it:

Apparently this book is famous. The cover of my particular edition brags that it’s “the unsurpassed modern masterpiece of romantic suspense; … one of the bestselling novels of all time” and it’s even been made into a Hitchcock film that it seems everyone’s seen but me. I, however, was unfamiliar with the story. After reading through the first couple chapters, I was hooked on this book. I’d curl up under the covers and read a few pages before bedtime, all the while composing phrases in my mind More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alison rated it:

I love this book. It's not entirely perfect, but still deserving of five stars (which, for the record, just means "it's amazing").

What's so good about it? The beautiful descriptive writing, the nightmarish, dream tinted atmosphere, the complexity of the life at Manderly involving the well-planned out and delicious sounding meals (and teas, and the ball), the routine and order of the servants, the cars, the descriptions of each sight and smell of the flowers and the sea. More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

Jessica rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (11 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

whichwaydidshego? rated it:

Having enjoyed the Hitchcock film fashioned after it, I picked up this book one day last year & became completely enraptured by it. It is a terse, gripping tale that holds you transfixed until the end. Just as Willa Cather could cause the land itself to seem a character, Daphne du Maurier's title character is a dead woman who manages to seem more alive than the actual living characters by continually effecting lives long after her death. Similarly, the Manderley estate itself plays a signific More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Nov 04, 2011

Sean rated it:

This is an excellent early 20th century romantic suspense novel about a young woman who marries a mysterious rich widower. There is a cloud of mystery surrounding Rebecca's (the man's deceased wife) death. As the plot of the novel unfolds, the young bride slowly learns that something does not seem right about the place. The setting of the novel, the Cornish mansion, Manderley, plays an important role in the atmosphere and intrigue of the story. This is a page turner from start to finish that wi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

Jeannette rated it:

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34 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Updated Jane Eyre. Cept empathises with patriarchal paranoia in its horror of female sexuality/ independence. The unnamed narrator and Rebecca represent a division of self. Appealed to me cos the romance demonstrates masochism as enacted idolatry.

8 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Chiara rated it:

"Il signor De Winter, vedovo da poco più di un anno, incontra a Monte Carlo una ragazza giovane e inesperta, che decide di sposare. Dopo un matrimonio frettoloso e una breve luna di miele, i due fanno rientro a Manderley, la celeberrima tenuta di lui. La nuova signora De Winter, innamoratissima del marito, si trova però a dover combattere la propria inadeguatezza al ruolo che le viene imposto: non riesce a sentirsi autoritaria con la servitù, è intimorita dalla signora Danvers, governante d More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2010

Molly rated it:

Having only seen the movie many moons ago I was pleased to give this classic a go and see how I found it. I didn't remember much of the plot - more the sense of the story than anything else. From the very beginning I felt like someone was narrating the movie in my mind as I read along. I could see Hitchcock's images playing in my head and was happy for it.

The book starts off very descriptive of the scenery which may have bogged me down a bit had I not already had all of the images More...

10 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2009

Sera rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

Sarah rated it:

As I'm sure I've mentioned, I watched the movie before reading the book, but that's my own stupid fault.

Never have weather and flowers been utilized so effectively in a novel! Though the format is a bit conventional, the writing is pitch perfect: the setting, the pacing, the oh-so satisfyingly archetypal characters. I completely relate to the narrator and not just because of her obsession with glamorous dead people. She perceives the world in much the same way I do, has an acute sens More...

14 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2011

Lisa rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. Beautiful writing, dark atmosphere, so descriptive you can almost smell the flowers at Manderley and of course lots of mystery and intrigue surrounding the title character Rebecca.

This is the story of a young girl who marries a wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter, and then goes to live with him at his grand home Manderley, but neither of them can escape the presence of his late wife, Rebecca. Rebecca is kept very much alive by the decorative touches and More...

9 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2008

★shawn rated it:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

This is how "Rebecca" opens and it is, quite possibly, one of the best opening lines in a book ever.

"Rebecca" is the story of a woman who marries Mr. de Winter and when she goes to his home, she is haunted (but not literally) by his dead wife, Rebecca. Every where she turns she is reminded of how beautiful, savvy, posh, sociable, fashionable, and likable the previous Mrs. de Winter was. Feelin More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2007

Micha rated it:

My librarian warned me I'd like this book. How uncannily accurate she can be about these things. I sometimes have a secret ambition to become a librarian.

Oh, wait, I'm supposed to be reviewing the book here? Right.

I have to say the relationship between the narrator and Maxim de Winter was really aggravating for a time, what with him treating her like a child or pet, and her only ever desiring to please him. But after that The Truth came out, it became a little more satisf More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2008

Coffeeboss rated it:

After all these years I finally read "Rebecca" after seeing the BBC movie "Daphne" (about "the secret love life of Daphne du Maurier"). It was fascinating to know a bit about the author first, then delve into her most famous book. The young woman narrator is conspicuously never named, which makes her even more overlooked as everyone compares her to her new husband Maxim de Winter's worshipped dead wife Rebecca. I've seen the movie awhile back, but luckily had forgot More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Knowledge Lost rated it:

"I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

Rebecca tells the story of woman who marries and becomes the next Mrs de Winter. This woman has to live in the shadows of the first Mrs de Winter; the late Rebecca. As the story twists and turns you sinister story of Rebecca and the home of Manderley begins to unfold. The evil Mrs. Danvers always lurking about, making Mrs de Winter’s life hell and constantly reminder her how great Rebecca was. Rebecca is a wonderful story, full of myster More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 29, 2009

Bieiris rated it:

Daphne du Maurier era prima hermana de los niños Llewelyn-Davies, a quienes J.M. Barrie dedicó Peter Pan y adoptó ilegalmente tras la muerte de los progenitores. Una historia, como se podrán imaginar, fascinante y truculenta que terminó como el rosario de la aurora, con homosexualidad, suicidios, Primera Guerra Mundial y traumas varios incluidos.
Pasemos ahora al asunto que nos ocupa, muchísimo más aburrido sin lugar a dudas, que constituye la crítica de esta cursísima novela.
Rebecca More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Laura rated it:

A young woman of no background is swept off her feet by Maxim de Winter, the older, aristocratic owner of a stately home in Cornwall. The trouble is that our heroine fears Maxim is still mourning his late wife Rebecca, who was everything the new wife is not: beautiful, cultured, elegant, and urbane. Haunting and suspenseful, this combination love story and psycho-thriller made Daphne du Maurier’s reputation. Tons of fun, and a quick read!

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

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