Rebecca in Our Shared Shelf

Feb 01, 2012 Lacey Louwagie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, literary-fiction, romance

Another book that was well on its way to being a four-starrer, until about 3/4 of the way in.

Before that point, I had a few quibbles with the book, but nothing that I wasn't willing to overlook. The narrator (who doesn't have a name, btw) was a bit of a pushover, and she spent an inordinate amount of time cowering or obsessing over her new husband's first wife. But she was twenty-one, only half as old as her husband, had married him after an incredibly short and perfunctory courtship, and was su Another book that was well on its way to being a four-starrer, until about 3/4 of the way in.

Before that point, I had a few quibbles with the book, but nothing that I wasn't willing to overlook. The narrator (who doesn't have a name, btw) was a bit of a pushover, and she spent an inordinate amount of time cowering or obsessing over her new husband's first wife. But she was twenty-one, only half as old as her husband, had married him after an incredibly short and perfunctory courtship, and was suddenly "raised" into a higher class in which she felt unprepared and ill-at-ease. So while I might have wanted her to be a little more gutsy, I could admire her for taking the plunge at this mystery that is marriage at all, and I could relate to her timidity, all of which seemed keeping in character. The spectre of her husband's first wife, Rebecca, fittingly haunted her thoughts and her home, the majority of which had been closed off because it had been where Rebecca and Mr. DeWinter had lived. As if a young bride marrying "above her station" doesn't have enough to be self-conscious about, the second Mrs. DeWinter is constantly encountering stories and references to how beautiful and loved by all was Rebecca, and she's resigned to the fact that Maxim will never love her the way he loved Rebecca.

At the same time, there is a certain amount of reticence surrounding what those who were closest to Rebecca are willing to say about her; and occasionally, something is said that paints a very different picture. Even so, it takes a very blunt declaration before the narrator finally begins to understand that Rebecca may not have been all she appeared.

And that's where this book lost a lot of its redemption for me; the way that the second Mrs. DeWinter responded to the ultimate revelation about Rebecca is a reaction that I could not respect, one that pushed her from being a relateable new bride to being positively naive, flightly, and, I daresay, stupid.

Still, this is a book that creates its tension in the little day-to-day things -- the visits from in-laws, the absence of one's husband for an overnight trip, friction with the staff, and for this I appreciated it. It reminded me very much of Jane Eyre in tone and plot -- and although neither Mr. Rochester or Maxim are romantic partners to whom one should aspire, Jane Eyre proved to be a much more worthy heroine than Mrs. DeWinter. ...more

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