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Rebecca

Daphne du Maurier

Start date: April 1, 2019

Finish date: May 15, 2018

Discussion: Classics Corner

Discussion leader: Sara

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Jan 24, 2011 Rosana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bookish-s13-challenge, 2013, audio-books

I finished Rebecca a couple of days ago and had since been thinking of it as I intended to write a review in here. Then, this morning I opened a book at random - Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach – and there, under the entry for May 26 (I did open this at random), I found this quote from Rebecca:

This was a woman’s room, graceful, fragile, the room of someone who had chosen every particle of furniture with great care, so that each chair, each vase, each small I finished Rebecca a couple of days ago and had since been thinking of it as I intended to write a review in here. Then, this morning I opened a book at random - Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach – and there, under the entry for May 26 (I did open this at random), I found this quote from Rebecca:

This was a woman’s room, graceful, fragile, the room of someone who had chosen every particle of furniture with great care, so that each chair, each vase, each small infinitesimal thing should be in harmony with one another and with her own personality. It was as though she who had arranged this room has said: “This I will have, and this, and this,’ taking piece by piece from the treasures in Manderley each object that pleased her best, ignoring the second-rate, the mediocre, laying her hand with sure and certain instinct only upon the best.

I love when I experience such moments of literary serendipity. It was almost uncanny that I had found this specific quote, as I remember it well from when I heard it (oh yes, I listened to it in audio). The young Mrs. De Winter was describing the previous Mrs. De Winter’s morning room, and I remember thinking what great power of description Daphne Du Maurie had: while bringing this room to life she was also telling us so much about the deceased Rebecca.

The book is a long monologue by young Mrs. DeWinter, of whom we never learn her first name, only that it was unusual. But through her narration we are enveloped by the beauty of Manderley, a place that is as much a character in this book as the people in it, and we started to learn of all of the other characters. Here again Daphne Du Maurier surprised me. The characters are multi-dimensional, full of flaws, but through their shortcomings: Maxim’s pride, Mrs. Danver’s revengefulness and grief, and even Rebecca’s egocentricity ‘ they became more human in our eyes.

I should say that I had trouble finding sympathy for young Mrs. De Winter though. I realize she was young, naïve and in love, and that she was put into a completely dysfunctional situation yet I wanted to shake her a few times. Maybe my lack of kindness comes not from lack of familiarity with her situation, but because I do see myself in the mirror here. No, I never married a widower with an overbearing housekeeper, but I have been in situations where I was the new arrival, the new kid in the block, the junior employee in the office, the new member of the board, the new bride, the young mother, the new person joining an internet group… and I blundered. I hesitated because of fear or because I wanted to be accepted and I only made things worst.

This is getting long, but I have more to say about this book. I liked that it defies genre. It was a romance, but had such gothic elements to it, then it veered very close into mystery terrain. More than anything it was a very sharp commentary into class relation and British society of the period. I dare say that Du Maurier is as discriminating as Jane Austen in social commentary. The difference being that in Austen’s writing the social commentary is at the center of her stories, where Daphne Du Maurier puts it at the background, almost part of the scenery she describes so well.

I don’t know why it took me so long to read Daphne Du Maurier, but I am very glad I finally did.

...more

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Oct 29, 2014 Paige rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-aloud, favorites

OMG!! One of THE best books I read this year. It’s a slow burn and it’s amazing. This book helped me to realize that I have loved every novel I’ve read that was written in the Gothic convention, and what it was that I loved about them; so, in that sense, it was kind of revelatory to me. Besides that, I think it’s a great story and brilliantly executed.

As soon as I finished I started reading it to Peter; he loved it too. I bought it for my dad as a birthday gift after aggressively encouraging him ...more

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Mar 21, 2018 Temple Dog rated it it was ok

This is a book about getting lost, well it completely LOST me and not in a “oh this is an adventure way” more in a “I am so out of my depth here way”.

Solnit references Hitchcock’s Vertigo and it’s an apt allusion. I was invariably disoriented from start to finish.

TD cannot recommend.

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Dec 14, 2008 Lindsey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In school I had to read Jane Eyre, which I did not enjoy at all (at the time). My mom told me that she had always preferred Rebecca as an alternative; I do too. To me, du Maurier sustains the suspense much better than Miss Bronte.

The main character is sooo timid, I wanted to wring her neck, but I rooted for her the whole way.

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