- Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Avon Books; Reprint edition (Nov 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380721457
- ISBN-13: 978-0380721450
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,532,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Book Description
Rejacketed alongside Air and Angels, The Mist in the Mirror and The Woman in Black to create a set of Susan Hill's most absorbing, enchanting and unsettling backlist titles
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
This sequel to Daphne du Maurier's classic novel, "Rebecca", continues from where that book left off - the fire at Manderley. It follows the fortunes of the evil Mrs Danvers, the fatally-flawed Maxim de Winter, and his second wife, the beautiful but lonely Mrs de Winter, Rebecca's successor.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
The undertaker's men were like crows, stiff and black, and the cars were black, lined up beside the path that led to the church; and we, we too were black, as we stood in our pathetic, awkward group waiting for them to lift out the coffin and shoulder it, and for the clergyman to arrange himself; and he was another black crow, in his long cloak. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The undertaker's men were like crows, stiff and black, and the cars were black, lined up beside the path that led to the church; and we, we too were black, as we stood in our pathetic, awkward group waiting for them to lift out the coffin and shoulder it, and for the clergyman to arrange himself; and he was another black crow, in his long cloak. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The book reads like a poorly written piece of GCSE coursework..."write what you think happens next and don't forget to include references and quotes from Daphne Du Maurier's book"
The descriptions are endless; I wondered if she was ever going to get to the point. When she did get to the point it wasn't worth waiting for.
The narrator, Mrs De Winter, is irritating beyond belief and Maxim has no substance.
The story is predictable and twee.
All in all, one of the worst books I've read in a long time. Don't waste your money!
The descriptions are endless; I wondered if she was ever going to get to the point. When she did get to the point it wasn't worth waiting for.
The narrator, Mrs De Winter, is irritating beyond belief and Maxim has no substance.
The story is predictable and twee.
All in all, one of the worst books I've read in a long time. Don't waste your money!
48 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I must confess, I chose to read this book mainly due to the number of terrible reviews it had received, both here and 'across the Pond'. Call me masochistic, but I was curious. Could it really be as bad as all that?
If anything, 'Mrs de Winter' serves the purpose of being a good example of How Not To Write A Novel, never mind a sequel to one of the most beloved classics of 20th century literature. In fact, I would encourage all writers to keep it at hand as a guide; let's see, entire paragraphs held together by comma splices; a complete lack of narrative drive; a storyline that is dependent solely on melodrama and coincidence; a ludicrous and frankly predictable climax, and characters who seem to have experienced a kind of pre-frontal lobotomy since we last saw them, never mind failed to have matured in any way; missing all of the quiet strength, strange empathy and intensely unique personality tics that made du Maurier's original characters so enduring.
What surprises me most is the fact that the author of this sorry piece is Susan Hill, a seasoned writer who is responsible for, among other things, The Woman In Black, an intelligent and hauntingly gothic ghost story that was made into a very successful stage adaptation, and which I had the fortune and pleasure of seeing on tour earlier this year. In other words, there is no excuse for the poor quality of this novel. Undoubtedly Hill has talent, but one would not realise it from reading 'Mrs de Winter'. Was I not aware of Hill's other work, I would have dismissed her as one of those lucky idiots who occasionally slip through the publishing net and manage find an audience for their fanfiction.
I suppose the moral of this story is: sequels are generally a bad idea, unless written by the author of the original work. And even they don't always work out.
73 of 82 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I struggled to read this book which is a real shame as the original is one of my all time favourites. This was a terribly poor relation to its prequel, it was badly written & got bogged down in far too much detail about the heroine's surroundings which was such tedious reading, unless of course you're a botonist or horticulturalist. I'm not sure whether the tedium was intended to reflect the dull, inspid, insignificant Mrs de Winter who certainly does pale into insigificance compared to her predecssor, whether it was a narrative device or not does not make it any easier reading.
Mrs de Winter is irritating beyond belief I just kept wanting to slap her for being so pathetic; I cannot believe that Maxim could possibly have loved her, I think he pitied her & liked the idea of some gauche, naive girl worshipping him, never questioning him & she was someone he could control as well as be in control of his emotions -in other words she was the antithesis of Rebecca, whereas his first wife had threatened him as well as bring out all the worst aspects of his personality, although I do think his love for her was obsessive and possessive; the claim that he hated her is borne out of the fact that he grew to hate her after he discovered she didn't love him. As for Maxim, the man is a murderer and a brute & terribly unsympathetic. However, I was at least pleased to see justice was served at the end of the book -I skimmed through the last few chapters as I had just had enough - not before time either.
I much preferred Sally Beacham's Rebecca's Tale to this sad offering.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mrs De Winter fails to involve
I'm currently about one-third of the way through and feel compelled to mentally repunctuate and edit as I go. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Skylady
I Love Rebecca and Susan Hill, I Only Just Liked This
Mrs De Winter' finds us once again with our unnamed narrator and her husband Maxim De Winter. They have returned after ten years of living on the continent for a funeral. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Simon Savidge Reads
Very Good!!
If you liked 'Rebbeca,' & Susan Hill, you will LOVE this!! Sticking to the original, I wanted to slap the main characters!! LOL!! Read more
Published 10 months ago by LisaLou
What would Daohne du Maurier say?
Sorry, I can only give this book three stars. Susan Hill is a good writer, and I have enjoyed many of her books, but in my opinion she should have left Rebecca in her troubled... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Marianne
A Hauntingly beautiful book.
I loved Rebecca and I loved this too.It is beautifully written and the sense of longing and yearning for a future that is just within reach is almost heartbreaking. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mrs Cambridge
A worthy sequel to Du Maurier's classic
I've read a lot of the reviews here and couldn't disagree more strongly with the negative comments. I read this immediately after finishing Rebecca and thought that it followed... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mark Newman
Well Worth a Read
I read this book some years ago as I am a big fan of Rebecca. As a fairly new reviewer to Amazon I decided it was about time I gave my own opinion about this sequel. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Leggylou
Extremely disappointing
Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca is one of my favourite novels and I approached Mrs de Winter with a sense of "will it be worth reading? Read more
Published 21 months ago by Ms. K. Johnston
very efficient service
I am studying a range of Susan Hill's books and as this follows on from Rebecca, I was intrigued to read it
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by Mrs. Ja Robertshaw
An excellent sequel
I'm very suprprised that there are 1 star reviews on amazon for this book. I read a lot of books, and quite a wide range of material and found this one of the most involving and... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2009 by Lucy G
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