Rebecca (Paperback)

This is a haunting tale, and as you would expect from du Maurier every aspect is conveyed fantastically through her rich, expressive writing style and vocabulary. No characters in a du Maurier novel are ever under-developed, and "Rebecca" boasts the most interesting set of characters I have ever seen in a novel. My favourites include the mysterious, somewhat frightening Mrs Danvers, who is undoubtedly the most stricken by Rebecca's death and remains obsessed with her a year after she was "drowned"; Maxim's sister Beatrice, who seems to be the only one who immediately takes to the new Mrs de Winter out of sympathy and sheer heart; and Frank Crawley, Maxim's agent, a quiet character who somehow reminds me of myself. Of course, there are then the marvellous creations of the two main characters, the most unlikely people ever to fall in love. Du Maurier injects me with a stab of pain every time she allows a character, paricularly Maxim, to refer to the new Mrs de Winter as a "child", and she emphasises her lowly status even more by not revealing her first name throughout the entire novel. Mrs de Winter, therefore, constantly finds herself under scrutiny and, like everyone around her at Manderley, becomes increasingly haunted by Rebecca. But this wonderful woman was not all she appears to have been...

As ever, du Maurier provides her reader with many twists and turns, none of which are escalated out of proportion to make the plot mindblowingly exciting and unbelievable, instead assisting in establishing "Rebecca" as a work of genius from one of the greatest authors ever to have lived. I cannot urge you more strongly to read this novel.

A word of warning - if you buy this edition DO NOT read the introductory section before reading the novel - it gives away too much of the plot.

Rebecca is the story of the young, innocent, and naive 2nd Mrs. DeWinter. The 1st Mrs. DeWinter was Rebecca, perfect, beloved, and well-remembered by all who knew her. Although Rebecca is dead the entire book, her ghost (figuratively, not literally) haunts our heroine as she tries to define the role of Mrs. DeWinter for herself. Everything she does is wrong because it is not the way Rebecca would have done it; she lives in a house where she is constantly compared to the beautiful, skilled, artistic, intelligent, and sociable Rebecca whose faults seem all to have been forgotten in death. The 2nd Mrs. DeWinter is shy, pretty, clumsy, and painfully naive in her behavior. She is not the picture perfect heroine, and she seems always to be measured against absolute perfection...

I really can't say much more without giving anything away. Trust me that what sounds like a simple and depressing story of a failure of a wife is actually romantic and quite thrilling. I hightly recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate suspense. Please, take this book home and give it a try-- and don't be discouraged by the slow start. It gets better-- I promise you.