Rebecca

 By Daphne du Maurier

Little, Brown     2013 edition

449 pages     Literary

How could I have gotten to my age as a voracious reader and never have read Rebecca? Thank goodness for my book group for reading it this month! This week I read the book and watched the 1940 movie with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Can’t wait to discuss it with my book friends.

Well, enough of that. The plot is very basic. The narrator is an unnamed young woman who travels to Monte Carlo as the companion of a wealthy older woman. While there, she meets a wealthy widower, perhaps in his mid-40s. Maxim de Winter. Very handsome, very conflicted, very depressed. His wife, Rebecca, had drowned a year ago.  Maxim takes an immediate shine to the young woman, and they marry on the spur of the moment. Shortly after their marriage they return to his very famous country estate in England named Manderley. Our young narrator thinks she has arrived in heaven.

Instantly, the young Mrs. de Winter realizes that she is out of her element. There are signs of Rebecca everywhere. It is obvious that all the servants in the household are still mourning Rebecca’s death, particularly Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who had a very long relationship with Rebecca and doesn’t want a new Mrs. de Winter in the house. For a long time, Mrs. de Winter’s only friend on the estate is the estate manager, Frank, who not only works for Maxim but is his best friend. He becomes the young wife’s best friend as well. For a while, I thought a romantic relationship might build between Frank and Mrs. de Winter, but Frank stays true to his job and his friendships.

The plot didn’t develop in the way I thought it would. It just slowly builds to a magnificent,  if perilous, conclusion. But the plot is only a part of the story. Du Maurier is a marvelous writer. Her descriptions of Manderley and the development of her characters is superb. I kept underlining terrific passages, and writing down questions I needed answers for.  

I was especially taken with this unfortune young woman brought into a situation for which there was no resolution. Du Maurier’s portrayal of this young woman and how lost she is in this environment is stunning and all-consuming.  She knows nothing about how to run a household, especially since Rebecca had run the household without error, planning enormous parties, and mastering horseback riding, sailing, and all the other skills of the leisure class. She is horribly intimidated by Mrs. Danvers, and ultimately with her arch nemesis, Rebecca. She is never sure of Maxim’s love and blames his distance on his grief over the loss of Rebecca. But as the story develops,  she gains confidence and a desire to take control of Manderley and her own life.

One reviewer says that in Rebecca, du Maurier “fuses psychological realism with a sophisticated version of the Cinderella story.” But in Rebecca, the handsome prince is old enough to be the narrator’s father. Of course, like all fairy tales, there is also a witch—Mrs. Danvers, who haunts the young woman’s every move.

I believe that Rebecca is worthy of every award it gained through the years, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 1938 and the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century in 2000. The Alfred Hitchcock 1940 film won the Oscar for Best Picture. It stayed pretty true to the novel with only slight adjustments to the conclusion. There is also a 2020 version of the film on Netflix.