Rebecca

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Average customer rating 4.9 (10 comments)

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T%his is a classic mystery that is also a romance. A book I can read and reread. A treasure.

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Very enjoyable read, could not put it down. The author really pulls you into the story.

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A great mystery both suspenseful and satisfying. Similar to Agatha Christie but with a deeper psychological aspect that leaves you wondering who really is Rebecca a seductress or a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time?

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Both eerie and delightful - this is probably my favorite book of all time!

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Rebecca is one of the best gothic novels you will ever read, and it is my favorite book. It has everything: romance, mystery, suspense. A very unique and interesting tale, and you will love it.

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oh, Rebecca. very Jane Eyre-esque, but very readable. you don't want to put it down. a masterpiece.

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One of my favorite books. du Maurier's writing is beautiful, haunting and classic. The first time I read this book I needed to gobble up more of du Maurier, as this was her first book I read. The characters, the house, and the story drips with an alluring secrecy and an exciting and impending feeling of doom that will keep you up late at night needing more.

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This is exactly the kind of book that I love. It is filled with suspense, romance, and beautiful language. The view of life that the reader gets to see from the perspective of the narrator is descriptive and unique from any other literary character that I've ever known. I recommend this story to readers who enjoy classics, those who want to start reading classics, and those who never thought that they could enjoy a classic. This is a book that any reader will not easily forget.

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Dapne du Maurier published her gothic novel Rebecca in 1938 to wide popularity. Set on the English coast of Cornwell sometime in the 1920s, the novel centers around the isolated estate of Manderley. A young woman meets and quickly marries Maxim de Winter, a recent widower who is apparently struggling to get over the unexpected drowning death of his first wife, Rebecca. The second Mrs. de Winter (who is never identified by her Christian name) narrates the story. When she arrives at Manderley she is confronted by the mystery surrounding Rebecca’s death. She meets Mrs. Danvers - the weird and frightening housekeeper of Manderley: 'Something, in the expression of her face, gave me a feeling of unrest, and even when she had stepped back, and taken her place amongst the rest, I could see that black figure standing out alone, individual and apart, and for all her silence I knew her eye to be upon me.' -From Rebecca, page 68- As the novel progresses, the secrets of the house and its former mistress are uncovered. Moody, beautifully atmospheric and filled with tension, du Maurier’s magnificent writing immerses the reader in a dark tale of love and hatred. Rebecca’s ghost hides in the shadows and hovers in the minds of all the characters, entwined in the corridors of Manderley. Rebecca is the definitive gothic novel where the house becomes just as much a character as Max de Winter, Mrs. Danvers, the shifty Favell, and the servants who populate its many rooms. Spooky and convincingly rendered, it is a book which enchants from beginning to end. Harper Collins has re-published this classic novel in a 2006 volume which includes a note from the Author, an essay by du Maurier whereby she describes the real Manderley, and the original Rebecca Epilogue…all of which add insight and interest into the writing of the book. Rebecca is one of those novels which everyone should read at some point in his or her life. Highly recommended, especially for readers who love Gothic Fiction and classic literature.

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The plot is standard gothic novel stuff, but Du Maurier uniquely reveals inner psychologizing in words. I'm not sure if I had encountered any novel so exact in this regard. I was very much drawn in by the language and the suspense of this work.