Du Maurier was naturally shy and socially reclusive and detested the receptions she was expected to attend and give as a commanding officer’s wife. She was also desperately homesick, hating the fierce heat of the summer in Alexandria and longing for her home by the sea in Cornwall. All these things are put to good use in this novel.
Prior to it’s publication in 1938, the author feared it would be “too gloomy” to be popular and "too grim” to appeal to readers. But sold as an “exquisite love story” with a “brilliantly created atmosphere of suspense” by the publishers - reviewers belittled it with the label “novella” (a description used solely for the work of women writers), but readers ignored them and “Rebecca” became an immediate and overwhelming commercial success. It became a bestseller in America; it sold in vast numbers in Europe and went through twenty-eight printings in four years in Britain alone. It continues to sell well and has never been out of print.
“Rebecca” is the story of a house, a man and two women. We are more familiar these days I believe, thanks to “Downton Abbey” and the like, with the life lead by the house’s inhabitants than du Maurier’s earlier readers would have been, but no less intrigued by it.
The novel opens with a dream and its first sentence has become famous: Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Thereafter follows a brief first chapter that drew me in completely. Following this the unnamed main character and narrator (a technical device du Maurier said she found interesting, and about which she was constantly questioned, even by fellow author Agatha Christie) goes on to tell the story. All was not clear until the very last pages of the book. I loved it. Yes, it’s dark in places and certainly surprising but it is also skillfully drawn and deeply satisfying. Highly recommended on the off chance you too have not yet had the pleasure.
Posted by CC
Catalogue Link: Rebecca
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