Literary novel review: Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier.

'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again'¹. And so begins my review of Daphne du Maurier's classic Rebecca (1938). I will go ahead and inform you all now that this is my favourite gothic novel I have read. Let us start with the fact that the novel is named after a character who is dead. I will not say a character who is not present because I felt her presence throughout the novel. I think we can thank Mrs Danvers for that one.

As a character I found her to be cunning and manipulative, but in a quiet, innocent acting manner. This was particular with the choosing of the dress for the new Mrs de Winter for example. There were multiple moments in the novel that made me shudder at her presence, although things seemed to culminate when it came to her being at the window with the new Mrs de Winter. I will not spoil the novel but this part of the novel saw some sort of realisation as to how far she would go. I do not mean just for Mrs de Winter but for the reader too; it certainly hit me at this point. I never expected Mrs Danvers could stoop so low as I considered she had done here.

Despite all that, Mrs Danvers could be grieving Rebecca all this time later and perhaps talks about her being in the house as her way of feeling close to Rebecca. The other possibility is that Mrs Danvers is not coping and there is this resentment towards the new Mrs de Winter. I get the impression Mrs Danvers is comparing the two wives of Max de Winter and her choosing to tell the new wife is for her own personal gratification.

Aside from Mrs Danvers providing some, this novel is full of secrets, of which come crawling out some time in the novel. The secret of Mrs Danvers is that I believe she had feelings of some sort for Rebecca. Other people have their own secrets such as Take a character such as Jack Favell - his secret meetings get discovered which cause repercussions. All the characters hide things and it always ends up in some bad misfortune or consequence.

What I really liked about this novel was how many people had done bad things and it was unclear who the true villain of the novel was. It got me thinking who I thought was the wickedest. That is still a question I am not entirely convinced on an answer. The novel is gripping and I kept wanting to find out more about this character or that plot twist. It was great to read and matched the gothic horror genre in every way! I am giving this novel a 10/10.

Until next time,

Thomas.

Footnotes:

¹ Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (London: Virago, 2003), 1.

Bibliography:

du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca. London: Virago, 2003.