Title: Rebecca         

Author: Daphne du Maurier   

Genre: Classics

Publisher: Pan  

Format: Paperback

Pages: 397

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .”

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady’s maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives–presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.

Review:

Ok I loved this book! It was just the spooky classic I was looking forward to reading this fall and Halloween season!

The narrator and protagonist is someone we aren’t given a name for; except the second Mrs de Winter. So the second Mrs de W is what I’m going to call her. I found this aspect really interesting and I kept asking myself why an author wouldn’t give a main character a first name! Astounding!

Anyways, so Mrs de W meets Mr de W in the south of France, and even though she has only known him two weeks and he’s much older than her, she agrees to marry him. She goes back to Britain to his estate, called Manderly, where she realizes that the first Mrs de Winter still has a strong presence on the estate, even though she drowned a couple years previous. Our protagonist begins to fear that her husband is still in love with his first wife, and that she will never quite feel at home in another woman’s house. She is constantly thinking things like “is this the chair she sat in?” It would drive anyone mad!

I was surprised by how much I loved this book, as I thought it wasn’t going to be as exciting from the beginning. But once I got into it I got more invested into what was happening, and this book has a lot going on under the surface. I like that I went into this book not knowing much, so I’m going to leave it at that, but I loved the writing and the characters in this book! I highly recommend it!

Happy reading!