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Cover of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca

Daphne du Maurier

  • 386 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 1938
  • 200 editions
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1 About this book

A shy young woman, working as a paid companion in Monte Carlo, meets Maxim de Winter, a wealthy widower twice her age, and after a brief courtship marries him. He takes her home to Manderley, his great house on the Cornish coast. There she finds that everything still bears the mark of his first wife, Rebecca: the routines of the house, the memories of the neighbors, and above all the devotion of the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, who makes plain that the new wife can never take Rebecca's place. The narrator, whose own name is never given, tells the story looking back. Daphne du Maurier's novel was published in 1938.

  • Thrillers
  • Romance
  • Romance, suspense
  • Classics
  • Married women
  • Drama
  • Wives
  • Smugglers

2 What to expect

A Gothic novel of suspense narrated by a shy young bride who comes to her husband's great Cornish house and finds it ruled by the memory of his first wife. Jealousy, insecurity and the power of the dead over the living drive the first half, which is slow and full of atmosphere; the second half moves quickly as secrets surface. It is a romance, a mystery and a psychological study at once.

Good for readers who want: gothic suspense, a haunted marriage, and rich, brooding atmosphere.

3 About Daphne du Maurier

1907–1989

Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather George du Maurier was a writer and cartoonist. Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall, where most of her works are set. As her fame increased, she became more reclusive.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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