Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

It is a truly great book. Everything comes together so well, form, story, atmosphere, characters.

I may have swallowed this book whole! I finished it in probably three days! Fantastic!

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Originally Posted by grace86

I may have swallowed this book whole! I finished it in probably three days! Fantastic!

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Another one we both loved! How are you doing, grace? I also have Frenchman's Creek on audiobook from a friend. I only started listening to it but I loved it so far. The descriptions are quite beautiful. I loved the descriptions of the ocean and woods in Rebecca, didn't you? It felt like CA to me in the northern regions with the coves and beautiful trees.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

This is a truly magnificent work. It is a stunning book with sweeping prose which will carry the world away into the inciting world of Manderley. This book is known for having one of the most famous opening lines, and the entire first chapter is hauntingly gripping and creates such a wonderfully vivid image within the readers mind. The writing of this book is true poetry.

I absolutely love the Gothic style which du Maurier applies in writing this book, making it such an enchanting story that could read without ever putting down as you become carried away within this vision of the past. There is something almost bittersweet about it all.

The story focuses around a young woman who is training to be a "companion" having no family of her own and little real experience in the world. When she fall hopelessly in love with Maxim de Winter, though older than her, she is taken in with his quiet charm as well as his interest in her and she soon finds herself taken up in a world so outside her own background as she is brought into the rich and high-society life of the famous Manderley. In fact Manderley would be just as fitting a title for this book as Rebecca is.

Though shortly after coming into Maxim's beloved home the narrator finds herself quickly encased into the life of Maixm's first wife Rebecca de Winter, beloved by all (or nearly all) who knew her. The memory of Rebecca haunts every corner of Manderley and the narrator (who remains nameless) begins to doubt herself when she imagines all the ways in which she fails to live up to Rebecca.

As the story progresses a shocking mystery about Rebecca begins to unravel itself.

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Dark Muse, very perceptive and well written commentary. I love the book, too. I love the two films I have seen made from the book but the book's descriptions are totally mesmerizing and I love the characters as portrayed in the novel. She was a fine writer. I have an biography about her and should read it someday. I especially like how she so mysteriously never reveals the first name of the woman Maxim marries after Rebecca. The opening scene in the Hitchcock movie is so incredible. I think the novel begins the same way with the flashback; am I right? It's been ages since I read the book.

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Originally Posted by Janine

Dark Muse, very perceptive and well written commentary. I love the book, too. I love the two films I have seen made from the book but the book's descriptions are totally mesmerizing and I love the characters as portrayed in the novel. She was a fine writer. I have an biography about her and should read it someday. I especially like how she so mysteriously never reveals the first name of the woman Maxim marries after Rebecca. The opening scene in the Hitchcock movie is so incredible. I think the novel begins the same way with the flashback; am I right? It's been ages since I read the book.

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Yes the novel begins with a flaskback.

Obsession, jealousy, murder...perfect mix :)

I liked both film versions of Rebecca although Olivier was a bit too young and in the 1998 one, they give the second Mrs deWinter a first name! (when she makes her entrance to her costume party, there's a drum roll and she's introduced by a full name)

I finished this book a couple weeks ago, and though I enjoyed the first 90% of it, I was a bit puzzled by the ending. (Granted, I had to read the last chapter in a huge hurry, because I had to return the library before I went on vacation.) It seemed so unresolved, though I suppose we readers are supposed to fill in the gaps between this final car ride between Maxim and our narrator, and the flashback sequences towards the beginning of the book. Are we to assume that Maxim and the narrator ran away together and that Maxim's state of mind deteriorated so much that the narrator cared for him while they were "in exile"?

I should probably go check the book out again to get the ending straight in my head, but I'm in the middle of moving and can't quite find the time.

Otherwise, I quite enjoyed the first parts of the book; I found the prose riveting and was often unable to put the book down. Usually, I have a love/hate relationship with Gothic novels, because, while they are so interesting, I find the young female narrators quite naive. Admittedly, I found this narrator a bit too meek for my liking, but as the excitement mounted, it became less of an issue.

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Originally Posted by Wilde woman

I finished this book a couple weeks ago, and though I enjoyed the first 90% of it, I was a bit puzzled by the ending. (Granted, I had to read the last chapter in a huge hurry, because I had to return the library before I went on vacation.) It seemed so unresolved, though I suppose we readers are supposed to fill in the gaps between this final car ride between Maxim and our narrator, and the flashback sequences towards the beginning of the book. Are we to assume that Maxim and the narrator ran away together and that Maxim's state of mind deteriorated so much that the narrator cared for him while they were "in exile"?

I should probably go check the book out again to get the ending straight in my head, but I'm in the middle of moving and can't quite find the time..

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I did not get the impression that his mental state had deteriorated, only that becasue of how much he always hated scandal and gossip, and peopel talking about him, and becasue of the tormenting memories of everything which happened, they did not want to be "known" they wanted to live a fresh life, and to free thesmelves from the past they created new idenities for themselves.

I liked Rebecca, though Jamaica Inn is my favorite du Maurier novel.

I do recall that some parts moved too slowly, and sometimes it was painful to read because I just wanted to smack the narrator to wisen up. She, of course, interpreted it as a young person probably would.

I thought the housekeeper was rather tragic too--and I always felt that perhaps if the narrator had handled her differently, she wouldn't have been quite as a nuisance. I think she tried to bond with the young woman at the beginning--or that is my recollection of it.