Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” is probably one of the most famous first lines from a novel and captures the readers interest immediately. What is Manderley? Why is our narrator dreaming about it? The story is relayed to us by the second Mrs de Winter who is not even given a name throughout the novel, as if to emphasise how insignificant she is compared to her predecessor, Rebecca. This book is haunting, chilling and packed full of intrigue. Who was Rebecca, why did people love her so much, was she good or evil? The narrator is constantly searching for answers to questions that no-one seems to want to answer but the truth that has been hidden for years is about to be revealed. A true classic.
Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers ...Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.
Excellent entertainment ... du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings. STEPHEN KING The two words most commonly used in descriptions of Du Maurier's all-time classic are 'haunting and 'magical'. Both are accurate. GOOD BOOK GUIDE
'I am reminded of how profoundly du Maurier changed the way I felt about myself, how she engaged and excited me with her writing.' The DAILY TELEGRAPH
'As a new generation of readers are introduced to the wicked housekeeper Mrs Danvers and learn Maxim de Winter's terrible secret, this chilling, suspenseful tale is as fresh and readable as it was when it was first written, more than 60 years ago.' One of my favourite books is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It has always fascinated me because the most vivid character in the story - and the most alive - is Rebecca, who is in fact dead. The hidden secret, of course, is how she died and why she died but the other secret - perhaps the more intriguing - is what is the second Mrs De Winter's Christian name? Review by MINETTE WALTERS Editor's note: Minette Walters' latest novel, The Breaker, is due to be published in paperback in May. (Kirkus UK)
Author
About Daphne Du Maurier, Sally Beauman
Daphne du Maurier (1907-89) was born in London and educated at home and in Paris. She lived most of her life in her beloved Cornwall, the setting for most of her novels.
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