The unnamed narrator stays with her clearly unstable and disturbed husband, who will never view her as his equal, even after she finds out all the terrible things he did. Her priorities are even more skewed than Bella Swan's. He's a misogynist who is barely home (in order to spend as little time as possible with her) and who might get violent with her should she annoy him, and she is painfully naive, insecure and male-dependent. An abusive father figure to a dumb little girl too sheltered to know any better. What a marriage worth saving! Not toxic in the least!
The concept itself is a fine one - ripe for a gothic horror novel - but because the heroine never really grows, and doesn't try to leave her husband (I don't think the thought ever crosses her mind), the potential is muddied.
I barely remember the other characters as well. Mrs Danvers could easily be read as an evil lesbian, who of course dies at the end. Thank goodness for the fun Beatrice: the only positive female character in 'Rebecca'.
Read with caution. Don't become hypnotized by the writing - by Manderley - like I was.
Final Score: 2/5
Plus I could still be surprised by the revelations of the mysterious elements in the book.
'Rebecca' is a wonderful novel of immense power and tension. I can see why quite a few people compare it to 'Jane Eyre' (the main reason I wanted to read it in the first place). Daphne du Maurier was a genius female author who simply cannot be dismissed. She had the gift of writing about mundane everyday things - such as gardens and living rooms - and transporting the reader to those places. Descriptions of sights, sounds, smells, tired and painful sensations and memories are interwoven together tremendously. I didn't find a single line where I thought something could have been cut out.
While I wouldn't say that her writing was perfect (page 262, lines 6-7 of my copy - 'It was quiet sitting there, quiet and cool' -? and there are other occasional repetitive passages), I still found her style to be captivating. Manderley and the timeless British country life felt real, because she made them so.
Love and relationships are deconstructed in 'Rebecca'. At least, as far as they can be in the 1930s. Our unnamed heroine loves Maxim de Winter, a widower old enough to be her father, and wants her life to become a fairy tale after they are married. She skips the details of their honeymoon in Italy and goes right into her first appearance at Manderley, a famous house she has been curious about since childhood. However, due to Maxim being haunted by his dark past and his reluctance to open up to anyone, he is distant to his new young wife. The heroine is aware of something being wrong in their rushed marriage, and unless the shadows separating them can be extinguished they cannot either of them be happy together. She is aware that he treats her more like a lovesick dog than a life partner, only to be around when it is convenient for him. Even near the end when they become closer and more "romantic", there is still something of the father figure in Maxim towards the heroine; telling her what to do in order to "protect" her, when he could still be trying to protect himself...
I found our young heroine not to be so naive and shy, though she is very dependent on Maxim throughout her story. And why didn't she think that maybe the reason why Maxim was so distant and a little unhinged when she met him was because his first wife drowned barely a year before? But she soon grows into a woman capable of making her own decisions in a world she is so unaccustomed to. Though she does show signs of heartlessness before as well, like when she pesters her friend Frank with questions about Rebecca. And she never mentions her dead family at all after marrying Maxim. Hmm.
The heroine is also like a deconstruction of the Cinderella-type character - a rags-to-riches girl who finds the higher class, overly-privileged lifestyle not so easy or desirable. Especially when she knows people are comparing her to her husband's first wife - the beautiful, independent, strong, brave, perfect, dead Rebecca, who we never see but who haunts the novel in deliciously-written passages...
Rebecca - the mystery, the title character who is deceased before the start of the story, the enigma and bane of the unnamed heroine's new life at Manderley. She is a great example of how the dead can do as much, if not more, harm than when living, especially in a rich family home with a reputation to uphold...
The other characters are also very memorable and complex. Mrs Danvers is brilliantly creepy and manipulative, sensing right away the heroine's weaknesses and using them against her in ways that are twisted, and also kind of pathetic. Danvers is a woman you'll love to hate. Frank Crawley is a great and loyal friend to the family, who is capable of mishaps but never gives up on Maxim or the heroine, whom he takes a shine to and tries to help adjust to life at Manderley. Beatrice is the fun, boisterous big sister figure to the heroine. Jack Favell - what a sick, magnificent bastard! And the adorable and faithful dog Jasper. But why was the older, useless female dog unnamed?
'Rebecca' - a novel ahead of its time. Sensual, lovely, slightly Gothic, fantastically plotted and executed, with the right amount of characters and scenarios that make the narrative realistic. For anyone looking for something different yet exceptional in writing styles, it is a treat, and most certainly not just for female readers.
While I didn't find said writing to be overall perfect, I'll still remember 'Rebecca' - the book and the character - for a long time.
Final Score: 4/5
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