Horribly let down by Rebecca

Yes, @tobee, she's absolutely superb. I often listen to audiobooks last thing at night, which is a mistake with this one, as I can't stop listening to it (just ten minutes more...) 😬

Such a good listen isn't it @UtilityPlayer ? The Anna Massey narration. I find myself listening to it as a Christmas treat while I'm making Christmas dinner most years! Then I'm volunteering to do the clearing up as well so I can get back to it!

Sorry you didn't enjoy Rebecca OP, but I've really enjoyed this thread about it. It prompted me listen to the audio book read by Anna Massey, which is great! I paid particular attention to the descriptions of the woods & rhododendrons & it did go on a bit, so I get what you mean. Still love the story though.

Also, on BBC4 tomorrow (27th March) night at 10 o'clock there's a drama about DdM's life & the following programme at 11.30 is an interview with DdM at her Cornish home. How timely!

Yes, and doesn’t some other character remark idly at some point on whether ‘there had ever been a Mr Danvers’ and said there’d been no sign of one — possibly Maxim, who, in his feudal way, never spares the servants a thought, and doesn’t grasp why the second Mrs de W doesn’t just order her around and tell her to get the ornament she broke mended, rather than hiding the pieces like a new housemaid afraid of getting into trouble.

I think the way in which the scene where Mrs Danvers discovers the narrator snooping in Rebecca’s bedroom is written is definitely sexually coded — Mrs Danvers manner is ‘intimate’, she talks about ‘doing everything for her’, what she looked like lying in bed, both she and the narrator touch and smell Rebecca’s nightdress, which hasn’t been washed since she last wore it, and Mrs D forces the narrator’s hand inside her slippers, how R’s body was naked when found etc etc. I think the narrator compares it to a time when, as a child, a friend wanted her to come and look at a ‘forbidden book’.

The House on the Strand is one of my all-time favourites.

I enjoyed Frenchman's Creek last year. I read The House on the Strand years ago and will go back to it. I don't know Jamaica Inn at all! Thanks @SirChenjins

If you haven’t already read them, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman’s Creek are both excellent

I didn't see any reference to Mrs Danvers having any children of her own in the book.

In the old days housekeepers and cooks were called ‘Mrs’ whatever their marital status so Mrs Danvers wasn’t necessarily married.

I'm rereading 'Rebecca' thanks to this thread. What a brilliant book.

Yes Anna Massey (Mrs Danvers in the Joanna David/Jeremy Brett version) thought Mrs Danvers was a lesbian and played her as such iirc.

Incidentally, talking of Anna Massey, I see BBC4 has shown Hotel du Lac, the film version of Anita Brookner's novel, starring Anna Massey. It's available on BBC iPlayer, listed under the Screen Two title, series 8.

I've just finished reading Rebecca for the third time and really enjoyed it even though I know what happens. I love books that reveal more layers on subsequent readings. I think the description of the greenery really adds to the menacing atmosphere, but I would've skipped most of it the first time to find out what happens next.

I've seen suggestions of a lesbian relationship between Rebecca and Mrs Danvers, but I think to Mrs Danvers Rebecca was like her own child, and a very over indulged and entitled one at that. I didn't see any reference to Mrs Danvers having any children of her own in the book.

I do wonder what the de Winters ' relationship will be like in 5 or 10 years time - will she have continued to grow in confidence and the relationship become more equal (for the times) or will his oft mentioned temper and her self effacing character combine to squash down any chance of her blossoming as a person in her own right.

I just assumed it was Mrs Danvers who set the fire - possibly because I'm sure I saw a film version years ago where she was screaming as she was consumed by the flames. In the book the narrator wonders what she and Favell are doing now so she obviously didn't die in the fire.

Thanks for this thread OP as it's given me much to think about, even if I don't agree about the greenery! Looking forward to reading it again already!

I must echo this recommendation. I only read The Death of the Heart as a teenager because I saw an adaptation of it on TV (this is years ago) but it’s become one of my favourite re-reads.

What is this house? I'm desperate to visit, but Google searches thus far coming up blank...

I will do, I'm away for a few days next week so will read it on the train 😊

MrsPellegrino I hope you enjoy it - let me know what you think.

I've just ordered Death of the Heart thanks for the recommendation.

So did I- I always thought there was something going on there, may a one-sided love, never mentioned of course, but I always felt it was there 'between the lines'

yes, it's been fascinating!

I have the feeling that Mrs Danvers knew Rebecca from a child and to her R was always the golden child - beautiful, accomplished and with all the men after her. Nothing she could do was wrong, didn't matter what it was.

I’ve just remembered - there’s a housekeeper in the Death of the Heart who plays a major part in the story thought she’s a very different character to Mrs Danvers.

I’m a huge Bowen fan, though The House in Paris (and maybe The Last September) edge ahead as my favourite Bowen novels. Oh, and The Heat of the Day, the only novel about spying set during the Blitz in which nothing whatsoever happens, and it’s still unspeakably good!) Some people can’t bear her style, though…

Actually, I’ve always thought that one of Maxim and the nameless narrator’s grim little continental hotels could have been the hotel where Bowen’s first novel is set…

I think Mrs Danvers is also a bit like Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, the upper servant who Will Keep Up The Traditions of the Household No Matter What. Even if Maxim can technically do no wrong as the man of the house, he’s clearly chosen to marry someone below his social class this time, and Mrs Danvers will make it icily clear every time the second Mrs de Winter makes a misstep, by treating her like a new maid on trial.

Thank you, I'll check out her work!

I think Mrs Danvers was devastated by the death of Rebecca and was furious with Maxim for bringing another wife to Manderley.
She quickly realised she could bully Rebecca’s successor and made the most of this in a really horrible way and so I don’t think her grief was an excuse for her behaviour.
If the second Mrs de Winter had stood up to her from the start…….well who knows, and we would have had a very different novel.

I always took it that Mrs Danvers was in love with Rebecca.

One of my favourites!