Horribly let down by Rebecca

DdM said that the setting for Manderley is Menabilly, by the sea with the long winding approach. But the house is based on another, bigger and grander house.

I went to a party at Menbilly once many years ago and the winding driveway is very atmospheric...

Yes, I was the same with Brief Encounter. I thought it was so romantic!

I think she was not behaving in a way women were not expected to in those days - the horse incident was awful but probably not too far from the truth in that I’m sure it wasn’t unusual for horses to broken in that way by men of the time.

When I first read Rebecca at 15, I thought it was soooo romantic and Maxim the perfect hero. How stupid was I? 😀I didn't even get that she was trapped as a live-in carer for a murderer.

Thanks for the tip about the bio of Du Maurier. I will read it.

Rebecca is an early example of the ‘modern’ novel, complete with unreliable narrator, chronological shifts and psychological twists. It was mismarketed as a ‘romance’ upon publication, much to Du Maurier’s dismay, and the film propagated this misunderstanding.

If you look at it from the perspective that Maxim is a deeply repressed, cold narcissist, a snob and misogynist, the narrator unreliable and biased with no insight into her own or others’ behaviour, Rebecca’s character seems much more nuanced.

It’s a very very dark book indeed and I love it. I have also taught it for A Level and students always enjoyed it. The opening is brilliant but I have always found the ending horrifying, with the narrator trapped…

I love the book and the film and enjoyed the Joanna David tv version.

According to Joan Fontaine, Olivier was horrible to her during the filming because he'd wanted his wife, Vivian Leigh, as the girl (hard to imagine VL as the girl). Also the divorced Jeremy Brett and Anna Massey - she didn't talk to JB throughout the filming because he'd gone against her wishes re their son apparently!

Anna Massey's narration on audible is great and I listen to it often.

Those saying they like Rebecca, I think she was an absolute psychopath. Charming people when it suited her etc. The description of her breaking in the horse 😱!! I don't think she's behaving this way because she's reacting to Max or anything else she does is a reaction to anything or anyone. She acts, not reacts!!

I second the biography,it's fantastic.

Aw I love the book but read it before seeing any of the movies Hitchcock films have pretty snappy pacing so not surprised if you're used to that.

Jamaica Inn is an amazing film to watch if you haven't already! I might prefer that.one to the book but it's been a while since I've read it.

No, you're right!

I meant the quality of writing, the prose, etc, nothing to do with the era. They are all considered classics but I don't think it's in the same league. Just my opinion

Yes, sorry I meant - didn't Maxim kill her THINKING she was pregnant? Or have I misremembered?

I read it as a teenager and I didn't know the plot. I still remember the thrill of Maxim's revelation. It's a classic. It came up in university a decade later where I first saw the film. It's great but no comparison to the book.

Why would it?? Completely different eras.

I didn't love it either op. It doesn't compare at all to Austen or the Brontes imo.

Rebecca is a masterpiece, this is the hill I will die on.

If you haven't read Margaret Forsters biography of Daphne du Maurier it's worth reading, it explains a lot about the way she wrote.

The film of Rebecca is very different, Max is a hero. Hollywood couldn't have accepted someone getting away with murder. In the book I think he's meant to be controlling.

Her house is Menabilly near Fowey where she lived most of her adult life. Manderley is based on it. The Hampstead house is her childhood home, Ferryside in Fowey was a childhood holiday home where she discovered her love of Cornwall.

Daphne du Maurier's house is in Hampstead (or one of them), although the blue plaque on it id for her father.

She definitely wasn't from a working class family. I don't think a working class girl would have been taken on as a companion to a rich woman. She'd have ended up in service or working in a factory. She would have been from a middle class background, but fallen on hard times (comparatively), hence the need to earn her own living, but she'd have been able to capitalise on what she'd learned in her upbringing and schooling - her accent; knowledge of the very snobbish rules of the time about table manners, how to dress etc; having a little French so she could deal with hotel staff, railway porters and so on; and enough general knowledge to make conversation and read aloud to her employer. It would have been a pretty awful job, even so. Not well paid, very little freedom, constantly patronised and bullied. No wonder marrying Maxim seemed like a fairytale!

I also first read it when I was about 14 and at the time, I took the narrator’s perspective at face value. I thought Rebecca was evil and I felt so sorry for poor Maxim.

Rereading it a couple of years ago was a completely different experience and I found Maxim far more disturbing.

I can’t work out whether Du Maurier intended readers to view him as sinister and controlling or not. Maybe it reads that way to a modern audience but wouldn’t have done at the time of writing?

I read the book before a saw the film. I think that makes a difference. I quite liked the detailed descriptions.

Love it. Rebecca wins really. Their boring lives at the end, on the terrace of their dull hotel in the sun!

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain

I'll have to have a look next month. Not been to Kew for ages.

Yes that was wonderful! I remember it so well. Jeremy Brett as Maxime de Winter, and Anna Massey! So menacing! The new one with Lily James is useless

I love it ,i read it as a teenager and thought it was a brilliant story but badly written , having read it as an adult i see it completely differently.
It is 'of its time' and the characters are stiff and awkward but they're meant to be, Mrs D W is weak and a bit pathetic and i find her more unlikeable when we know that she knows for certain that Maxim did murder Rebecca , she almost becomes stronger then and its them against the world , she sees no bad in him.
I love how Rebecca dominates the story , i think she is my favourite character .
The influence of Mrs Danvers in the story another great aspect and i love Mrs Van Hopper who is truly vile.
Reading the descriptions of the area almost puts me there , i think it is a perfect book, i also love My cousin Rachel and Jamaica inn.
Daphne Du Maurier intrigues me her books are so dark , such an imagination.

I love Rebecca - and most of DDM's books. Maxim was very much of his time and class, and the narrator was meant to be meek, subservient and the complete opposite of Rebecca (who I have to say I've always sort of admired - she really didn't GAF at a time when women weren't supposed to behave that way).