Horribly let down by Rebecca

[MsAmerica]

I love the Hitchcock movie of Rebecca, my second or third favorite Hitchcock, and I've always heard that the book was good, so when I recently came across a cheap copy, I bought it.

What a disappointment! Hated all the excessive description of greenery. Impatient at the overkill. But, worst, while the character of Max is slightly pleasanter than Olivier in the movie, the unnamed narrator is unbearable - a whiny, insecure bore.

Ugh!

I absolutely loved Rebecca. I didn’t really like either adaptation I saw, in comparison.

Oh, I love Rebecca! It's one of my favourite books.

I agree that Max is an arse - he's a stick in the mud, privileged man of his time. The second Mrs De Winter is completely in his thrall and there is such a power imbalance between them in the beginning with him being so much older and her social 'superior' and that's definitely what he wants after Rebecca. I think she begins to find feet by the end and field is somewhat levelled, but only after Max is humbled and broken somewhat by his confession.

I love the descriptions, the setting is so evocative!

What I love most though, is Rebecca and how she haunts the pages and the reader as much as the characters. It's amazing that a character who never actually appears can be so powerful.

I'm a big Du Maurier fan!

The 1979 version with Joanna David, Jeremy Brett, and, perfectly cast, Anna Massey is on YouTube if you can bear the low resolution.

Emilia Fox (Joanna David's daughter) plays the girl in the 1997 ITV version.

I wish DDM had written a sequel - maybe getting revenge on Mrs Danvers.

I read it last year for the first time. I've never seen any adaptations either, so didnt really know what it was about. i recognised a lot of me in the narrator. I'm a big overthinker and also going out with a man who has a lot of friends that i worry don't like me compared to his ex who they are all friends with. My bf hasnt murdered his ex though! I need to worry less about what other people think, especially as I'm also in my 40s!

i loved the book, and then read Jamaica Inn, which was also great. i will definitely read more Daphne Du Maurier.

Loved it. It was the first psychological thriller I ever read.

Being read on R4 at the moment, presumably is on BBC Sounds.

What happened to Rebecca is told and retold and argued over by a bunch of men laying claim to her body and knowledge of her in various ways. We don’t know if any of them are reliable.

The only person who thinks she was wonderful is Mrs Danvers.

On the other hand I didn’t like Frenchman’s creek at all 😂IMO the airport thriller of its time!

Oh I love the book. I love how Daphne writes it. She weaves her story in to nature, the trees the sea. In a way, it reflects her own way of seeing herself. Ambiguous, unsure, everything has meaning. The characters are then mirrors reflecting aspects of Daphne herself. It's great

That's Agatha Christie's house, not Daphne du Maurier!

Daphne du Maurier lived in and later near Fowey in Cornwall.

yes, it is Christie's house in Devon. I have been there. I love her too.

I was wondering how I had misremembered it being Brixham although I want to go to Agatha’s Christie’s house now.

I also initially read it as Brixton which was momentarily confusing!

"Being read on R4 at the moment, presumably is on BBC Sounds."

Excellent - thank you GetWhatYouWant I'm just in the mood for a sexy hoot/airport thriller 😁

I love Frenchman 's Creek! I re-read Rebecca recently and thought the narrator was a bore. My Cousin Rachel is absolutely brilliant and The Scapegoat.

I’ll agree with you about My Cousin Rachel - and I actually enjoyed the film of that one. Rebecca I never have found a film that could get close!

I love it. I also enjoyed Rebecca's Tale, a more recent sequel.

Love Rebecca too! First read it when i was 14 and over the years have found different aspects of it move into focus. Have to say im a big fan of the Hitchcock movie as well, the air of brooding menace in the book works best shot in black and white. The film was released only 2 years after the book was published so it really brings that time alive as well. Loved the 2 sequels by Sally Beauman and Susan Hill.

I LOVE Rebecca! It's one of my favourite books!

*Surely the second Mrs DW is meant to be an unreliable narrator?

You don't have to like her and you are supposed to try and guess what is real and what is filtered through her narrative*

Indeed, just like Jane Eyre (isn't Rebecca based on that?) everything you read is through the filter of at least one person.

Du Maurier is the queen of unreliable narrators: Phillip in My Cousin Rachel, the Dick in the House on the Strand, the narrator in The Scapegoat ( John?), the men in her short stories like Don't Look Back and The Apple Tree. Feminist, but not obviously so.

What I love most though, is Rebecca and how she haunts the pages and the reader as much as the characters. It's amazing that a character who never actually appears can be so powerful

It's such a revenge - on her murderer and her successor. Total economic and social ruin, and all done by a dead woman.

The only plot hole though - that body of the woman who turns up that Max claims to be Rebecca. Bit too handy there's a lookalike literally floating around, unless he's a double murderer.

Well, you would say that.

😉

I actually got my user name because DGM said I walked as quietly as Mrs Danvers in the film (after I walked into the sitting room, stood behind her chair for a couple of minutes then made some comment about what was on TV and nearly gave her heart failure because she didn't know I was there).