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!

If you want more nuanced, rounded characters, you need one of my favourite novels of all time, published posthumously a few years before Rebecca - South Riding by Winifred Holtby. Every single character is flawed but beautifully realised. I re-read it fairly regularly.

Thank you for that Gasp0de - I’ll download it onto my kindle and read it on the long plane journey I’ve got coming up.

Susan Hills wrote a sequel - Mrs de Winter - which I bought years ago and wish I could find again. It was decent

It is long! I came to it first through an excellent adaptation on ITV in 1974, or thereabouts, with Dorothy Tutin and Nigel Davenport. There was a good one a few years ago with Anna Maxwell Martin.

One of the things I love about du Maurier is that there's no real heroes- she wasn't a big fan of humanity! I certainly don't think we weren't meant to have doubts about Max.

It’s available on kindle.

And was Mrs Danvers really evil? Or just saddened by grief and rage?

thanks Barb - it is frustrating that I already own it and cannot find it! I suspect it is in an attic somewhere …

I think the latter. I think she admired Rebecca and perhaps thought of her as the daughter she’d never had.

One of my favourites!

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

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.

Thank you, I'll check out her work!

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.

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 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.

yes, it's been fascinating!

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'

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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.