Rebecca in The Roundtable

Jul 25, 2009 Sera rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites, 1001-books, own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. ****SPOILERS FROM BOTH THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE AND JANE EYRE******

After a relatively slow start, once this book hit its climax, the suspense of what would happen next continued to build until it reached a wallop of an ending. My understanding is that there is a tendency to compare this book to Jane Eyre - the orphan who meets a rich man whom she wished to wed, but he holds a horrible secret regarding a former woman in his life. The heroines are similar too - average looking, lonely, and naive, bu ...more

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May 05, 2009 El rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: permanent-collection, 1001-books-list, 20th-centurylit-early

The unnamed protagonist of Rebecca marries the wealthy Maxim de Winter and moves with him to his fancy estate, Manderley. Rebecca is not the narrator of the story but rather Mr. de Winter's first wife who died suddenly a year before his second marriage. Upon moving to Manderley the second Mrs. de Winter has trouble asserting herself in the home and amongst the servants. She is young (some 20 years Mr. de Winter's junior) and naive and uncertain as to how to carry herself in this new unfamiliar w The unnamed protagonist of Rebecca marries the wealthy Maxim de Winter and moves with him to his fancy estate, Manderley. Rebecca is not the narrator of the story but rather Mr. de Winter's first wife who died suddenly a year before his second marriage. Upon moving to Manderley the second Mrs. de Winter has trouble asserting herself in the home and amongst the servants. She is young (some 20 years Mr. de Winter's junior) and naive and uncertain as to how to carry herself in this new unfamiliar world. Mrs. Danvers, the nasty housekeeper who runs the home, is still intensely loyal to the late Rebecca and clearly has no space left in her withered excuse of a heart for the new Mrs. de Winter, bullying her at every opportunity.

The narrator is compared to Rebecca by every visitor and family member connected to Mr. de Winter, and she finds herself becoming obsessed with the finer details of Rebecca's past such as her handwriting in a book she once gave to Maxim. Mrs. Danvers keeps it no secret that Mr. de Winter was happiest with Rebecca, as it should have been, and the new Mrs. de Winter doesn't even hold a candle to the deceased. The narrator takes most of this to heart, to the point that she even begins to question her husband's own intentions.

The secrets of Manderley - and there are many - do not fully come to light until almost the end of the book. The story, however, is never dull and each chapter only fuels the flame leading up to the grand finale. While the narrator of the story is wishy-washy and frustratingly pathetic at times, there is no doubt that du Maurier was capable of accurately portraying a young woman in a new marriage with a much older man and the complex thoughts and emotions that go into it, the lack of self-confidence, the jealousy, the uncertainty. In the end, though, the second Mrs. de Winter takes control of her life and becomes more assertive, taking no more crap from Mrs. Danvers, and running the house as she sees fit, refusing to be bullied any longer by housekeepers, servants, or the mental ghost of her husband's previous wife. ...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Rosana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books, 2013, bookish-s13-challenge

I finished Rebecca a couple of days ago and had since been thinking of it as I intended to write a review in here. Then, this morning I opened a book at random - Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach – and there, under the entry for May 26 (I did open this at random), I found this quote from Rebecca:

This was a woman’s room, graceful, fragile, the room of someone who had chosen every particle of furniture with great care, so that each chair, each vase, each small I finished Rebecca a couple of days ago and had since been thinking of it as I intended to write a review in here. Then, this morning I opened a book at random - Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach – and there, under the entry for May 26 (I did open this at random), I found this quote from Rebecca:

This was a woman’s room, graceful, fragile, the room of someone who had chosen every particle of furniture with great care, so that each chair, each vase, each small infinitesimal thing should be in harmony with one another and with her own personality. It was as though she who had arranged this room has said: “This I will have, and this, and this,’ taking piece by piece from the treasures in Manderley each object that pleased her best, ignoring the second-rate, the mediocre, laying her hand with sure and certain instinct only upon the best.

I love when I experience such moments of literary serendipity. It was almost uncanny that I had found this specific quote, as I remember it well from when I heard it (oh yes, I listened to it in audio). The young Mrs. De Winter was describing the previous Mrs. De Winter’s morning room, and I remember thinking what great power of description Daphne Du Maurie had: while bringing this room to life she was also telling us so much about the deceased Rebecca.

The book is a long monologue by young Mrs. DeWinter, of whom we never learn her first name, only that it was unusual. But through her narration we are enveloped by the beauty of Manderley, a place that is as much a character in this book as the people in it, and we started to learn of all of the other characters. Here again Daphne Du Maurier surprised me. The characters are multi-dimensional, full of flaws, but through their shortcomings: Maxim’s pride, Mrs. Danver’s revengefulness and grief, and even Rebecca’s egocentricity ‘ they became more human in our eyes.

I should say that I had trouble finding sympathy for young Mrs. De Winter though. I realize she was young, naïve and in love, and that she was put into a completely dysfunctional situation yet I wanted to shake her a few times. Maybe my lack of kindness comes not from lack of familiarity with her situation, but because I do see myself in the mirror here. No, I never married a widower with an overbearing housekeeper, but I have been in situations where I was the new arrival, the new kid in the block, the junior employee in the office, the new member of the board, the new bride, the young mother, the new person joining an internet group… and I blundered. I hesitated because of fear or because I wanted to be accepted and I only made things worst.

This is getting long, but I have more to say about this book. I liked that it defies genre. It was a romance, but had such gothic elements to it, then it veered very close into mystery terrain. More than anything it was a very sharp commentary into class relation and British society of the period. I dare say that Du Maurier is as discriminating as Jane Austen in social commentary. The difference being that in Austen’s writing the social commentary is at the center of her stories, where Daphne Du Maurier puts it at the background, almost part of the scenery she describes so well.

I don’t know why it took me so long to read Daphne Du Maurier, but I am very glad I finally did.

...more

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Oct 13, 2009 Petra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Very well written with lots of Victorian Gothic suspense, although somewhat of a disappointing ending. The author builds suspense and intrigue well throughout the book. In many ways, the book is similar to Jane Eyre.

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Feb 22, 2009 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, british, mystery, own, rg-bookclub, classics, modern-classics, hardcover, movie, book-club

When I first encountered Rebecca it was two years ago and a bookclub had chosen it for the month. My friends all raved about it--same friends who love Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. I dreaded reading this book, with fears of misty moors and silly, ridiculous, dreary heroines. But for some reason, this month, I was overcome with an urge to read a "classic" and figured since another bookclub had chosen this book, to give it a try.

Boy am I glad I did. It was a little slow going in the beginnin ...more

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Jun 28, 2009 Wendy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 1001-books, mystery-suspense, national-book-award, gothic, twisted-love, 500-women

If I hadn't been so crazy busy this week, I should have blown through this book in just a few days. I'm embarrassed that it took me an entire week, actually, because it's just so well plotted. The slow-building tension, the gothic atmosphere, the naive narrator so clearly out of her depth, all build to a mostly (though perhaps not completely) surprising climax. I only just finished it, and at the surface it seems a rather straightforward story, but I haven't yet had the time to think things thro ...more

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Jun 17, 2015 Elise rated it really liked it

Shelves: women, 1930s, spooky, read-in-school, read-in-2018

I first read this when I was in 10th grade. As a teen idiot, I did not get it. Somehow, I'd gotten the idea that it was a ghost story and spent the whole book waiting for the creepy stuff to happen, not recognizing that the creepy stuff was occurring the entire time. The emotionally abusive relationship between Maxim de Winter and his new naïve bride is nauseatingly realistic. While the constant power struggles, often imagined, between the narrator and anyone who had ever met Rebecca are always ...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Heather(Gibby) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I quite unexpectantly loved this book. I am reading my way thorugh a list of top 100 books of the 20th century, so was reading this in an obligatory way, but now I understand why it is on the list. Great writing, great plot, and great character development.

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Aug 23, 2012 Dawn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I have had this book on my shelves for many years and thanks to a few friends I finally managed to read a Daphne du Maurier book.

The first thing I loved about this book was the stellar writing. It is so nice to read and the first thing I hated about it was the narrator. I cannot believe how annoyed I was with her all the time, how could she be so passive and when was she going to develop a backbone? Why did she let Max treat her like that, actually why did she like him in the first place? Honest ...more

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