Product Description

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers ...Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1107 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
'Excellent entertainment ... du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings' Stephen King

One of my favourite books is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It has always fascinated me because the most vivid character in the story - and the most alive - is Rebecca, who is in fact dead. The hidden secret, of course, is how she died and why she died but the other secret - perhaps the more intriguing - is what is the second Mrs De Winter's Christian name? Review by MINETTE WALTERS Editor's note: Minette Walters' latest novel, The Breaker, is due to be published in paperback in May. (Kirkus UK)

Simon Edge, Daily Express
'this chilling, suspenseful tale is as fresh and readable as it was when it was first written’

John Walsh, Independent on Sunday
‘complex and absorbing psychological chiller about empowerment and loyalty'

Customer Reviews

Why did I put off reading it for so long?
What an amazing book! I always put off reading it because it seemed rather stuffy, somehow - how wrong I was! It is a taut and brilliantly written novel, winding through different genres, exquisite symbolism and intricate complexities, into a fantastic and compelling story.

When a shy, poor young woman meets a rich widower in Monte Carlo, she falls in love with him and is astounded when he asks her to be his wife - the new Mrs de Winter. However, she soon realises that the previous Mrs de Winter's presence still hangs heavily over his life and home - the grand Manderley, set on du Maurier's beloved Cornish coast - and that the terrible secrets of their marriage will haunt them both until Rebecca takes her revenge from beyond the grave...

Full of vivid characters, naive hope, thrilling mystery, chilling despair, and descriptions that ring with pure poetry, there is no wonder that this book remains well loved through the generations.

Wonderfully sinister...
I first read this book as a teenager but remembered how, even then, I had appreciated the writing. And it was just as magical the second time around.
'Rebecca' is the tale of Maxim de Winter, his first wife Rebecca, his nameless second wife (and this is really intriguing - why DDM chose not to name her heroine is poignant in the extreme..) and Manderley - the house in which the tale is set. Narrated by the second wife and beginning at the end (a style I love anyway), we are led by the hand into the controlling World of Maxim and with a 'wing' to house each wife and the formidable housekeeper Mrs Danvers, you can see that such a fruitful cast of characters will make for great reading.
You are initially of the belief that the first wife drowned in an accident but soon, the plot thickens and darkens and the myriad twists and turns slowly draw you to a different conclusion. And the tale then really gets going. All is not quite what it seems. Creepy.
Far fetched, romantic, dreamy and dramatic - Rebecca is a must for readers of all ages...

Magical
I first read Rebecca when I was 12 and over the years, I believe I must have read it eight more times. Nothing can compare to the first reading of course, the spellbinding writing of Du Maurier is such that you enter the world she creates. you are not a witness you are absorbed into the story. This book reads like a dream, at times you enter a sort of trance ( a pleasurable one, have no fear)probably created by the rhythmic use of language and imagery.
If there are people around who haven't read it yet, you simply must.
You must share the story of that young woman who feels so inadequate, swept off her feet by this older, fascinating man, unable to fill the shoes of Lady of the manor, haunted by all she hears about the first wife, beautiful, accomplished and so much more than she herself will ever be. You must read about the fascinating Mrs Danvers, probably one of the finest characters ever drawn, the housekeeper, totally devoted to the memory of that first wife and who therefore resents the second or rather hates her so much she will try her best to crush her.
A timeless classic, a triumph... words can't do it justice.