Rebecca by Dame Daphne Du Maurier

I have just finished reading Rebecca by Dame Daphne Du Maurier.

And the only words i have to describe this book are " too good" .

I recommend you to read this book but only if you like to

1: read in first person
2: dont mind the laborious decriptions
3: can make do with the slow pace.

Although the name of the book seems to imply that the main character is "Rebecca", it isnt so. Instead , the heroine is the second Mrs. De Winter while Rebecca is the first Mrs. De Winter.

The book starts with the heroine going in the flashback.

The heroine is actually an au pair for an American Lady (who is a person who like to stick to popular people). Thus she is a plain Jane brought up in very poor circuamstances having been orphaned very young. It is through her employer that she meets MAXIM De Winter, the enigmatic rich eligible widower.

She is swept in a dreamy world of her own in the company of Maxim. DO not ofcourse think of romantic outings and speeches. Instead, I was totally put off by his terse bahaviour.

Even his proposal for marriage was one which i would never accept unless I was in ernest.

SO here she is married to an extremely wealthy enigmatic man . Yes enigmatic is the word. As a new bride and as a mistress to a very huge estate Manderley , she is ofcourse very nervous. But Maxim's behaviour is no help.
To top that she finds that she is forever under scrutiny by the servants and neigbours alike who if not directly in front of her seem to be comparing her with the late Mrs de Winter. Every artifact in the house has a feel of Rebecca and she is forever at unease. The housekeeper Mrs. Danvers seems to be a formidable person and formidable she was. I found her really wicked when she manages to manipulate her new mistress into wearing a particular fancy dress costume which was once worn by Rebecca. This causes much flutter in the family especially in Maxim and she has to change into a less presuming dress for the ball held in her own honour.

What I hated here is that Maxim never ever spoke about Rebecca until this incident of the fancy dress ball. His intention was shield his wife from the past that was Rebecca. I personally do not vouch for this.

Rebecca is supposed to have drowned about an year back. But now Maxim reveals that he had himself killed her owing to her adulterous behaviour.

This secret could have remained a secret had it not been for a ship accident right in the Manderley Harbour which led to the discovery of Rebecca's boat and in tun her decomposed body.

But what happens after that is indeed interesting. I was suddenly empathising with Maxim. After all who can tolerate an adulterous spouse.(not that i endorse murder). The coroner rules that Rebecca committed suicide. I was relieved. Coz i didnt want our heroine to be flung into a sad life of a murderer's wife.

BUt just as things were setting in place, in comes Rebecca's "Cousin" who was incidentally her lover at the time of her death. He is all set to blackmail Maxim, But its praiseworthy that Maxim takes thin in his stride and at a risk of the truth being out, gets the magistrate involved in this affair.

Of course what follows is a tirade which eventually ends by finding that Rebecca was seriously ill thus justifying that she committed suicide.

What happens to Manderley in the end? guess i shall leave it for you to read on.

This in brief is a gist of this prose. Of course i do not do any justice to Dame Daphne's writing style. The concept is simple yet she has been able to put much feeling into it. The book has a classics like feel yet with comtemporary style.

Read this book you must. I have stated the conditions before though.

What are your comments ?