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Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.
I'd been looking forward to reading Rebecca for quite a while now and the book certainly didn't disappoint. The nameless narrator starts off as a paid companion to a bitter old lady, keen to gossip about those around her. And it's through old Mrs Van Hopper that she even ends up in Monte Carlo in the first place, at a little restaurant when they come across Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Max is the wealthy owner of Manderley, a beautiful English estate that seems like a fairytale come to life on postcards that our narrator has seen before.
Our narrator is very young, very inexperienced and is uncomfortable in her own skin. She falls for Max, thinking that his attention towards her is nothing more than kindly attention paid to someone that could pass as his little sister. But then Max unexpectedly proposes and our narrator, overjoyed at the possibilities that life now holds for with the man that she loves by her side, accepts.
But when the two of them return to Manderley, life is different from what our narrator expects. The young bride realises that the ghost of Rebecca, Max's first wife, appears to hang over every part of the estate. Rebecca was known to be extremely beautiful, with great poise and grace and our narrator can't help but to feel slighted, over and over again as she comes up short compared to Rebecca. And she cannot help but to suspect that her marriage is a failure, as Max appears to continue to harbour feelings for Rebecca too.
Perhaps I haunted her as she haunted me; she looked down on me from the gallery as Mrs Danvers had said, she sat beside me when I wrote my letters on her desk. That mackintosh I wore, that handkerchief I used. They were hers. Perhaps she knew and had seen me take them. Jasper had been her dog, and he ran at my heels now. The roses were hers and I cut them. Did she resent me and fear me as I resented her? Did she want Maxim alone in the house again? I could fight the living but I could not fight the dead. If there was some woman in London that Maxim loved, someone he wrote to, visited, dined with, slept with, I could fight with her. We would stand on common ground. I should not be afraid. Anger and jealousy were things that could be conquered. One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her any more. But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And her I could not fight. She was too strong for me.
While we never learn the name of the young bride, only of her identity as the new Mrs de Winter, Rebecca's presence over Manderley looms large and her name is often bandied about. Our narrator has a fraught relationship with those at Manderley because of her shy nature and also because of her perceived inferiority as against Rebecca. But one by one Manderley starts to give up her secrets and eventually, our narrator learns the truth about Rebecca and about her husband.
I'd been looking forward to reading Rebecca for quite a while now and the book certainly didn't disappoint. The nameless narrator starts off as a paid companion to a bitter old lady, keen to gossip about those around her. And it's through old Mrs Van Hopper that she even ends up in Monte Carlo in the first place, at a little restaurant when they come across Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower. Max is the wealthy owner of Manderley, a beautiful English estate that seems like a fairytale come to life on postcards that our narrator has seen before.
Our narrator is very young, very inexperienced and is uncomfortable in her own skin. She falls for Max, thinking that his attention towards her is nothing more than kindly attention paid to someone that could pass as his little sister. But then Max unexpectedly proposes and our narrator, overjoyed at the possibilities that life now holds for with the man that she loves by her side, accepts.
But when the two of them return to Manderley, life is different from what our narrator expects. The young bride realises that the ghost of Rebecca, Max's first wife, appears to hang over every part of the estate. Rebecca was known to be extremely beautiful, with great poise and grace and our narrator can't help but to feel slighted, over and over again as she comes up short compared to Rebecca. And she cannot help but to suspect that her marriage is a failure, as Max appears to continue to harbour feelings for Rebecca too.
Perhaps I haunted her as she haunted me; she looked down on me from the gallery as Mrs Danvers had said, she sat beside me when I wrote my letters on her desk. That mackintosh I wore, that handkerchief I used. They were hers. Perhaps she knew and had seen me take them. Jasper had been her dog, and he ran at my heels now. The roses were hers and I cut them. Did she resent me and fear me as I resented her? Did she want Maxim alone in the house again? I could fight the living but I could not fight the dead. If there was some woman in London that Maxim loved, someone he wrote to, visited, dined with, slept with, I could fight with her. We would stand on common ground. I should not be afraid. Anger and jealousy were things that could be conquered. One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her any more. But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And her I could not fight. She was too strong for me.
While we never learn the name of the young bride, only of her identity as the new Mrs de Winter, Rebecca's presence over Manderley looms large and her name is often bandied about. Our narrator has a fraught relationship with those at Manderley because of her shy nature and also because of her perceived inferiority as against Rebecca. But one by one Manderley starts to give up her secrets and eventually, our narrator learns the truth about Rebecca and about her husband.