If you’ve never read
the novel Rebecca, or if you haven’t
read it lately, you may want to pick it up this holiday season, as a study in the
strength of a character the reader never sees except through the eyes of others.
Penned by English author Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
was published in 1938 and became a bestseller that still remains in print. Starting
with the ominous, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again,” du
Maurier explores the chilling saga of the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter, whose
name du Maurier never reveals. Yet, almost from the start we
know de Winter’s first wife, Rebecca, for how can anyone, especially a second
wife with no apparent self-identity, compete with the dead?
The story begins with
the new Mrs. de Winter’s memory of that inaugural visit to the haunting estate
of Manderley, a remote mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, and its equally haunted
inhabitants. This is a first step also for the reader in understanding the power of a place
and people remembered who are even more real because their significance reaches
from the past into the present.
Thus, we find ourselves traveling with the second Mrs. de Winter, the husband she barely knows at the wheel, to an immense estate. There the new young bride is
drawn into the life of her predecessor, the beautiful Rebecca,
austere as the Cornish coast, dead but not forgotten, whose rooms remain untouched, whose clothes still hang ready. There also we find Rebecca's devoted servant—Mrs. Danvers—loyal and menacing.
Determined to make a place for herself in her new husband's world, the second Mrs. de Winter begins searching for
the real fate of Rebecca amid the mysteries of Manderley, which reveals its
secrets only at a great price. In Rebecca, the reader will find melodrama and
drama at their finest, along with the potency of a story whose main character is seen through the eyes and enshrined memories of those who loved
and hated her.
No comments:
Post a Comment