Book Review: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Rating 5/10? I think 

Hello and thanks for joining,

Today we are discussing the novel, Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier. I, well I have a lot of feelings about this book but I cannot say that I enjoyed reading it. Because I didn't. I spend most of the book texting my read-along buddy about how frustrated I was. Now in all fairness, I do think that this is what the author was going for, I have done research on this and it seems clear that the “romantic suspense” tag line on the cover is the marketing team’s imagination and nothing more. So without further ado let’s get discussing.

First let me say this review will contain spoilers so if you don't want to be spoiled go away, read the book, and come back. But if you read the book, or at least don't mind spoilers please proceed. 

So the narrator. Oh, where do I start with the narrator? She is just… she’s absolutely colorless. There is nothing about her that makes me root for her or feel bad for her or have any feelings about her really. I just kept getting frustrated with her lack of a backbone. The story is told from the perspective of the future narrator speaking about the past, yet there seems to be no self-awareness anywhere. She blames a lot of her actions on being young etc, etc, but the problem is that there is no visible growth in the narrator who is, after all, speaking from the future. Her adherence to being what others wanted her to be, drove me up the wall. She had no interest, no passion, no friends. The worst part was that all those things were by choice. She chose to be aimless and lost and confused and boring. She could have chosen differently. It is obvious that she is weak to those around her. Her husband sensed it and took advantage, more on that later, and so did Mrs. Danvers. More on that later too. We never even get her name, though it's supposed to be unusual and lovely. I have a feeling she doesn't live up to the name just like she doesn't live up to my expectations of character growth. 

Next up, Maxim de Winter. If this is supposed to be a romantic hero than I am very worried about a whole generation of women. To begin with, he picks a woman about twenty-five years younger than himself as his second wife. He picks an isolated, lonely, desperate person and takes advantage of her desire for love. I didn't like that from the beginning and things just get worse from there. He marries her out of nowhere, with no friends or family around to make her feel welcome and after their honeymoon sweeps her off to the isolated country estate without any chance to prepare or enjoy her changed circumstances. This is made glaringly obvious when his sister points out how inconsiderate that was. She doesn't even have clothes to go out in public confidently in and he’s happy about it. He hates visitors, and he especially hates it when they interact with her. He hates when she does anything he doesn't want her too and gets sulky about it until she apologizes for having an opinion. This only happens once, and after he shuts that down she never does it again. Finally, we come to the biggest issue. He killed his first wife. He shot her. Then he blamed her for “giving him no choice.” He had a choice. He could have not killed her. There really isn't more to it than that. The fact that his new wife is all good with the fact that he’s a murderer makes it even worse. She’s so desperate for affection she will take living at the mercy of his moods and with the knowledge that he already killed one wife over taking responsibility for herself. 

Next up we have Mrs. Danvers. She is a more interesting character than the other two combined. Her devotion to the dead Rebecca is both adorable and terrifying. There is no excuse for tormenting the poor helpless new Mrs. DE Winter. She is not to blame for Rebecca's death, in fact until the end of the book she had no idea just how complicated things were. The scene in Rebecca's old bedroom was terrifying. It felt as if Mrs/ Danvers was summoning her dead mistress from the dead to torment the new wife. The level of obsession and animosity feels like a stalker and I appreciated that about her. In comparison to everyone else living in the story, she was the most vibrant. Now almost telling Mrs. de Winter into jumping out the window just to make her abuser suffer made me almost have sympathy for Mrs. de Winter. Almost. She’s such an easy target, yet she’s happier being a target. Mrs. Denvers can read people and knows how to take advantage of their weaknesses and personalities. Now she is completely blind to Rebecca’s faults of course and uncaring of the feelings of anyone else but at least she does things and doesn't just let things happen to her. 

Finally, I would like to talk about Rebecca. Now she is dead, but in a way, she is more alive than anyone else in the book. She was not perfect but she lived. She did things. She didn't let Maxim de Winter and his demands and moods dictate her life. She carved out a life for herself, and while Maxim might see her as a monster I highly doubt that was the case. Knowing him as we do we can't really believe the things he says because he is a murderer trying to justify his crime to himself and the world. He knows perfectly well that looking like he was the victim is the only way to accomplish that and so he makes Rebecca into the devil incarnate. What did she do that was so awful really? She had parties, she made friends, she liked having a drink once in a while. Yes, she cheated on her marriage but frankly considering who she married and that they made an agreement about it I don't see how it was so horrible. It’s not like she dumped her husband in any way or cheated him out of anything. She made Mandarleyl a beautiful living place as she promised and in return, she was shot and her body was drowned in the sea she loved. It doesn't feel like she had anyone in her life who could help her, but she did her best and she made her murderer and the new wife who became a willing conspirator pay just by being herself.

So as you can tell I liked no one but the dead girl. What I did find fascinating, ware the character dynamics between these awful people. Mrs. de Winter is willing and happy to become a shadow to her husband. She even compares herself to a puppy begging for his affection and yet she does nothing to change it. And he enjoys that she does it. That’s what he wants. He wants control, and she is willing to be controlled. The friction between Maxim and Mrs. Denvers is palpable yet the power balance is once again on his side because she is a woman and a servant. When Mrs. Denvers sets Manderley on fire I wanted to cheer and cry because he did not deserve that beautiful house, but the hose did not deserve that fate. Finally, there's the complex web of Maxim, Rebecca, and the second Mrs. de Winter. Those three are a lesson in how not to have a relationship. There is so much jealousy, rage, hatred, and in a twisted way love there that it would have made for a fascinating story if anyone but a sponge was telling it. 

I do not blame Daphne du Maurier for me disliking this book. She was doing something different and original for the time but I think was constrained by that time. Maybe if she could have told the story from a different point of view, or if she could have stated things more explicitly I would have loved this book. I read a fascinating article about this book, in the Irish Times, that helped me put it in a different perspective in my head (Here’s a link: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-guyliner-rebecca-is-my-favourite-novel-so-why-do-i-hate-everyone-in-it-1.2642326), but I do not think I will read it again. Sadly I think this is a once and never again kind of book for me. In all fairness, after reading it I had so many thoughts it resulted in this long rambling review so maybe it wasn't a total waste. 

Thank you for joining me in the madness and making it all the way to the end of this very long review. I hope it was helpful to at least one person. 

Love you all. 

Anna