Skip to main content

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier


Image Courtesy : Amazon

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”. The opening lines of Rebecca set the tone and mood for the rest of the book.

Our unnamed protagonist, who works as a companion to Mrs Van Dee Hooper happens to chance Mr Maxim De Winter (a widower and who is almost twice the age of the protagonist) in a hotel. The acquaintance leads to couple of dates and eventually both of them fall in love with each other. Once, they marry, Maxim takes Mrs. De Winter to Manderley. Mrs. De Winter finds it difficult to adjust to the new house. Mrs. Denver, the devoted housekeeper of Rebecca (Maxim's first wife), still runs the house. She couldn’t resist anyone taking up raking up Rebecca’s place. Mrs. De Winter continues to think herself as inferior to Rebecca and strongly believes that Maxim is still in love with Rebecca. Mrs. Denvers uses this opportunity to persuade Mrs. De Winter to commit suicide. Slowly, it is revealed that  Rebecca did not die of accident. Instead she is brutally murdered. Who killed Rebecca and why did they do so ? How was the guilty found and what punishment was given to the guilty forms the rest of the story.

After reading the first couple of chapters, I thought that the name of the narrator is Rebecca. I am surprised and shocked that the lead protagonist does not have a name at all throughout the book. She is addressed as either Mrs De Winter or Dear throughout the book. Then, when it is revealed that the Rebecca dies in a accident, I thought that there would be a flashback sequence where we would get to know about Rebecca. But Rebecca never makes a physical appearance in the book.

Most of the pages of the book is devoted to the imagination of Mrs De Winter. How can an author capture the thoughts of a women so effortlessly? I have read the works of various great authors of the 20th century like Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon and others . They are all great authors and they have written great books. However, I would not classify any of them as literature. But, Rebecca is an unadulterated piece of literature.

I am also confused on the genre in which Rebecca should be placed. Is it a romantic novel? Is it a book on relationships? Is it a thriller? I will never know. The book also narrates the life of a woman from a humble background who finds it extremely difficult to adapt to the lives of the affluent people. 

Daphne De Maurier has sketched some of the most beautiful and memorable characters in this book. Be it Rebecca, Mrs Denvers, Mrs Beatrice, Maxim or our protagonist, the characters will live on in our minds for ages. You will find it extremely difficult to come out of the book for sometime once you complete reading the book. You will find yourself sympathizing with most of the characters in the book.

I rest my case by saying that you will definetly regret if you are not reading this. This book is a treat for all the readers.

My rating : 5/5







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz

                                                            [Image courtesy : Amazon ] Alan Conway is the author of 8 successful novels featuring Atticus Pund. Each book in the series is edited by Susan Ryeland who works in Cloverleaf publications. He provides his latest novel “Magpie Murders” to Susan for her feedback. Susan reads the whole book but finds that the final chapters of the book is missing. She thinks it is a deliberate attempt by Alan to see whether she can identify the murderer. To her surprise, she finds that Alan has committed suicide. She is determined to find the final chapters of Magpie murders. In the process, she discovers various hidden secrets of Alan Conway’s life.   This is one of those books where you will be hooked till you complete it. The readers will be treated with not one but two whodu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Center Court by Sriram Subramanian

                                Image courtesy : Amazon Center court describes the journey of Shankar Mahadevan , a Indian Tennis player over the course of 2 weeks during wimbledon.  It is not just the story of Shankar but it also brings the perspective of his father on how he feels during each of his matches.   The story is simple and straightforward. Of late, I have stopped reading books written by Indian Authors as I have developed a perception about the plot of their stories. (Credit Chetan Bhagat, Ravi Subramanian, Ashwin Sanghi and Amish Tripathi). Most of the Indian Authors try to be an Indian version of their western counterparts. Some want to be Indian DanBrown and some want to be John Grisham of Banking.   The most refreshing aspect of Sriram Subramanian is that he does not try to be any one. He does not try to mimic some western story to Indian context. He does no...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Pocket Full Of Rye - Agatha Christie

                                                             Image Courtesy : Amazon Rex Fortescue, a wealthy business man, dies suddenly in office after drinking a cup of tea. A good quantity of Rye was found in his office coat. Inspector Neele arrives at the place to investigate the crime. After few days, Rex Fortescue’s second wife, Adele , who is the prime suspect for the murder of her husband, is also found dead. On the same day, Gladys Martin, the parlours maid, is also found dead. Miss Marple feels that she has some responsibility to identify who the killer is as she is the one who had trained Gladys in the duties of a house. Did Miss Marple succeed in finding the murderer? Like any other christie novel, this one strikes a cord with the readers and it is simply unputdownable. She plays fair with the readers by t...
Post a Comment
Read more