Rebecca (novel)

Rebecca

First edition cover First edition cover
Author	Daphne du Maurier
Language	English
Genre	Crime, Gothic, Mystery, Romance
Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	1938
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback and Paperback)
ISBN	NA

Rebecca is a novel by British author Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works. Some observers have noted parallels with Jane Eyre. Much of the novel was written while she was staying in Alexandria, Egypt, where her husband was posted at the time.

Plot summary

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" is the book's opening line, and from here its unnamed narrator recollects her past, recalling the story of her transition into womanhood. While working as the companion to a rich American woman vacationing on the French Riviera, she becomes involved with a wealthy Englishman, Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter. After a fortnight of courtship, she agrees to marry him, and after the marriage, accompanies him to his mansion, the beautiful West Country estate, Manderley.

Only upon their arrival at Manderley does the new bride realize how difficult it will be to lay to rest the memory of her husband's first wife, Rebecca. Rebecca is understood to have drowned in a sailing accident off the coast next to the mansion a year before, but her memory has a strong hold on the estate and all of its inhabitants and visitors, especially its domineering housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, one of literature's most infamous female villains.

Mrs Danvers, who was profoundly devoted to Rebecca, tries to undermine the second Mrs de Winter, suggesting to her that she will never attain the urbanity and charm that Rebecca possessed. Whenever Mrs de Winter attempts changes at Manderley, Mrs Danvers points out how Rebecca ran Manderley when she was alive. Each time Mrs Danvers does this, she implies that the new Mrs de Winter is lacking in experience and knowledge and understanding of the complexities of the management of an important estate such as Manderley. The second Mrs de Winter is cowed by Mrs Danvers' imposing manner and complies with the housekeeper's suggestions.

Lacking self-confidence and overwhelmed by her new life, the protagonist commits one faux pas after another, until she is convinced that Maxim regrets his impetuous decision to marry her and is still deeply in love with the seemingly perfect Rebecca. The climax occurs at Manderley's annual costume ball. Mrs Danvers manipulates the protagonist into wearing a costume replica of one of the former inhabitants of the estate--the same costume worn by Rebecca to much acclaim the previous year, shortly before her death.

Pan UK paperback edition cover

In the early morning hours after the ball, the storm that had been building over the estate leads to a shipwreck. A diver investigating the condition of the wrecked ship's hull discovers the remains of Rebecca's boat. It is just prior to this shipwreck that Mrs Danvers reveals her contempt for and dislike of the second Mrs de Winter. Taking the second Mrs de Winter on a tour of Rebecca's bedroom, her wardrobe and luxurious possessions, which Mrs Danvers has kept intact as a shrine to Rebecca, she encourages the second Mrs De Winter to commit suicide by jumping out of an upstairs window, but is thwarted at the last moment by the disturbance created by the shipwreck.

The revelations from the shipwreck lead Maxim to confess the truth to the second Mrs de Winter; how the willful and adulterous Rebecca taunted him with a series of love affairs and suggested that she was pregnant with another man's child. Maxim, truly hating her, shot her and disposed of her body on her boat, which he sank at sea. The narrator is relieved to hear that Maxim did not love Rebecca, but really his new wife.

Rebecca's boat is raised and it is discovered that holes had been deliberately drilled in the bottom which would have caused it to sink. There is an inquest and despite it not being clear who drilled the holes, a verdict of suicide is brought. However Rebecca's cousin (and also her lover) Jack Favell appears on the scene claiming to have proof that Rebecca could not have intended suicide. Favell attempts to blackmail Maxim because he believes that Maxim killed Rebecca and then sank the boat.

Rebecca, it is revealed, had an appointment with a Doctor Baker shortly before her death, presumably to confirm her pregnancy. When the doctor is found he reveals Rebecca had been suffering from cancer and would have died within a few months. Moreover she could never have become pregnant. The implication is that, knowing she was going to die, Rebecca lied to Maxim that she had been impregnated by another man, because she wanted Maxim to kill her. Maxim feels a great sense of foreboding and insists on driving through the night to return to Manderley. However, before he comes in sight of the house, it is clear from a glow on the horizon and wind-borne ashes that it is ablaze.

It is evident at the beginning of the novel that Maxim and the second Mrs de Winter now live in some foreign exile. The events recounted in the book are in essence a flashback of the narrator's life at Manderley.

The given name of the second Mrs de Winter is never revealed in the novel. However in chapter 3, after she receives a note from Maxim, she says how her name was "spelt correctly, an unusual thing", which implies that her name is either strange or complex. Early in the story, Mr. de Winter compliments her on her "lovely and unusual name".

Related works

The novel has inspired three additional books approved by the du Maurier estate:

• Mrs de Winter (1993), by Susan Hill, is a sequel originally written in the 1980s. ISBN 0-09-928478-2
• The Other Rebecca (1996), by Maureen Freely, is a contemporary version. ISBN 0-89733-477-9
• Rebecca's Tale (2001), by Sally Beauman, ISBN 0-06-621108-5 is a narrative of four characters affected by Rebecca. It is often mistakenly referred to as a prequel.

Impact

Rebecca, when first published had a print run of 20,000, and was a popular success. However, it did not receive critical acclaim. The Times said that 'the material is of the humblest...nothing in this is beyond the novelette...". Few saw in the novel what the author wanted them to see: the exploration of the relationship between a man who was powerful and a woman who was not.

The novel, and the character of Mrs Danvers in particular, have entered many aspects of popular culture. One edition of the book was used by the Germans in World War II as a code source. Sentences would be made using single words in the book, referred to by page number, line and position in the line. One copy was kept at Rommel's headquarters, and the other was carried by German Abwehr agents infiltrated in Cairo after crossing Egypt by car, guided by Count László Almásy.

This code was never used, however, because the radio section of the HQ was captured in a skirmish and the Germans thought the security was compromised. This is referred to in Ken Follett's novel The Key to Rebecca - where a (fictional) spy does use it to pass critical information to Rommel. (Also, in the course of Follett's book the protagonist, who is a widower, starts a relationship with a young woman who feels inadequate to take the place of his aristocratic dead wife - an obvious allusion to the du Maurier book.)

This use of the novel was also referred to in Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient.

The character of Mrs Danvers is alluded to numerous times throughout Stephen King's Bag of Bones. In the book, Mrs Danvers serves as something of a bogeyman for the main character Mike Noonan. King also uses the character name for the chilly, obedient servant in "Father's Day," a tale in his 1982 film Creepshow.

In Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, in the bookworld, they have accidentally made lots of Mrs Danvers clones, which they use as troops against The Mispeling Vyrus, and other threats, including as an army.

In The Maxx issue #31, a teenage Julie Winters watches a black and white version of the movie.

In Danielle Steel's novel Vanished, it is mentioned that the main character is reading "Rebecca". This was most likely deliberate on Steele's part, considering that the novel has many of the same elements as Rebecca.

Childhood visits to Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire (then in Northamptonshire) home of the Wentworth-Fitzwilliam family, may have influenced the descriptions of Manderley.

Aspects of the book were borrowed for the parody theatrical piece, The Mystery of Irma Vep, being set on the "Mandacrest" estates where Lady Enid is the wife who has replaced the (possible) deceased Irma Vep.

Dramatic adaptations

Film

Rebecca has been adapted several times. The most notable of these was the Academy Award winning 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film version Rebecca, the first film Hitchcock made under his contract with David O. Selznick. The film, which starred Laurence Olivier as Max, Joan Fontaine as the Heroine, and Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers was based on the novel. However, the Hollywood Production Code required that if Max had murdered his wife, he would have to be punished for his crime. Therefore, the key turning point of the novel – the revelation that Max, in fact, murdered Rebecca – was altered so that it seemed Rebecca's death was accidental. At the end of the film version, Mrs Danvers perishes in the fire. The film quickly became a classic and, at the time, was a major technical achievement in film-making.

Television

Rebecca has been adapted for television by both BBC (the book cover pictured on this page shows Joanna David as Mrs de Winter) and Carlton Television. The latter version starred Emilia Fox (Joanna David's daughter) in the same role, and in the United States, was broadcast by PBS as part of its Masterpiece Theatre series. The plots of certain Latin-American soap operas have also been inspired by this story, such as Manuela (Argentina), and Infierno en el paraíso (Mexico).

Music

Meg & Dia's Meg Frampton penned a song entitled "Rebecca", inspired by the novel.

Sondre Lerche's song, "She's Fantastic", makes a reference to Rebecca. In it he says, "In that old movie 'bout Rebecca's spell I feel like Max never felt, minus the drama and the fraud..."

On Kansas alumnus Steve Walsh's solo recording Glossolalia a song entitled "Rebecca" appears, with lyrics seemingly composed from Maxim de Winter's point of view: "I suppose I was the lucky one, returning like a wayward son to Manderley, I'd never be the same..."

The Pet Shop Boys' song "King of Rome" includes the "Rebecca" inspired line "I'm here and there/or anywhere/away from Manderley..."

Theatre

Du Maurier herself adapted Rebecca as a stage play in 1939; it had a successful London run in 1940 of over 350 performances.

On 28 September 2006 a musical version of Rebecca premièred at the Raimund Theater in Vienna, Austria. The new musical is written by Michael Kunze (book and lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music) and directed by the renowned American director Francesca Zambello. The cast includes Uwe Kröger as Max de Winter, Wietske van Tongeren as "Ich" ("I", the narrator) and Susan Rigvava-Dumas as Mrs Danvers. Before 2008 there was talk of moving the musical to the Broadway stage, but all plans have been cancelled due to the complexity of the sets, scenery, and special effects—including a grand staircase that twirls down into the stage and a finale in which the entire stage - including Mrs Danvers - is engulfed in flames. In September 2008 it was announced that the musical would be arriving on Broadway by 2010 with a pre-Broadway try-out in at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN

Plagiarism allegations

Shortly after Rebecca was published in Brazil, critic Álvaro Lins pointed out many resemblances between du Maurier's book and the work of Brazilian writer Carolina Nabuco. Nabuco's A Sucessora (The Successor) has a main plot similar to Rebecca, including a young woman marrying a widower and the strange presence of the first wife — plot features also shared with the far older Jane Eyre. Nina Auerbach alleged, in her book Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress, that du Maurier read the Brazilian book when the first drafts were sent to be published in England and based her famous best-seller on it. According to Nabuco's autobiography, she refused to sign a contract brought to her by a United Artists' representative in which she agreed that the similarities between her book and the movie were mere coincidence. Du Maurier denied copying Nabuco's book, as did her publisher, claiming that the plot used in Rebecca was quite common.

In 1944 in the United States, Daphne du Maurier, her U.S. publishers, Doubleday, and various parties connected with the 1940 film version of the novel, were sued by Edwina L. MacDonald for plagiarism. MacDonald alleged that du Maurier had copied her novel, "Blind Windows". Du Maurier successfully defended the allegations.

Du Maurier herself stated that the book was based on her memories of Menabilly and Cornwall, as well as the relationship she had with her father.

External links

• Article about sexual ambiguity in "Rebecca", by Cathy Pryor in the London Independent
• Rebecca Book Notes at Literapedia