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Friday, October 22, 2021

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .

Working as a lady's companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers . . .

Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never been out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young woman consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

  Paperback, 428 pages,
July 16, 2015 by Virago
first published Aug 1, 1936
4.5/5 stars

This book has been in my tbr pile for years.  Recently our Family Book Club drew this title out of the hat and we all hunkered down for a group read. A couple read the book and 2 did an alternate read and listen.  Our feelings were similar.

We enjoyed this read.  Written in 1936 it was labelled as a romance, maybe that is because of the female author and era.  There was romance in the sense of a newly married couple but the story was more mysterious.

Rebecca unfolds nicely, introducing both likeable and unlikable characters - of course some that draw suspicion to themselves, while others that were rather annoying.  Lots of red herrings, an eerie setting and that Gothic feel made this an enjoyable read.

This was my first du Maurier book.  Her writing style was captivating with attention to detail, a well written story.  I look forward to reading more from her.

This book was part of my 2021 Reading Off My Shelf Challenge.

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