Author: Daphne Du Maurier
Narrator: Emma Fielding
Playback: 5hrs 16m
Publisher: Naxos Audiobook
Soft cover paperback publisher: Harper Collins
Genre: Gothic, Historical, Classic
First Published: August 1, 1938
Book description: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."
Ancient, beautiful Manderley, between the rose garden and the sea, is the county's showpiece. Rebecca made it so - even a year after her death, Rebecca's influence still rules there. How can Maxim de Winter's shy new bride ever fill her place or escape her vital shadow?
A shadow that grows longer and darker as the brief summer fades, until, in a moment of climatic revelations, it threatens to eclipse Manderley and its inhabitants completely...
Review:
This is a reread for me, and I still love it! This is a character-based book and it does have a very slow pace, you see a lot of day-to-day and the MC internal monologue for a whole lot of the time. Overall, an excellent gothic story, perfect for those who enjoy a slow-paced domestic thriller. The plot will blow you away once it picks up - it really has it all: Mystery, intrigue, deception, subterfuge, twists, turns, misunderstandings, accusations, and threats. So much is happening in this story, I just loved the plot twists.
I did decide to go through this in audiobook and it was still enjoyable. I will be taking up this book at a later point and rereading it, but completely in the physical format so I can annotate it. I am undecided if I want to do that in my current copy of it.
We follow a young woman of a low social status, she is 21 years old. At the start of the tale, she is a paid companion to a socialite American woman Mrs. Van Hoppers. There is really no lost love between them, the only good thing to come off their work relationship is that it allows our MC to meet Max de Winter a recently widowed gentleman. for some unknown reason, the two decide to marry and of course, the gentleman takes her to live in his manor. That's where it starts to crack. The new wife soon finds the old house and grounds, the hired help, the new acquaintances she has to deal with as part of her new social status-as well as the mind of her increasingly melancholy husband-dominated by the spirit of Rebecca, his dead first wife. Everyone is obsessed with Rebecca, and no one more than the second wife, she can't stop comparing herself to the memory of an elite eternally young and beautiful woman like Rebecca.
I don't want to ruin the story, it's one enjoyed the most if you have little knowledge beforehand. It was just delightful.
This was used for the Challenges:
The Storygraph - Read Classics
ReReads
Around the world- England
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