Rebecca (VMC) (Virago Modern Classics): Daphne Du Maurier - Softcover

Daphne Du Maurier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844080382 ISBN 13: 9781844080380

Publisher: Virago, 2003

Synopsis

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 gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

About this title

Review:

One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century, Rebecca has woven its way into the fabric of our culture with all the troubling power of myth or dream. A stunning book (Sarah Waters)

Addictive and breathtaking. Its blending of melodrama and subtlety is ingenious. The Cornish setting never quite leaves the imagination (Independent)

With one of the most evocative first lines ever, Daphne du Maurier's fifth novel has everything a reader could ask for . . . Psychologically astute and disturbingly romantic, Rebecca was an immediate bestseller on publication in 1938 and has cast a sinister spell ever since (Marie Claire)

A brilliantly constructed novel - the ultimate in psychological suspense, instantly gripping and haunting, Rebecca will stay with you for ever. (Alex Barclay Psychologies)

A mesmerising novel which reveals more on each reading (Helen Dunmore)

From the opening sentence - "Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again" - to the final - "And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea" - I was hooked ... Rebecca is one of the underrated classics of the 20th century ... Rebecca is a masterpiece in which du Maurier pulls off several spectacular high-wire acts that many great writers wouldn't attempt (Jim Crace Guardian)

Her masterpiece . . . Seldom has a dead woman exercised such power beyond the grave. Rebecca will live for ever because du Maurier touches a fearful nerve, buried deep in the unconscious (Kate Saunders The Times)

It is the greatest psychological thriller of all time. I see du Maurier as a forerunner to Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, Gillian Flynn: she is the giant whose magnificent shoulders the rest of us stand upon (Erin Kelly)

What she did was build emotional landscapes that can be entered at will, in which difficult and untamable desires were given free rein. Maybe because of her relationship with gender, she was able to make worlds in which people and even houses are mysterious and mutable, not as they seem; haunted rooms in which disembodied spirits sometimes dance at absolute liberty (Olivia Laing Guardian)

I am reminded of how profoundly du Maurier changed the way I felt about myself, how she engaged and excited me with her writing. (Julie Myerson)

Book Description:

One of the most famous novels of the 20th century. A gothic tale of love, murder and secrets.

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1844080382
• ISBN 13: 9781844080380
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448