Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier     441 pages

From Goodreads:

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

My review:

This book is a roller coaster of emotions. It's dark, it's a bit creepy/insidious, it has an air of the mysterious and disturbing. I was thoroughly engrossed, especially because this book provides a slow build to a rather late climax, and the falling action is so full of tension that you can't put it down.

I didn't like any of the characters - so it's out of character for me to be rating this book so high. But the writing is well crafted, the story is so strong, it grips you. I absolutely hated the narrator and her weird infatuation with a man who is twice her age, her longing for him and her willingness to put up with basically anything so long as she can remain his wife. I hated Maxim, the worst kind of snobby, wealthy Man with a capital M. He babies his wife, he definitely doesn't love her, and he's so obsessed with image, he literally doesn't care about anybody. I also hated Rebecca, but only in the way that she's presented by everyone (who knows what she was really like because everyone who describes her has a different bias - she literally has no voice, she's just a symbol, throw any context on her you want because it can't be called wrong). Perhaps the only person I didn't hate was Frank.

In the end, read this book for its writing - the symbolism, the mirroring, the cyclical story-line. The characters feel very much like caricatures, but they are very intense and fascinating in their own way. I can see why this book is considered a classic. I very much respect du Maurier's writing and her book should definitely be considered more than just a "romance" story (if you can call it romance, it's one-sided, whatever, I hated the romance).