Rebecca

Rebecca, a bestselling novel by famed English writer Daphne du Maurier, was published in 1938, and has never gone out of print. The winner of the National Book Award for favorite novel of 1938, Rebecca has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and a 1997 television miniseries. It was most recently adapted for a Netflix film in 2020 by the same name. Rebecca tells the story of an unnamed young woman who marries the wealthy owner of a splendid English estate, Manderley, and becomes obsessed with the memory of her husband’s first wife, the title character. The book functions as a psychological thriller, a romance, and a Gothic novel.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with the unnamed narrator’s dream of a return to her beloved English stately home, Manderley. Residing in a foreign country with her husband, the narrator reviews her first meeting with her future spouse, Maxim de Winter, a wealthy widower, and their subsequent married life at Manderley.

As an inexperienced, insecure 21-year-old, the narrator works as a companion to Mrs. Van Hopper, a rich American vacationing in Monte Carlo. Through the social-climbing Mrs.