Rebecca

by Alan Ronaldson (Adapted by), Daphne du Maurier

[Penguin Readers Level 5]

"Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again." So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past ther beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten...her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant -- the sinister Mrs. Danvers -- still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca...for the secrets of Manderley.

Genres: Classics

128 pages, Paperback

Published March 4, 2008

Reviews

[Dede loves books · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book ever

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Glorious, ecstatic read

Rebecca is one of the best books ever written.
And since a masterpiece has the power to transcend, to go beyond the limits of its covers, this one has inspired a glorious film

- Rebecca, with Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine and the fascinating George Sanders as the villain has won the Academy Award for Best Picture

The story is powerful; it has a romance, the fight between good and evil, a complex Maximillian de Winter and a delightful heroine.
- Wait a minute!
- I mean the new Mrs. De Winter and not Rebecca
Because one of the intriguing and yet appealing aspects of this tale is the fact that the one that gives the name to the novel is actually dead.
As Maxim de Winter is trying to find solace- we would learn to know better later in the book- in Monte Carlo, he meets this young woman.
She is the one who will play the story teller and in many ways the real star of the show, adumbrated at times by the shadow of Rebecca.
Maxim de Winter is well known as a rich gentleman, a widow proprietor of an envied estate with an appealing name:

- Mandalay
The young girl is the hired help or assistant of an American rich woman who is stupefied when Maxim de Winter shows interest in her employee.
In fact, after a few drives in the car and an outburst of emotions and a few rude remarks, the widower asks the young woman to marry him.
I would note that Max de Winter, as Favell calls him, is not altogether the knight in shining armor and has a dark side.
That may contribute to his allure, but he feels obnoxious at times and his proposal of marriage sounded weird:
- Would you rather go back to America or to Mandalay
- You mean you want a secretary
- No, I want to marry you
The dark secret we would learn that he hides explains in large part his misbehaving and I will not go into that, in the odd chance that you want to read the book after going through this, out of more than 12,800 reviews on Goodreads.
Once she becomes Mrs. De Winter, the married woman travels to Mandalay where she has to meet with the Evil.
The Darth Vader, Anton Chigurhs and Saurons of this story are:
- The aforementioned Rebecca, her cousin and lover Jack Favell and the latter’s friend and housekeeper at Mandalay Mrs. Danvers
The terrible “Danny” is playing cat and mouse with the new, young Mrs. De Winter right from the start.
I was thinking earlier if she was not a hidden lesbian, seeing as she had been so enamored with her late mistress.
Whatever the case might be, she tries very hard to make the new lady of the house raving mad and suicidal.
A climax is reached when there is an upcoming costume party, wherefore she makes Mrs. De Winter choose the absolute wrong dress.
Having done that, the helpless young mistress drives her spouse crazy, but that annoyed me and I still say:
- Ok, now we know what was on your mind, feelings of guilt and all, but still, why did you need to shout to the poor wife so loud?
- You criminal bastard- this last is a sort of a joke
Things get complicated from here, with first an attempt from the said Chigurh in women’s clothes to make the lady of the castle jump to her death.
Then there is a terrible storm and looking for a fresh wreck they find the remains of the boat with which Rebecca had sank.
Only there are surprises and the end keeps the reader breathing hard and waiting for new developments in a thrilling detective story, for chapters at the end.

And now for some quotes:
“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.”

“...the routine of life goes on, whatever happens, we do the same things, go through the little performance of eating, sleeping, washing. No crisis can break through the crust of habit.”



PS: there are two ratings, because I have read this twice, the latest in the form of an adaptation for the BBC

[Dua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me han entrado muchísimas ganas de leer el libro original 🤩

[Cécile · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting

[Noelia Bisquiazzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un feminicidio justificado por el cáncer terminal.
Ni idea, es mi lectura en inglés del año y es lo que había a mano.
Arrancó terrible, remontó un poco, terminó terrible.

[Pauline]

I accidentally grabbed the Penguin Reader instead of the original, but decided to read it anyway seeing as I had a long train ride ahead. Would like to read the original anyway.

[Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectura obligatòria del curs d'anglès. Molt vocabulari nou! La història ja la coneixia pel cinema, i aquesta versió m'ha semblat massa resumida (d'altra banda, el meu nivell d'anglès no permet gaire més).

[Victoria Valenzuela Robles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó el ''plot twist'' de la verdadera muerte de Rebecca y como Du Maurier desenvuelve la trama para que acabes compadeciéndote del asesino y deseando que no sea castigado por su crimen.
Buen libro; los clásicos nunca decepcionan.

[Mae Harris]

A young insecure woman swept off her feet by a wealthy widower. Upon arrival at his mansion, she found that his deceased wife carried a heavy past. It is a writer's book, even with a twist. Enjoy.

[Luisi · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro estuvo interesante, pero ese final...

[clau uwu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me dieron ganas de leerme el original, basta

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second time of reading Rebecca and I remember it being just as good! This is definitely one I need to try watching too!

[Wike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story with a twist near the end. Almost a detective story haha. Maybe someday I'll read the original version.

[Odyssey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing that strikes me about Rebecca, is the author really doesn't seem to believe in long exposition or wasting any time unnecessarily. In that way she's a bit like the anti-Larsson, who is in my opinion the king of exposition.
Either way, the story starts with Maxim getting to meet his future second wife for the first time. A page later they're in love and two pages later they've been married for seven weeks and move into Mandalay. As I said, no unnecessary time is wasted on characterization or atmosphere. In fact, the plot is almost pushed along and I found it somewhat amusing that there seems to be only one person in the whole story who is really characterized really well and thoroughly: Rebecca - the character who isn't there anymore. Still, that really amused me and in fact led me to believe that the whole book is merely about Rebecca who influences people's lives way past her own death. That being said, from the very moment the author mentioned that the buried body was too mangled to be recognized, I knew it wasn't Rebecca (on the other hand, I don't believe we ever learn whose body it was. Clearly there's no Kay Scarpetta around Mandalay when you need her).
Overall I found the book to be a nice mystery story with one intriguing character and the idea the story is based on really appeals to me.

A nice read. Recommended.

[Sukyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well it would be more interesting if I have read the original version that was written by Daphne Du Maurier. I decided on that low rating probably because of that reason, the events where flying from one to another, some facts were thrust upon you here and there ... Yet I had really enjoyed reading it, besides it didnt take so much time, for I finished it in one day. So the next book I'm gonna read inchaAllah will be " Gone with the Wind" and I'm real excited about it for it IS a Loooooong book.

[Melinda Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a novel written so long ago, I thought this was pretty good. At times I got bogged down in the language-- three pages describing the flowers kind of got to me. But once I got to the half-way mark, it really picked up and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest. Good entertainment but perhaps a little heavy-handed with the flourish.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read - the style kind of reminded me of Jane Eyre though the story takes place in the 1920s. I did think it was curious that the author never gave the first name of the character in the book.
I also thought that the book ended abruptly and I was hoping for more of a happy ending. Overall I would recommend it.

[Huma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was my prize for 100% attendance at our school's Annual Prize Distribution in 2002 or when I was in 8th grade.
I have been a fan of Rebecca since then...and this edited version is a very good effort; it keeps the magic of the original text intact.

See my review of the unabridged version here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved it

[Faith-Anne]

This is a simplified children's version of "Rebecca" with a word-glossary in the back.

[Mieko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't stop reading as the story got closer to the end. It's really good.

[Магдалена · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I should give my full review after reading the full version of the story, not the simplified one.

[Augusto Pellegrinetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

0.6

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice book

[Clement · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely read in one day

[KT Hugge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book only to improve English, but it turned out to be an interesting read. Not exactly life-changing but good.