"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
Rebecca was perhaps the biggest surprise of the year for me so far. I had always thought Rebecca to be a romance novel, mostly due to a horribly misleading cover which I wouldn't look twice at (luckily it's out in a new trade paperback version with a great cover that I picked up which is pictured in this post!). The misleading cover is bright red with "Rebecca" written in gold slanting letters...I'm sure you've seen it. I've always known of Hitchcock's movie, Rebecca, but didn't know that it was a production of Daphne Du Maurier's novel! When I saw that people were reading Rebecca for the RIP Challenge, I put two and two together and came out of the experience with what will most definitely make the top ten list of 2007!
At it's heart, Rebecca is a ghost story, though there is no true ghost in the novel as far as what we traditionally think of as a ghost. It's the story of walking in the shoes of someone that you've never known, of taking over the life of someone you've never known. It's the story of a past that continually haunts the present. The narrator of the novel meets a man by the name of Maxim DeWinter, who's wife, Rebecca, has recently drowned. To make a long story short, the narrator and Maxim marry and she is brought to Manderley, a grand and well-known house where she lives a life in a part of society that she has never known. But she is no Rebecca. She knows nothing of this type of society and she fears that Maxim will never love her like he loved Rebecca. The second Mrs. DeWinter slowly uncovers who Rebecca was and the secrets surrounding her life.
This books was just amazing and took twists and turns that I never suspected. It was just an incredibly classic story and I never wanted it to end. I haven't been so disappointed by reaching a books end in ages. And it wasn't the ending that I was disappointed in, it was just the fact that it had ended. This book reminded me so much of The Thirteenth Tale and The Historian. If you liked the atmosphere of those books, I think you'd enjoy this one. Like those two, this one does a wonderful job of telling it's reader a riveting story. There will definitely be more Daphne Du Maurier in my future!
In other news, I broke the 10,000 word mark today in NaNoWriMo! And a wonderful character emerged. Deslily made a joke in a comment awhile back asking if there was a part for her in my book. So I said, sure, why not?! lol...So she became a queen and was introduced today in Chapter 5 and I really like her character! I've posted the beginning of chapter 5 in my "excerpt" section of my NaNo profile if anyone's interested. It's under the beginning of chapter 2 so just scroll down until you get to chapter 5. You can get to my profile by clicking the NaNo link in my sidebar. Please excuse any typos or grammatical mistakes...I haven't proofread anything! I just copied and pasted. Add me as a friend if you're doing NaNo! I'd love to get a little group of NaNo buddies over there :)
