Reviewing 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier

Oh dear! This write up is very late but better late than never I guess. We went away for a few days just before Easter and on return I completely forgot to do my write up. Anyway, Rebecca is, quite simply, a work of art. I enjoyed Rebecca from the very first famous opening sentence "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." to the very last page. It wasn't until half way through that I realised that Maxim's new wife, the narrator, remained unnamed. Throughout the entire book Maxim's new wife is only referred to as Mrs de Winter - this in itself adds a touch of mystery and made me wonder how the author managed to write the entire book without giving away the narrator's christian name. The book is described, by some, as a gothic romance but I don't really see why. You could also say that the narrator is the main protagonist if you exclude Rebecca who is actually dead throughout the novel. The characters that Daphne du Maurier created really come alive on the page; they are so real and so well written. I believe this was a very brave novel for Daphne du Maurier to have written at that time as it touches on themes of bisexuality, creating a character that went against the grain of women at that time. We learn that Rebecca was a very strong wilful woman who had a hungry sex drive for men and possibly women. As the book was set in Cornwall (and being Cornish myself) I was interested to find out if Manderley actually exists as there are several properties that resemble the description of Manderley. I discovered that such a place did exist but it's known as Menabilly. Once again I've run out of time to produce a piece of art related to Rebecca but I will follow up when I have more time. The next book I'll be reviewing on 25th April is Stargazy Pie by Laura Lockington.