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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Jan. 24th, 2010 04:08 pmYoung woman marries mysterious older man to escape life of drudgery, goes to his awesome gothic mansion, and learns that everyone is obsessed with the seemingly perfect first wife. Oh, and the housekeeper is in love with the dead wife. It’s ok. I’m pretty sure the second wife almost is eventually, too.
Despite the rather meandering beginning, this is a ridiculously engrossing gothic novel. I like the idea of narratives centered around solving the mysteries of a woman whose presence is stronger than that of the characters actually on the page, but they rarely ever completely work. Actually, outside of Rebecca, I think only Twin Peaks has managed to make it completely work for me. (And that stopped being good once that element was gone, though that isn’t the only reason.)
The resemblances to Jane Eyre are even more blatant when reading than when hearing about it, and wow, are they similar. Daphne du Maurier was apparently obsessed with the Brontes, which is something I get. Though, the narrator of Rebecca (she never gets a name) doesn’t learn about any of the bad stuff (which is not actually the same bad stuff!) until after she’s married toMr. Rochester Mr. de Winter and doesn’t have any other options, so I can sympathize with her. Also, she doesn’t reject all other options to marry a man who tried to trick her into being his mistress, tells little girls they’re sluts because they have French mothers, treats every woman he meets horribly, and locks his wife in the attic and tries to pretend she doesn’t exist, all of which makes Jane Eyre one of the very few fictional characters I actually dislike for her romantic choices. (I mean, for her sake, I hope their new house doesn’t have an attic that locks, but…) Also, I sometimes apparently lower my standards, because I realized halfway through that the fact that he didn’t try to pretend his first wife didn’t exist made me consider trying to like de Winter. Though he was still a loser, and so I didn’t.
I feel I am doing a very bad job of explaining this, but it is awesome and you should read! Also, I suspect it’s something that anyone with any opinion of Jane Eyre can appreciate on that level, though it shouldn’t be read just for JE. Also, I may have cackled evilly every time Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, tried to depress the heroine into suicide by talking about how awesome Rebecca was. Let’s not dwell on what that likely says about me.
Despite the rather meandering beginning, this is a ridiculously engrossing gothic novel. I like the idea of narratives centered around solving the mysteries of a woman whose presence is stronger than that of the characters actually on the page, but they rarely ever completely work. Actually, outside of Rebecca, I think only Twin Peaks has managed to make it completely work for me. (And that stopped being good once that element was gone, though that isn’t the only reason.)
The resemblances to Jane Eyre are even more blatant when reading than when hearing about it, and wow, are they similar. Daphne du Maurier was apparently obsessed with the Brontes, which is something I get. Though, the narrator of Rebecca (she never gets a name) doesn’t learn about any of the bad stuff (which is not actually the same bad stuff!) until after she’s married to
I feel I am doing a very bad job of explaining this, but it is awesome and you should read! Also, I suspect it’s something that anyone with any opinion of Jane Eyre can appreciate on that level, though it shouldn’t be read just for JE. Also, I may have cackled evilly every time Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, tried to depress the heroine into suicide by talking about how awesome Rebecca was. Let’s not dwell on what that likely says about me.
