Review: Timeless
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 6, 2014
Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 Rebecca remains one of my favorite black and white films; therefore, it is not surprising that when I saw Daphne Du Maurier's novel from which the film is based offered on Kindle, I did not hesitate to buy it. The book does not disappoint. From its opening line, "Last night I dreamed I went to Manderly again" to its disturbing conclusion, the novel continues to haunt me. And well it should, since Rebecca is a ghost story, one that should capture the imagination of any discerning lover of the gothic romance genre.Rebecca contains all the elements of great fiction. It evocative setting, seaside Cornwall in southwest England, provides the moody backdrop for a suspenseful plot and unforgettable characters. The unnamed narrator, an insecure young woman newly married to the much older, wealthy Maxim de Winter, narrates the story. Through her hypnotic voice, we learn that their marriage is as cool as de Winter himself, and that it is shadowed by his dead first wife, the charming but wicked Rebecca and by the chilling housekeeper of Manderly, Mrs. Danvers. But no character is more unforgettable than Manderly itself, which is as wild and as lovely as its former mistress. One brilliant image that stays with me is the blood red rhododendrons that guard the entrance to the mansion which startle the narrator "with their crimson faces, massed one upon the other in incredible profusion, showing no leaf, no twig, nothing but the slaughterous red, luscious and fanastic, unlike any rhododendron plant I had ever seen before." With images such as this Du Maurier beautifully creates the dark and dangerous world of Manderly and its occupants.However unlike another reviewer who speculates that the book should appeal to young readers and writers, I am not so sure that Rebecca will translate well to a young audience. So much of the novel is slow and seductive in its suspense that I wonder whether they would understand its subtleties, and I doubt whether the shy narrator would hold much interest to an audience who might expect a more assertive heroine. I hope I am wrong, because they would miss a timeless story of romance and revenge--Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.