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Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ... With these words the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband... read more

Characters edit see section history

  • Mrs. de Winter: The novel's narrator and protagonist, whose first name is never revealed. While in Monte Carlo as a paid companion to Mrs. Van Hopper, she meets Maxim de Winter, an older, wealthy man, whom she falls in love with and marries quickly.
  • Maxim de Winter: Maxim is an smart, wealthy, older man and the owner of the mansion Manderley. He has recently lost his beautiful, accomplished wife in a drowning incident when he meets the narrator. He seems to be very troubled by this incident.
  • Rebecca: While alive, Rebecca was the gorgeous, accomplished, and admired first wife of Maxim de Winter. As a ghost, she haunts the mansion, pressing the narrator into depression and feeling like she will never be able to take Rebecca's place.
  • Mrs. Danvers: The sinister and evil housekeeper of the mansion of Manderley. She was completely devoted to Rebecca, and she absolutely hates that the narrator took her place. She does all she can to make the narrator embarrassed and uncomfortable.
  • Frank Crawley: Overseer of Manderley.
  • Jack Favell: Rebecca's cousin.
  • Clarice: Mrs. de Winter's maid.
  • Baker: a doctor
  • Frith: Head Butler.
  • Lady Crowan: Local noblewoman.
  • Ben: Half-wit who roams the property
  • Jasper: Maxim de Winter's dog (spaniel). Has soulful eyes and great, sagging jowl.
  • Beatrice: Maxim's social and friendly sister. He describes her as to-the-point: if she doesn't like someone she'll come right out and say it.
  • Mrs. Van Hopper: An old, wealthy American who paid Mrs. de Winter to be her companion before she got married to Mr. de Winter. Her short body ill balanced upon tottering high heels, her fussy, freely blouse a complement to her large bosom and swinging hips, her new hat pierced with a monster quill aslant upon her head, exposing a wide expanse of forehead bare as a schoolboy's knee. One hand carried a gigantic bag, the kind that holds passports, engagement diaries, and bridge scores, while the other hand toyed with that inevitable lorgnette, the enemy of other people's privacy.
  • Robert: Footman
  • Colonel Julyan: Magistrate who investigates the death of Rebecca.
  • Giles: Husband of Beatrice.
  • Captain Searle: The harbormaster of Kerrith.
  • Alice: Housemaid.
  • Norah: The parlor-maid for Maxim's grandmother.
  • James Tabb: The shipbuilder who built and maintained Rebecca's boat. At the inquest, he testifies that the ship sank because of holes drilled in the bottom.
  • Roger: Son of Beatrice and Giles, Maxim's nephew
  • Gran: Maxim's grandmother.
Show all 23 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “The papers were full of it of course. They say he never talks about it, never mentions her name. She was drowned you know, in a bay near Manderley ...”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “If only there could be an invention...that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “Though two nights only have been spent beneath a roof, yet we leave something of ourselves behind. Nothing material, not a hairpin on a dressing table, not an empty bottle of aspirin tablets, not a handkerchief beneath a pillow, but something indefinable, a moment of our lives, a thought, a mood.”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “Come and see us if you feel like it,' she said. 'I always expect people to ask themselves. Life is too short to send out invitations.”
    Beatrice
  • “That's what I do to Jasper," I thought. "I'm being like Jasper now, leaning against him. He pats me now and again, when he remembers, and I'm pleased, I get closer to him for a moment. He likes me in the way I like Jasper.”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “The word lingered in the air once I had uttered it, Dancing before me, and because he received it silently, making no comment, the word magnified itself into something hideous and appalling, a forbidden word, unnatural to the tongue. And I could not call it back, it could never be unsaid.”
    Mrs. de Winter
  • “If I told you I was thinking about Surrey and Middlesex, I was thinking about Surrey and Middlesex. Men are simpler than you imagine, my sweet child. But what goes in the twisted tortuous minds of women would baffle anyone.”
    Maxim de Winter
  • “My lad is different altogether. No earthly use at games. Always writing poetry. I suppose he'll grow out of it.”
    Colonel Julyan
  • “We all of us have our particular devil who rides with us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end. We have conquered ours, or so we believe.”
    Mrs. de Winter
Show all 11 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Chapters 1
Chapters 2
Chapters 3
Chapters 4
Chapters 5
Chapters 6
Chapters 7
Chapters 8
Chapters 9
Chapters 10
Chapters 11
Chapters 12
Chapters 13
Chapters 14
Chapters 15
Chapters 16
Chapters 17
Chapters 18
Chapters 19
Chapters 20
Chapters 21
Chapters 22
Chapters 23
Chapters 24
Chapters 25
Chapters 26
Chapters 27

The Rebecca Epilogue

Glossary edit see section history

  • Mullioned: A slender vertical member that forms a division between units of a window, door, or screen or is used decoratively

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • The letter "R": The letter "R" makes its appearance over and over throughout the novel. Obviously, the R represents Rebecca herself. Bit it always makes its appearance just as the new Mrs. DeWinter begins to become a little comfortable in her position as lady of the house. It serves to undermine her minimal confidence and her state of mind.
  • The nameless "Mrs. DeWinter: The new Mrs. DeWinter is never actually named. This lack of a name symbolizes her lack of social standing, her lack of confidence, and really her lack of self.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 30 of 214 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Old Man and the Sea, and followed by A Clockwork Orange.

This book is in Readers Digest Press. (edition-based publisher list)
This is book 20 of 99 in NPR's Top 100 Killer Thriller. (community list)

Preceded by The Day of the Jackal, and followed by Eye of the Needle.

This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This book is in World Book Night 2012. (authoritative list)
This is book 3 of 11 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 1939. (authoritative list)

Preceded by All This, and Heaven Too, and followed by Wickford Point.

This is book 4 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 1938. (authoritative list)

Preceded by My Son My Son, and followed by Northwest Passage.

This book is in Random Synapses: 100 Book Challenge (2011). (community list)
This is book 9 of 100 in Top 100 Mysteries of All Time (Mystery Writers of America, 1995). (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Big Sleep, and followed by And Then There Were None.

Preceded by The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and followed by Farewell, My Lovely.

This is book 603 of 1271 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Nausea, and followed by Cause for Alarm.

This is book 15 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)

Preceded by The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, and followed by The Hobbit.

This is book 14 of 196 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Birdsong, and followed by The Catcher in the Rye.

This is book 44 of 96 in Waterstone's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Love in the Time of Cholera, and followed by The Remains of the Day.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Daphne du Maurier (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Victor Gollancz
Country: UK
Publication Date: 1938
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 357

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PN2093 .C64 1995
  • Dewey: 823.912

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

While this book can be a little dark, it is eminently accessible. It would be a great way to introduce a young reader to the classics. I read it when I was twelve, and it has been a favorite ever since.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Movie Connections edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Jane Eyre
  • Wuthering Heights
  • Frenchman's Creek
  • My Cousin Rachel
  • The Scapegoat

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" (Volume 12, Chapter 12)
  • Daphne Du Maurier, Haunted Heiress (Personal Takes)
  • The "Rebecca" Notebook

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • Jane Eyre

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Mrs. De Winter
  • The Other Rebecca
  • Rebecca's Tale
  • Bag of Bones
  • The Eyre Affair
  • First Among Sequels
  • Vanished
  • The Key to Rebecca
  • The Key to Rebecca

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