Rebecca

"Rebecca" is the second Daphne Du Maurier novel I read. This is reasonably unusual for me, as I tend to start with an author's best known works, partly because they seem likely to be their best and partly because they're the most likely to come up in conversation, giving me the chance to pronounce loftily "Oh yes, I've read that one - subpar, I felt..."

The first Daphne Du Maurier I read was "My Cousin Rachel", chosen largely on the basis that it had my name in its title, even if it was an inferior spelling. I read it only once, and remember very little of it. "Rebecca", by contrast, gripped me almost immediately and I sped through it. It is slightly creepier than I usually like my novels, but not so much as to give me nightmares, which are often my fate after a particularly ghost-oriented story (and are the reason I avoid such stories in all their forms).

"Rebecca" is the tale of a young couple and their attempt to make marriage work in the shadow of the groom's late wife. She (the eponymous Rebecca) is spoken of by all of his (Maxim's) friends as a model of virtue, the perfect wife and the life and soul of every party. Du Maurier's twist is clever and, to me at least (though I accept that I may be revealing myself as unforgivably slow), far from obvious.

The characters were cleverly drawn, if not entirely realistic. It struck as rather unlikely that anyone as threatening as Mrs Danvers, the housekeeper, ever actually existed (outside of an asylum at any rate) and Rebecca herself seemed to me unlike anyone I've ever met.

Despite these faults, it's a very clever tale, with just the right amount of spine-chillingness (I assert my right to make up words as I please - it's my blog after all), though the ending always leaves me feeling slightly wistful. The story is peopled with interesting characters, some of whom are extremely appealing, others equally off-putting and I rooted for our heroine right the way through till the end.