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5 stars. Outstanding. Brilliant. I can see why Rebecca is regarded as a classic. The quality of the writing is superb, as is the character development and the way story unfolds. What a master storyteller Daphne du Maurier is. I am so glad I finally got around to reading Rebecca and can see myself enjoying it again in the not too distant future as well as her other novels.

The 2002 edition I read has and interesting Afterword by author Sally Beauman who went on to write a sequel called Rebecca's Tale in 2007. In the Afterword she gives us some background on Daphne du Maurier and the writing of the book and also her psychological interpretations on some elements of the book and du Maurier’s own personality�.......

There is a final twist to Rebecca and it is a covert one. Maxim de Winter kills not one wife, but two. He murders the first with a gun, and the second by more insidious methods. The second Mrs de Winter’s fate, for which she prepares herself throughout the novel, is to be subsumed by her husband. Following him into that hellish exile glimpsed in the opening chapters, she becomes again what she was when she first met him â€� the paid companion to a petty tyrant. For humouring his whims, and obeying his every behest, her recompense is not money, but ‘loveâ€� â€� and the cost is her identity. This is the final bitter irony of this novel and the last of its many reversals. A story that ostensibly attempts to bury Rebecca, in fact resurrects her, and renders her unforgettable, whereas Mrs de Winter, our pale, ghostly and timid narrator, fades from our view; it is she who is the dying woman in this novel. By extension â€� and this is daring on du Maurier’s part â€� her obedient beliefs, her unquestioning subservience to the male, are dying with her.....…â¶Ä�

Sally Beauman goes on to say that throughout du Maurier’s life, she felt an inner tension between the need to be a wife and the necessity of being a writer � and she seems to have regarded those roles as irreconcilable…�...

"...........when she gave aspects of herself to the two women who are the pillars of her narrative, she was entering into an area of deeply personal psychological struggle. She gave her own shyness and social awkwardness to Mrs de Winter. She gave her independence, her love of the sea, her expertise as a sailor, her sexual fearlessness, and even her bisexuality (strongly hinted at in the novel, if not spelled out) to Rebecca. It is for readers to decide where their own sympathies lie � and du Maurier’s.