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Interesting review indeed! I gave the book 5 stars but I do remember when reading it how surprised I was to hear that (view spoiler)[ Rebecca had been dead the whole time (hide spoiler)]. But for me that was the twist in the tale that I enjoyed so much. Still, I understand your sentiments.

Rowena wrote: "Interesting review indeed! I gave the book 5 stars but I do remember when reading it how surprised I was to hear that [spoilers removed]. But for me that was the twist in the tale that I enjoyed so..."

Each reader is different. And each book speaks to a reader in a different way. Your comment endorses that. If it was not so, we would miss all the fun/perspectives.

Exactly why I like to read different perspectives. There have been several times when I've disliked a book that people adored and it has led to some interesting discussions.

Thesis - Anti Thesis - Synthesis. The synthesis then becomes the Thesis and the cycle gets repeated. And as these cycles are repeated we learn a lot. Hegelian concept. LOL....

Interesting that you saw Rebecca as black. I didn't see her that way at all. I just saw her as larger than life, i.e., she was dead and yet even in death it was SHE and not the unnamed Mrs. DeWinter that everyone thought of, talked about and couldn't escape. She was one of those women--and I have known/know a few--who dominate situations, everything and everyone (especially men) around them even when they aren't present but especially when they are. Quieter women don't stand a chance. I think that is the 'type' of woman Rebecca was. That is why Daphne never even gave her second wife a name.

booklady wrote: "Interesting that you saw Rebecca as black. I didn't see her that way at all. I just saw her as larger than life, i.e., she was dead and yet even in death it was SHE and not the unnamed Mrs. DeWin..."

Cathy, your observation is interesting and it makes much sense. I never saw Rebecca as 'black'. My problem was that I always saw her as a Perfect Person from the beginning. That is why the sudden turn of event and the subsequent turn of the character was a surprise and caught me off guard. But your observation makes many things clear. May be I too was caught in the charm of Rebecca.

No I realized after I posted that I had written it wrong... That you meant/wrote/saw the author as 'blackening' her reputation/character and presumably unfairly. Whether it is true or not, who can say? It certainly must have been been difficult from the vantage point of many around the late-great Rebecca, which is what makes it such a haunting story. The movie adaptations of it have also been good.

Even then your observation earlier made me to look at the novel in a different way. And thanks for that. By the way, I will be watching the movie this weekend.

Look forward to hearing what you think of the movie! Are you watching the 1940 version available on Youtube or the new one with Diana Rigg playing the spooky ? I prefer the classic moview with Laurence Olivier but the new one has its points too.

Thanks a lot. I will go for the 1940 edition and may be later I might try the other one too.

I have been reading the above comments with interest. My attitude to Rebecca was very different to yours (to me she seemed a hugely sinister figure), but as everyone has said above, that is the joy of reading, and discussing reading....we all see things differently.

Caroline wrote: "I have been reading the above comments with interest. My attitude to Rebecca was very different to yours (to me she seemed a hugely sinister figure), but as everyone has said above, that is the j..."

Well said......

Watched the film, the 1940 edition. Fantastic screenplay and a wonderful direction. Liked the film.

How interesting! I had a totally different view of Rebecca's character - and in fact of the whole book!
Here's my review

Dhanaraj wrote: "Even then your observation earlier made me to look at the novel in a different way. And thanks for that. By the way, I will be watching the movie this weekend."

Don't just watch one movie version. Watch as many as you can find!

@ Cherie: Will do that - watching all versions. Hope and pray, The Great Almighty - TIME grants me the favour.

I have just finished watching the mini-series from 1997, referred to in comment 9, with Diana Rigg as Mrs Danvers. I wasn't keen at first, as Emilia Fox playing opposite Charles Dance, made the viewpoint character rather too "modern" and not unconfident enough. Daphne du Maurier herself said that it was the story of a powerful man and a weak woman, and partly "a study in jealousy."

Interestingly her mother in real life, Joanna David, had played the same role in 1979, opposite Jeremy Brett. Anna Massey played Mrs Danvers.

And by the end, I thought it had recouped the flavour of the novel and was very accurate. The original film with Laurence Oliviwer was not. They changed the ending completely, because it was thought the public of the time would be too shocked by (view spoiler)[a murderer, Maxim, getting away with his crime. (hide spoiler)]