Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

I think this novel is very underrated and brilliantly done. I reread it so much as a teenager I could have given a guided tour of Manderley and the Happy Valley scented with azaleas. I loved the descriptive early scenes in the library and morning room when a vase is broken and later, as tension mounts, when Mrs. Danvers shows the young bride Rebecca’s evening dresses in the west wing of the house. It made me want to visit more stately homes and places associated with Daphne Du Maurier in Cornwall. And so I did. Lots. I fell in love with Cornwall and old houses such was the influence of this book. I enjoyed Susan Hill’s sequel: Mrs. De Winter, especially a scene in a London hotel when Jack Favell shows up again. More shattered harmony. I’m so glad I bought this novel when it first came out in hardback in 1993. I can’t wait to read it again. There have been some good television adaptations of Rebecca but I like Hitchcock’s black and white film best. But not half as much as reading the novel.