Rebecca

Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, even upon a dreamer's fancy. As I stood there, hushed and still, I could swear that the house was not an empty shell but lived and breathed as it had lived before.

Several of my book club buddies have recommended this book, so I duly went about reading it; now having finished this book I have nothing profound to say about it. Plot summary: young, middle class, pretty (enough) un-named servant in training, after a whirlwind Monte Carlo romance is married to a wealthy, english, middle-aged estate owner, widower Maxim De Winter. Married, at the named estate, the (never-named protagonist) new wife discovers that the dead wife, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident, still looms large over all aspects of the couple’s living arrangements so that the new wife feels inadequate to her new life-style and responsibilities.

The tension peaks at the “fancy ball” when our protagonist is tricked into wearing one of Rebecca’s outfits which horrifies Maxim, and she wonders if the incident will end her marriage. Then Rebecca’s boat is unexpectedly discovered with Rebecca still in the cabin. Shortly after, Max, to explain his reaction to the dress incident, admits to his new wife to murdering Rebecca and to having scuttled her boat. Now the novel shifts gears from being a Rebecca-almost-ghost-story to being tale of suspense: will Maxim’s murder be found out? I guess I can appreciate the craft went into last third of the book when incestuous cousin Favell’s blackmail attempt falls apart largely because Rebecca was so perfectly a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The story’s prose, especially the descriptions of the estate’s landscape, the weather, the flowers, the cuisine and tea service are all pleasant recurring presences in the novel. It occurs to me that this is exactly the sort of prose that Cold Comfort Farm is satirizing.

In summary, this is a fine story but a little too slow for me and its just too obvious to me that story would not exist without the arbitrary discovery of Rebecca’s sail boat (it’s hard to enjoy the magician when you know how the trick is done).