 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book that was turned into a musical.
Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. This book is a mood. The narrator can be in a flower garden, and she can make the lilacs sound sinister and the azaleas downright hostile. The narrator's future husband comments on her "unusual and lovely" name, but we never find out what it is. Du Maurier said later that she could never come up with a name that fit. But her namelessness seems nicely symbolic: especially at the beginning, she feels like nonentity, terrified of everyone, completely overshadowed by Maxim's first wife, Rebecca. We're told that Rebecca died in a drowning accident, but from the start it feels like there's more to the story. The housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, is hostile to the narrator, usually in passive-aggressive ways. She briefly pretends friendliness in order to give "advice" that leads the narrator into humiliation, then tries to taunt her into suicide. In large and small ways, she reminds the newcomer that she can never replace the legendary Rebecca. *SPOILERS FOLLOW* There's really no way to discuss this book without talking about the ending. At first I thought this was going to be a "Jane Eyre" situation where the first wife was locked in the attic. But no, Rebecca really is dead - because Maxim murdered her. The last part of the book is all about how Rebecca was a Bad Woman who deserved to die. She was constantly unfaithful, and she told Maxim she was pregnant with another man's child. The people who know about the murder (the narrator, Maxim's agent, even the magistrate) are entirely focused on protecting Maxim from the consequences of his actions. This is made to seem okay with the revelation that Rebecca had her own reason to deliberately goad Maxim into killing her. Even before hearing the reason, the narrator's reaction to learning of the murder is relief. She'd been obsessed with the idea that Maxim still loved Rebecca, and she's thrilled to learn that he hated Rebecca, and loves his wife instead, yay! Du Maurier's descriptive powers are amazing, but I'm thinking this guy's love isn't such a prize, and the narrator seems more of nonentity than before.
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