I’m going to need raucous round of applause, because I just transcribed fifteen pages of handwritten notes, for the pleasure of exactly maybe five people. This is not any sort of self-pit party; I’m genuinely shocked at myself for having written so many notes, even before I got the idea to transcribe them and post them onto Substack. Just goes to show the seductive powers of a really good book.
And speaking of seductive powers…Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is such a book. Like, a lot of books are books, novels even, but Rebecca is a book. It’s chewy, it’s captivating, it is the emotional soul sister of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and a distant cousin to the legend of Bluebeard. It is the essential Gothic piece, the story of two women (one dead and the other living, sort of), a man, and a house. If you know anything about me, you know I’m quite fond of stories that allow houses to be characters—Hill House, House of Leaves, though Manderley isn’t nearly so malicious as either of those places. Those who walk the grounds of Manderley do not walk them alone, and if there are hallways that seem to go on for minutes, it is only because our nameless heroine is not quite adept at finding her way around the grand house.
I don’t mean this to be a book review or any sort of essay. This is simply me sharing my notes (all fifteen pages, 😮💨pray for me), sans any editorializing, save for fixing any spelling errors that are par for handwritting. I did go back here and there, and add some context and further thoughts, besides the ones shown in my notebook, and those will be italicized. I’ll be uploading the actual pages onto Patreon as a treat for my patrons—using handwriting and the lure of stickers as a little incentive to support my literary antics.
Without further ado…the notes!
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
“Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers.”
I wonder what the dream of Manderley is meant to symbolize. If I stretch my mind to it, I’m sure I can imagine it representing memory, grief and rot—further reading will illuminate, I’m sure.
Mayhaps the house enveloped by greenery is to represent [Max] de Winter. The line—”I walked enchanted, and nothing held me back.’—lends itself to this understanding. The heroine, nameless if I recall correctly, walks towards Max de Winter enchanted, heedless of the nettles (his past, his late wife’s, the ornery lady’s maid)
I also wonder why our heroine went unnamed. Is she nothing? Is she meant to be an audience surrogate, or is her lack of a name meant to represent how little agency she has. She is a blank slot, a Mrs. de Winter.
“And 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.'‘
Love a living house—love a house alive with moods.
Manderley as an allegory for her marriage—she will not think of it with fear, remembering only the golden times and beauty
Mrs. Danvers, housekeeper at Manderley, very partial to Rebecca
Mrs. (Rebecca) de Winter, Max’s first wife, deceased
Mrs. Van Hopper, a lady, very…much, snob lmfao
You can ask to pay less if there’s no one interesting in the dining room?
Our heroine is of a lower class—too unfine by the day’s standards to treat with any favor. Depressing!
Mrs. de Winter (Heroine), I’ll call her heroine to distinguish her from Rebecca; young; working class + upwardly mobile most likely, married to Mr. de Winter
Shady as hell for customer service people to be shady to other customer service people
Max de Winter, gentleman, owns Manderley, a widower; a very mysterious fellow
Mrs. Van Hopper is such a type of character in these mysteries of yore—the snobbish, grabby person, reaching too high above their station
She is, ahem, a clout chaser
What is the heroine’s job? Not so much lady’s maid (the staff would treat her better, I think) but something akin to it. A 19th century personal assistant?
You fall so easily into the rules of a novel set in the past (as compared to now, 2023) —shocked and appalled Mrs. Van Hopper would approach a gentleman before she’d been introduced
Oh! That’s very kind of Mr. de Winter—correcting Van Hopper’s snobbish rudeness with some genuine courtesy.
This also shows us that Max isn’t like Other Men in this time period, or doesn’t feel beholden to class structure
Why would you show honeymoon pictures to a recently widowed man?
I’ve mentally casted Jacob Anderson as Max de Winter
Heroine is so damn mortified. I feel the same. Third hand embarrassment
Crawling under a rock, brb
Is she really so blind to mockery? Or is she simply playing stupid?
Nah, she’s really oblivious! He’s so fucking shady! Damn!
Monopolize the conversation? She spoke ONCE?! Oh, Van Hopper is a certified hater, I see
How old IS our heroine? 21? 22?
Oh? How VERY kind of Mr. de Winter! I’m still curious to why we don’t get to know the heroine’s name.
Gentle little gasp—they’re both in the dining room alone
Fuck it! Quinta Brunson as Mrs. de Winter
Oh! A companion—so yeah, a lady’s maid and personal assistant all in one, but without any of those titles’ distinctions
So our heroine is an orphan—and her name is lovely and unusual—and! She’s fond of her father!
I googled why the heroine doesn’t have a name and my own analyses seem to match up to others! She’s a blank slate, insignificant to herself and oft times to others. Poor thing.
One idea was that she’s hiding her name, even from herself. Will naming her make her powerless or powerful?
This is very sweet, but also very sudden.
I go weak for long descriptions of nature, interiors! Yes! Let me feel the dimensions of the space!
I love Max’s love of nature, how he thrills at the mere thought of his land awash with flowers.
As I read this, I wonder if Phantom Thread is an adaptation of Rebecca>
Jan.11, stopping on pg. 36—I need rest, and a break from such intrigue
Oh. Now we know our heroine is 21—infinitely baby.
It’s astonishing—Mrs. Van Hopper genuinely cannot imagine the heroine not needing her, having interests of her own, so she needles.
I do wonder why he doesn’t play with women his own age. Backbones too strong? Wise enough not to toy with him?
I think the heroine would be an unironic coquette-poster, chronic Lolita mis-reader in the worst of ways
So ridiculous—patronizing her and talking to her crazy, and for what? Very annoyed at him for making her cry!
`Young enough to be his daughter—LEAVE HER ALONE! GET A JOB!
Maxim de Winter, what a pretentious name
Now why would he ask a perfect stranger to his estate? Especially one so damned grabby?
Being a companion for Mrs. Van Hopper sounds like being TiTi’s (my grandaunt) companion, but forever and you can’t go home
UKW, I’d marry the first dude who said ‘hello’ to get away from Van Hopper too—go ahead, girlie. New York with a narcissist! -_- As if!
As unsettling as this old man + 21 yr old woman pair is to me—this moment of her running to him is kinda cute. In a “Girl, Stand Up” sort of way.
What a shitty proposal! I’d not!
God, he is calling you stupid to your face. Be so fucking for real!
This poor girl—this miserable, manipulative man
So he knows he’s behaving badly but what? Is the behavior not worth changing?
I do feel so sorry that marriage is the very height of her ambitions, and that she chose marriage over even some small semblance of freedom.
She can’t even have a dreamy wedding because HE’S done it before >:(
42?? Somebody call CPS?
Me to the heroine: So weak in the knees! Stand up!
Though idk how, when she admits to being an unconfident and shy shrinking violet. She was never given even the slimmest opportunity to develop a personality, poor thing.
It sounds, almost, that she’s trying to convince herself that her words are true—justify it in her own mind. Sad.
Asking if she banged him, but honestly, no, she didn’t
Van Hopper really didn’t know her
I mean, Van Hopper’s not wrong but this is still brutal. Mayhaps, this “truth-telling” led our heroine into arms more yielding?
Again, the old woman isn’t wrong—the heroine simply is not in a place to receive it
Very sweet—her envisioning of the future. Unlikely for a gothic romance, but sweet nevertheless.
Ah, yes—Downton Abbey taught us about grand old houses opening up to produce a little money—the unrepentant commie in me thinks such houses should be made public housing, b/c who needs hundreds of rooms?
*Disco Elysium Voice* Thought Acquired—What’s Up with Danvers?
Oh, she did come into this marriage rather poor and unprepared, didn’t she? Danvers must feel as the hotel employees did—that the heroine was too unclassed to be treated with much civility
Ah, she was Rebecca’s personal maid. Yeah, you can’t expect shit from her, homey.
Snobbish servants really do confuse me. How you dick-riding for your masters?
I think Heroine’s desperation to please is what’s annoying Danvers.
Isn’t that other room Rebecca’s? He simply doesn’t want his new wife in his old wife’s bed?
Danvers’ stirring the pot though. Brewing up trouble.
Danvers does NOT like Mr. de Winter, that much is obvious from the way she addresses him so coldly
Surely, he can’t be so oblivious?
Oh, he really is, lmfao
Should I start a gaslighting/” treating Mrs. de Winter like she’s crazy” tab?
I forgot about the tab about half of the way through, on page 9, but I got up to 11 tally marks. Trust me, there were way, way more.
Where does all that food go? Random aside, surely never to be answered by this novel.
Beatrice Lacy (nee de Winter), Maxim’s sister, married to Giles
The heroine doesn’t fit in this world because she worries that inconveniencing others.
But rlly, what do you do in one of those big houses all day? Host lunches? Walk? What do you do with all that empty time?
She won’t last if she’s too nervous to boss around the help. Too conscious of being kind, a very un-upper class trait
Not being able to live in comfort b/c everyone is beholden to the habits of a ghost—um.
So, you just spend your days writing letters? How cruelly boring!
So—Rebecca was very fond of her rhododendrons!
Rebecca de Winter would’ve LOVED a bullet journal
Rebecca de Winter with an iPad? Be so serious; she’d eat!
God, the heroine is so awkward—and there’s something so modern about her awkwardness.
I think what I meant is that her neuroses felt so 21st century. This desperation to please, this personality-less neediness of hers—if the heroine had access to Spotify, she’d be listening too to much Phoebe Bridgers and crying inconsolably to lame Taylor Swift lyrics. I suppose it speaks to the immutability of certain emotions and sensations; how timeless everything is. We relate to the heroine’s debilitating anxiety and neurotic nature, and in the future, someone will look back on our own art, and feel connected to our anxieties.
Mama, not you running away in your own house. Please, stand up, mi amor.
I’m not feeling dread so much as embarrassment and shame. Fear would be preferrable.
You know what? I dig Beatrice. A straight shooter.
Just how bad is his temper? We saw Max could make the protagonist cry, but what else is he capable of?
Very kind of Mr. Crawley—a life jacket in these choppy waters.
Also, this is such sibling patter. Well done, gold stars and all.
Beatrice’s sportiness reminds me a lot of Jordan’s (from The Great Gatsby)
I just feel so pitifully for the heroine. She’s air and little more. No flesh is she :(
Bless Beatrice for trying to draw the clam from its shell
Placid? Homegirl is pissing her pants! She was hiding in the servants’ hallway, please!
He’s not particular to you because he don’t love you, babes. You’re a Band-Aid, a rebound from his dead wife.
This is a very depressing marriage so far.
The heroine desperately needs some hobbies and friends her own age.
Calling animals “ma’am” and “old man”>>>
*Disco Elysium voice* Thought Acquired: What’s Up with Beatrice?
Uhh…what’s up with this fully furnished shack?
Not your affair? It’s your house…your land…babes.
Heroine: Naw, he’s never angry and mean
Max, not even a full chapter later: treating her like she’s less than a childWhy must she apologize for his nasty moods? The hell?
Around this point (and way before, tbh), I realized this was a book about misogyny and domestic abuse.
This feels like an emotional abuse handbook, my God—
She doesn’t have an sort of personality, I fear—the bishop’s wife is grasping at straws, trying to relate to her.
Did Frank fuck Rebecca? DID FRANK FUCK REBECCA?
Spoiler: Frank did not fuck Rebecca.
I think because her [Heroine’s] flavor of self-conscious anxiety is so familiar to me, it makes it weirdly repulsive. What is it about seeing facets of your personality in others that makes it so vile?
Frank Crawley, land agent; very nice to the heroine
Now just what did Frank mean by that?
In relation to him saying that the heroine is nothing at all like Rebecca.
The heroine is just so…so needy. I feel miserable for her simply b/c of her total lack of spine. She’s pitiful; I pity her.
It is deeply annoying that the staff won’t allow her to be her own person. I’m sure the heroine would find it easier to adjust if she were granted, like, individuality.
I do wish she’d fight harder for herself.
The heroine is a child—an unprepared child in this world of adults, and I really can’t help pitying her
Doesn’t help that Max is a dick and Mrs. Danvers is devoted to torturing her out of her allegiance to Rebecca
Fuck the aristocracy, but damn, Heroine! Act with SOME pride! You are the lady of the house!
Maybe she’s too self-deprecating? This is beyond piteous; it’s pathetic.
He [Max] has two seconds of self-awareness, and then is back to being an emotionally stunted twit.
Something about this 21yr old woman saying this older man is her father, brother and son is—it don’t sit nice with me.
She’s walking back all of her statements—girl. Stand up.
Um, babygirl, if your husband cannot say that he’s happy with you, y’all probably shouldn’t be together.
Homegirl is nervous to eat in her own damn house. Damn.
She’s dropped from pathetic to just plain stupid. I know characters in novels don’t know they’re in novels, or even in stories, but please—BFFR. Act with some measure of authority!
I’mma stop harping on her being laughably pathetic, though she really, really is.
It’s far too late to start a “Mrs. de Winter is Almost Comically Inept” tally, isn’t it?
“Suddenly”, the thought came to you? Oh, no, babes. You’re not very smart at all.
Oof—Danvers gives me the damn creeps.
Her devotion to Rebecca, though. There’s something very LGBT to it.
THOUGHT FINISHED: What’s Up with Mrs. Danvers?
Mrs. Danvers was quite devoted to the late Rebecca de Winter, so it’s quite obvious that to why she’s so single-mindedly against the new Mrs. de Winter. She also harbors uncharitable thoughts towards Maxim de Winter, suspicious of her darling Rebecca’s death
Also, I have no doubt that Mrs. Danvers was at least a little bit in love with Rebecca, in a very lesbian sort of way.
I wonder if Danny would like to be close to the heroine—have another young, shiny thing to adore
Weird to think how long certain games have been around. Games like “Mother May I?”, “Hide and Seek”, every clapping game.
I’ve decided I’m totally in love with Beatrice
Ah, jeez, Mrs. Danvers is going to think the heroine ratted her out
Hate that he treats her like a toddler—it’s so gross, the father-husband nonsense
I think she’s dressed like Rebecca on her wedding day (that’s what I remember?) and I’m so anxious waiting for disaster
She was actually dressed as Caroline de Winter, but the year previous, Rebecca was dressed as Caroline, making for a very ugly shock for Maxim.
How come everyone BUT her husband is concerned about her?
In sort of breathless shock over the entire masquerade scene! Such well-done tension!
Shit—only ten months? Now, Max de Winter must die.
Rebecca DOES sound sort of unhinged though. A VERY…colorful sort of woman.
Not Mrs. Danvers suicide baiting?!?
Mrs. Danvers, you crazy mfer
Body found in the locked cabin of Rebecca’s sailing boat?? (loud gasping)
Max confesses to having killed Rebecca on page 296…and with that, I say good night!
They both have abysmal communication skills. Also if a man confessed to killing his wife, I wouldn’t want to stay married.
Literally, because who’s to say you won’t be next? What’s the threshold? What must you do to displease him? Be too sexual? Be too charming? Go off to London and spend time with your friends? What does it take for a murderous man to murder you next, dear Bluebeard’s wife?
Was divorce common in this time? I know this is silly to wonder if it might have been better if he left, but…it might have been better?
Honestly, what I’ve heard of Rebecca so far sounds rough, but not like, murderously so? Animal cruelty, infidelity? Nasty traits, but not “kill her” worthy.
And who’s to say how much of that infidelity is true?
The heroine harping on him never loving Rebecca (a personal triumph) and Max lashing himself for choosing pride and familial duty to his Land™️—very interesting.
Favell? She’s banging her cousin? White people are so infinitesimally weird.
I think the word I was looking for was extremely…
And Giles??? Oh, that’s grimy
Pulling back from the narrative, I wonder why it was (and is) so amusing to create this comically, almost cartoonishly lascivious woman only to have her killed. Especially when pitting her against the blond, “pure” bride—it’s the Madonna x Whore complex, this belief that if a woman isn’t chaste, she must be put to death. Shame.
Oh, shit—Rebecca was pregnant?
Spoiler: she wasn’t.
Ukw, I’m calling misogyny—while it makes perfect narrative sense, I’m still annoyed that “she was unfaithful, she deserves death” was the reason, especially considering how many abusers (Max, now, included) use infidelity (or even suspicions of infidelity) as an excuse to kill
Maybe I’m overthinking this. Um.
You’re not.
Yeah, the heroine would love Lana Del Rey. Really on her ride or die shit.
Yeah, angering the newspapers isn’t at all the way to go, Mr. de Winter
Seems like knowing Maxim never loved Rebecca has imbued our heroine with a vigor for housekeeping—or, idk, house command? Whichever is more suited to the lady of the house.
Okay, bitch! Come into your own on page 325!
Period! You run this house, Miss Mamas! Not Dann! PERIODT!
This is some hellish small talk.
Re, them going on about the weather for a page and a half
Oh, shit! Frank knows! How does Frank know?
Yes, it’s all very shocking, but if you don’t want to be framed, stay out of the picture! If you don’t want people to suspect you of killing your wife…don’t kill your wife.
Frank, you sensible icon.
He really deserves a raise.
Makes good sense that was originally very formal with the new Mrs. de Winter—didn’t want to be caught out again
Oh! I almost forgot! THOUGHT FINISHED: What’s Up with Beatrice?
Anyone would be a little nervy and brusque after having their husband cheat on them with their sister in law, wouldn’t they? When Beatrice says that the heroine is so unlike Rebecca, it’s the highest compliment she can pay.
Suicide—that’s a little silly, even considering, but you know what, if that’s what the story the jury wanted!
Everything Favell is saying about [de Winter] playing Othello would make more sense if Favell WASN’T BANGING HIS WIFE
Also, this note. What was he thinking with this pitiful note?
Oh shit, I was being a li’l facetious earlier, but is Danvers actually giving lesbianism?
BUM-BUM-BUM~
“Just the sort of thing a communist would do.”
Girl, what does that have to do with anything?
I mean, Favell isn’t wrong. Max DID kill Rebecca but Favell is so grabby anhd underhanded, it’s hard to want anything positive for him.
Rebecca had cancer? Maybe even cervical cancer?
Okay, she lied about being pregnant, we know, because there was a malformation/tumor in her uterus. Poor lady :(, simply b/c she wouldn’t been in so much pain, had Max spared her
Not that Max was right to kill her—simply wish she got to make choices of her own
Ah, it was cancer. And no, Favell, it’s not an STD—you can’t CATCH cancer
I do feel weirdly sorry for Favell—to have loved someone so tirelessly and have learned post-mortem of an illness AND that they might’ve been playing you must be crushing.
Interesting theory, that Rebecca WANTED Max to kill her. Easier to stomach a bullet than cancer. And I do think Rebecca won—she got her mostly painless death, her widower’s guilt and misery, and everyone undying affection, postmortem. Slay, queen.
Danvers cleaning out pre-fire. Call was from Favell no doubt.
To end the book on them coming home to the fire—oh, baby! Oh, mama!
I just finish reading this at Christmas! It’s really nice to read your opinions especially because some are similar to mine, but also things I’d never thought of
Love your thoughts on this book! I’ve never read it but now I kinda want to