I can’t believe I’ve never read this novel before. I’m sure I’m about to offend someone but I’ll just say it: Rebecca is such a Jane Eyre knock-off. And I’m such an old Jane Eyre fan; someone should have recommended this to me sooner. I ended up live-tweeting my reading experience, which may possibly be correctly linked here. The long and short of it is that du Maurier’s style is brilliant. I could read her landscape descriptions all day long (and compel students to close read them all class long, too). I learned what a “nightdress case” is, I questioned whether the evil Mrs. Danvers might actually be the real victim in the novel, and I attempted to re-create Colonel Julyan’s police report in my toddler’s bathtub. Fun summer read! I’ll be adding the novel to my ENG 327 Gothic and Sensation Fiction course for fall 2019.
