Stopping By Rebecca Once Again

One the many covers

My very beloved dog-eared copy of the
simplified Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is one of my evergreen favourite book. First read it when I was in my early teens back in JB. Of course in its simplified version. I was at that time a gawky, shy, rather impressionable teenager, struggling to master the English language. The protagonist of that novel is a shy, naive, self-conscious 21-year-old bride of the wealthy Maxim de Winter who owns one of the stately home in England called Manderley. Her timidity and shyness strike a chord with the awkward introverted teenager in me at that time. Have read the novel for the umpteenth time.

To me, Rebecca is about the coming of age, becoming your own person, strong as well as timid female characters, the psychopath and narcissistic personality traits, unquestioned acceptance of murder, a selfish husband, dishonest love, life of the English upper class and the grandeur of a much-loved stately home.

I bought my own copy of the simplified Rebecca somewhere in mid-1990 in a bookshop in Pasar Seni in KL. The copy is the same with the one I first read when I was 13 or 14. It cost me RM6.90 then.The publisher Heinemann had reproduced the book in its simplified version for the upper level in which the simplification takes about 2200 words in 126 pages.


Plot Summary of Rebecca

Rebecca's narrative takes the form of a flashback. The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband, Maxim de Winter, travelling from hotel to hotel, harbouring memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which, we learn, has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before.and In her flashback, the heroine is working as the young travelling companion to a wealthy American named Mrs. Van Hopper. In her flashback, Maxim is staying at the same hotel as the heroine and her employer, and after knowing the heroine for only a few weeks, he proposes marriage. She accepts, and he marries her and takes her back to his ancestral estate of Manderley. But a dark cloud hangs over their marriage: Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, drowned in a cove near Manderley the previous year, and her ghost haunts the newlyweds' home. Rebecca's devoted housekeeper, the sinister Mrs. Danvers, is still in charge of Manderley, and she frightens and intimidates her new mistress. Despite the encouragement of the house overseer, Frank Crawley, and Maxim's sister, Beatrice, the heroine struggles in her new life at Manderley. She feels that she can never compare favourably to Rebecca, who was beautiful, talented, and brilliant--or so everyone says--and soon she feels that Maxim is still in love with his dead wife.

Manderley traditionally hosts a costume ball each year, and it is soon time for the gala to take place. Swept up in the preparations, the heroine's spirits begin to revive. But the ball ends in disaster: on Mrs. Danvers' suggestion she wears a costume that, it turns out, is the same dress that Rebecca wore at the last ball. Upon seeing the heroine, Maxim is horrified, and the heroine becomes convinced that he will never love her, that he is still devoted to Rebecca. The following day, Mrs. Danvers almost convinces her to kill herself, and she only breaks away from the old woman's spell when rockets go off over the cove, signalling that a ship has run aground. When divers swim near the grounded ship, they find the wreckage of Rebecca's sailboat, with Rebecca's dead body in the hold. This discovery prompts Maxim to tell the heroine the truth: Rebecca was a malevolent, wicked woman, who lived a secret life and carried on multiple affairs, including one with her cousin, Jack Favell. On the night of her death, Maxim had demanded a divorce, and she had refused, and told him that she was pregnant with Favell's child. Furious, he seized a gun and shot her, and then sailed out to the harbour in Rebecca's boat and sank it, with the body stowed safely inside.

This revelation restores the heroine's marriage, and enables her to finally shake off the burden of Rebecca's ghost. Meanwhile, however, the noose of justice tightens around Maxim: first, it is found that holes have been drilled in the bottom of Rebecca's boat; luckily the coroner delivers a report of suicide, rather than murder. But soon Rebecca's cousin Favell, certain that Rebecca did not kill herself, accuses Maxim of the crime. The local magistrate, Colonel Julyan, investigates, and finds that on the day of her death, Rebecca went up to London to see a Doctor Baker. Favell, Maxim, and the heroine accompany Julyan to London; the heroine is certain that Baker will reveal that Rebecca was pregnant, thus revealing Maxim's vengeful motive for murder. But instead, it turns out that Rebecca was dying of cancer, and that furthermore she was infertile; she had lied to Maxim about her pregnancy. Her terminal illness now supplies a motive for Rebecca's supposed suicide, and Maxim is saved. He and the heroine drive all night back to Manderley, stopping only once, when Maxim calls home and learns that Mrs. Danvers has disappeared. As they crest the ridge near the mansion, they look down and find it in flames.