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by Daphne du Maurier
The multi‑million‑copy bestseller that has enthralled generations of readers. A haunting tale of obsessive love. A mesmerizing psychological thriller.
In Monte Carlo, our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at Manderley, her husband's cavernous estate on the Cornish coast, that she realizes how vast a shadow his late wife, Rebecca, will cast over their lives—introducing a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their love from beyond the grave.
This universally acclaimed novel has remained consistently in print since its original publication in 1938 and has frequently been adapted—for television, radio, the theater, and film—most notably in 1940 by Alfred Hitchcock, whose Rebecca received the Academy Award for Best Picture, and in the 2020 Netflix film starring Lily James and Armie Hammer.
Thrillers are very popular, but there are many types of thrillers - legal thrillers, spy thrillers, detective thrillers, etc. If you read thrillers, what's your favorite sub-genre, and who is the best author of that sub-genre, in your opinion?
...ut the characters and the plot. A variety of my favorites: Culpability by Bruce Holsinger Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Mystic River by Dennis Lehane Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz The Stand by Stephen King
-BlueRidgeJeanne
Have you read many of the books mentioned in the novel? Did you find titles you added to your “to be read” list?
...tioned. I have read several. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Lord of the Flies by Williams Golding Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Charlotte's Web by E B White Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie Anxious...
-Laura_S
The Forgotten Book Club Reading list
...by Joan Didion The Tempest by William Shakespeare The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes Lord of the Flies by Williams Golding Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Charlotte's Web by E B White The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan...
-kim.kovacs
"Excellent entertainment...Du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings." —Stephen King
"One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century, Rebecca has woven its way into the fabric of our culture with all the troubling power of myth or dream." —Sarah Waters
This information about Rebecca was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) was born in London. Her first novel appeared in 1931, but it would be her fifth novel, Rebecca, that established her as one of the most popular writers of her day. She spent most of her life in Cornwall, the setting for many of her books, and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1969.
If you liked Rebecca, try these:
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