Monday, September 20, 2010

Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

Here's a fun fact: Rebecca was used by German soldiers as a code source during the second World War. Presumeably they didn't include the first chapter as a source though, as I can't imagine German high command had the need to send passionate descriptions of trees to each other.

Rebecca was one book that I'd been meaning to read for a long time, and it didn't disappoint me - but the first chapter just seemed like a gratuitous attempt to beef up the word count (and trust me, I know all about that). It just stood out - it had no real bearing on anything that came after and really irritated me!

Despite that, I did enjoy the book. I can see parallels with Jane Eyre, although I think I prefer Jane to the unnamed narrator here. I absolutely identified with the insecurity and unease of the narrator, and the story sucked me in completely, even if at times it felt a bit melodramatic. But I still prefer Jane Eyre. She has more substance to her.

2 comments:

moonrat said...

hahahaha. i totally agree with your review (REBECCA was my first Gaps book, and our opinions seem identical) but this was definitely a value-added review, as i learned something and i laughed.

who knows, though? perhaps the third reich was passionate about trees, too.

Anonymous said...

It's funny because the first line of Rebecca is so iconic, like Pride and Prejudice or Neuromancer, but it's so irrelevant to the story!

I have to admit, that snippet about the third reich was from Wikipedia, but I hope it is true. It certainly piqued my already demented imagination!