We had a lot of fun with our January meeting! We read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and had a dinner theater, watching the 1940 Hitchcock film of Rebecca, staring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, while we enjoyed a wonderful meal. The only down side was that we didn't have much time to discuss the novel and the movie adaptation, but we've continued the discussion some by e-mail and can add more comments here.
This gothic romance evokes a period when the roles of men and women were so different. The movie reinforces and even accentuates those roles: the strong, handsome, yet distant male, the timid, fawning wife. We discussed whether the character of the second Mrs. de Winter was really believable. Would someone have really been that smitten and naive to be so blind to the underlying issues troubling Maxim? Was she so eager to please that she couldn't see through Mrs. Danver's duplicity? Given her options of staying with Mrs. Van Hopper or marrying Mr. de Winter, the latter must have seemed to offer a brighter future, but we really thought she should have been more cautious with Mrs. Danver's suggestions for the costume ball. That woman obviously had no good intentions toward the second Mrs. de Winter. (Many of us were frustrated that she was never named in the book or movie, though we understood how it made her even more a shadow of the first Mrs. de Winter!)
We agreed that Mrs. Danvers was portrayed in all her grim and sinister glory by Judith Anderson in the film. Apparently the Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Rebecca seems to indicate that there was something of an unnatural affection between Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers, which further intensified her grief and jealousy over Rebecca's death and the second Mrs. de Winter's presence at Manderley. You could find hints of that in the Hitchcock film if you were looking for it, but it wasn't necessarily obvious.
Our follow-up discussion by e-mail covered the idea of whether Rebecca's murder was justified and the idea of truth in this and other gothic novels like The Thirteenth Tale that we read last year. Please feel free to cut and paste those e-mails in the comments and continue the discussion here.
5 comments:
I love this book and Du Maurier in general. This book is perfect for a book group or book club.
Enjoyed your review!
Thanks for the review. I have to admit that I always liked the fact that du Maurier chose not to name the second Mrs de Winter -- like you said, it just added to the way that she stood in Rebecca's shadows.
If you enjoyed Rebecca you may also enjoy My Cousin Rachel.
Also, you might enjoy the BBC adaptation of the book that came out in 1997 with Diana Rigg as Mrs. Danvers. Although, the 1940s adaptation will always hold a special place in my heart.
Great review! I should suggest DuMaurier to my book club, never thought to before.
I've only read one du Maurier book which I didn't like much. But I'm convinced that I need to read Rebecca. It's sitting on the shelf waiting. I probably need to join a Classics challenge to get me going.
Good review. I was in a book club that read Rebecca years ago. I remember really liking it. I'll have to pull it out and maybe read it again....OR watch the movie. Sounds like a great book club. B.
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