Rebecca's Tale

Rating:
Summary: Left Feeling Cheated
Review: The story itself was very captivating but the ending was horrible. It seems as though the author either couldn't find a satisfactory ending or became tired of the whole thing! This book left us with too many new questions and even fewer answers. I sincerely wish that I had stopped at "Rebecca" for my own piece of mind.

Rating:
Summary: RETURN TO MANDERLEY
Review: This is "REBECCA" told as a 21st century story. Ms Beauman finally gives Rebecca her voice.In Ms DU MAURIER book she is only seen as evil in the eyes of her husband and as the rival through the eyes of his second wife.Finally we here from the Goddess herself as a human woman with many problems.This is an excellent haunting book causing me to read the first Rebeeca again.It is not to be missed.It is for everyone who wants to make one more trip to Manderley.

Rating:
Summary: a disappointing read
Review: Unfortunately, I was unable to really enjoy "Rebecca's Tale" by Sally Beauman. Partly because I was expecting something along the lines of Jean Rhys's excellent novel, "The Wide Sargasso Sea," where we got a retelling of Bronte's "Jane Eyre," except from the 'mad' wife's point to view -- what I got instead was an almost complete rehashing of du Maurier's novel, with the same questions posed: who was Rebecca? Was she an immoral, manipulative and heartless femme fatale? Or was she a beautiful and tragic heroine, much misunderstood and misinterpreted? Was her death a crime of passion? Or cold blooded murder? And after ploughing through 400 odd pages, these questions were still not answered completely.

The only new bits, discounting the new characters that were introduced to facilitate this investigation into Rebecca's life, was that we learned a little about Rebecca's past, before she met and married Max -- about her childhood and her mother's purported affair with Max's philandering father. A rather over the top plot line I thought. But even here, doubt was constantly being poured onto these new bits of information, so that you really feel as of you're taking part in some kind of futile exercise! I couldn't help but wonder what the point of "Rebecca's Tale" was, since it raised questions, but resolved very little, except to make one of the investigators, Ellie, realise that there were worse fates than ending up a spinster.

Briefly the plot of "Rebecca's Tale is as follows: twenty years after inquest into Rebecca de Winter's death was held, Colonel Julyan, the justice of the peace who had been in charge of the case, receives a mysterious package in which he finds a black notebook and two photographs, one of Rebecca, and another of Manderly, the de Winter estate. The arrival of this package coincides with the arrival of a mysterious young man, Terence Gray, who for reasons of his own, is digging into Rebecca's past. At the Colonel's behest, Gray teams up with the Colonel's daughter, Ellie; and soon, the two are busy interviewing the local people who knew Rebecca, and reading her diaries. The picture that emerges is a slightly confusing one, and more questions are raised than answered. For example: why did Max de Winter marry again so soon after Rebecca's death? (We know why of course, but for Gray & Ellie, this question is most perplexing.) Also, the portrait of Rebecca that emerges after reading her diary for the year of her death is not a very flattering one: the Rebecca of those diary entries appears to be obsessive, manipulative, paranoid, and slightly deranged. But is this the real Rebecca? That is the question that both Gray and Ellie must decide. And this of course leads to the big question of how she died. Did she plan the course of her death, using Max as an instrument of her death? Or did Max finally snap and decide to be rid of a wife he no longer wanted?

The problem, for me, is that "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, is one of my all time favourite gothic novels. I remember reading this novel for the first time with great fondness. I also remember taking to the nameless heroine, the second Mrs. de Winter, and disliking Rebecca very, very much. Nothing about this novel made me change my mind about these feelings or notions. The thing is that for me anyway, Sally Beauman's "Rebecca's Tale" did not enhance du Maurier's in the same manner that Jean Rhy's "The Wide Sargasso Sea" enhanced Bronte's "Jane Eyre." Nothing was really resolved. There was no new dimension or facet to the mystery that was Rebecca and everything remained ambiguously the same. Rebecca remains the enigma that she was in du Maurier's novel, and I just felt as if I had wasted an entire afternoon on nothing.

Rating:
Summary: a disappointing read
Review: Unfortunately, I was unable to really enjoy "Rebecca's Tale" by Sally Beauman. Partly because I was expecting something along the lines of Jean Rhys's excellent novel, "The Wide Sargasso Sea," where we got a retelling of Bronte's "Jane Eyre," except from the 'mad' wife's point to view -- what I got instead was an almost complete rehashing of du Maurier's novel, with the same questions posed: who was Rebecca? Was she an immoral, manipulative and heartless femme fatale? Or was she a beautiful and tragic heroine, much misunderstood and misinterpreted? Was her death a crime of passion? Or cold blooded murder? And after ploughing through 400 odd pages, these questions were still not answered completely.

The only new bits, discounting the new characters that were introduced to facilitate this investigation into Rebecca's life, was that we learned a little about Rebecca's past, before she met and married Max -- about her childhood and her mother's purported affair with Max's philandering father. A rather over the top plot line I thought. But even here, doubt was constantly being poured onto these new bits of information, so that you really feel as of you're taking part in some kind of futile exercise! I couldn't help but wonder what the point of "Rebecca's Tale" was, since it raised questions, but resolved very little, except to make one of the investigators, Ellie, realise that there were worse fates than ending up a spinster.

Briefly the plot of "Rebecca's Tale is as follows: twenty years after inquest into Rebecca de Winter's death was held, Colonel Julyan, the justice of the peace who had been in charge of the case, receives a mysterious package in which he finds a black notebook and two photographs, one of Rebecca, and another of Manderly, the de Winter estate. The arrival of this package coincides with the arrival of a mysterious young man, Terence Gray, who for reasons of his own, is digging into Rebecca's past. At the Colonel's behest, Gray teams up with the Colonel's daughter, Ellie; and soon, the two are busy interviewing the local people who knew Rebecca, and reading her diaries. The picture that emerges is a slightly confusing one, and more questions are raised than answered. For example: why did Max de Winter marry again so soon after Rebecca's death? (We know why of course, but for Gray & Ellie, this question is most perplexing.) Also, the portrait of Rebecca that emerges after reading her diary for the year of her death is not a very flattering one: the Rebecca of those diary entries appears to be obsessive, manipulative, paranoid, and slightly deranged. But is this the real Rebecca? That is the question that both Gray and Ellie must decide. And this of course leads to the big question of how she died. Did she plan the course of her death, using Max as an instrument of her death? Or did Max finally snap and decide to be rid of a wife he no longer wanted?

The problem, for me, is that "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, is one of my all time favourite gothic novels. I remember reading this novel for the first time with great fondness. I also remember taking to the nameless heroine, the second Mrs. de Winter, and disliking Rebecca very, very much. Nothing about this novel made me change my mind about these feelings or notions. The thing is that for me anyway, Sally Beauman's "Rebecca's Tale" did not enhance du Maurier's in the same manner that Jean Rhy's "The Wide Sargasso Sea" enhanced Bronte's "Jane Eyre." Nothing was really resolved. There was no new dimension or facet to the mystery that was Rebecca and everything remained ambiguously the same. Rebecca remains the enigma that she was in du Maurier's novel, and I just felt as if I had wasted an entire afternoon on nothing.

Rating:
Summary: I wasted an entire Saturday for this??!
Review: What a disappointing read! Since I first read Rebecca, I've been fascinated by Manderley and the de Winters. I was even somewhat satisfied when I read Mrs. de Winter by Susan Hill. When I discovered this book, I was thrilled to read about what happened next. From the beginning, though, I had trouble getting into Rebecca's Tale.

One of the biggest problems for me throughout the book was trudging through the pages and pages of family history. I found myself skimming through long, drawn-out histories that failed to add anything to the story of Rebecca. Finding out about her lineage did not help me to see her as a real person. Besides that, there were too many dead-ends in this story; we are led to believe one thing, but then it all changes. While I enjoy reading novels that keep me guessing, this one just seemed to change course for the sake of changing course.

In addition, the unbelievable depiction of Mrs. Danvers (that reminded me of the witches in Macbeth), the superficial tossing aside of the second Mrs. de Winter as a frumpy, delusional ..., and the sympathetic portrayal of Rebecca all added to my distaste. The only likeable characters in the book were Ellie and Tom, but even that changed as I came to the end of the novel.

The biggest disappointment of all came at the end; in fact, I was so disgusted that I threw the book across the room. Sally Beauman did nothing to maintain the romantic element in the ending of her novel that I loved in du Maurier's book.

Had the ending of the book been more satisfying, I would have been able to overlook the other problems with it. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book to fans of Rebecca. I think the story of Manderely and Rebecca that I have conjured up in my mind is far superior to the story that Sally Beauman developed.

Rating:
Summary: When you have a masterpiece...
Review: Why mess with it? Sally Beauman forces us to view Rebecca in a different, admirable light, certainly a far cry from the way Rebecca is portrayed in the original novel. I find that a bit daring of Ms. Beauman to assume that she understands a character none of us really do. I think Rebecca must have been a mystery even to Daphne DuMaurier. She also gives an unfair picture of the second Mrs. DeWinter, clearly showing that she found her to be a dull, spiritless character. This is not the same character I read in the original, but we all have our own opinions. However, the biggest problem of the book is that it spends hundreds of pages building up a pathetic romance that takes a surprising, but rather silly and disappointing turn. Finally, she rushes to end the book, lamely trying to convince us all that Rebecca was a woman of strength who manages to inspire women beyond the grave. Somehow, I think I liked Rebecca better when she was just a seductive, domineering presence. Excusing her behavior doesn't seem like the sort of thing Rebecca would ever do. Rebecca does what she wants, and answers to no one; that's why we love to hate her.