Rebecca

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Summary: a story about love, murder and intrigues
Review: The book Febecca is the story about a young woman that falls in love with a rich man called Maxim de Winter, who owns Manderley, a great, luxurious house in Cornwall. They live together in Manderley, but Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, cast her shadow on that house. Rebecca died some time ago, and nobody knows exactly why. The drama increases with a lot of problematic monents and talks until the moment when Maxim tells his wife his horrible secret. The book is worth reading but I think there are better books and stories, and anyway it isn't the kind of book I like reading.

Rating:
Summary: A lot to think about
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. There are a lot of emotions in it.
Daphne du Maurier has written a good novel! Especially the relation between Maxim and his wife is psychologically very interesting.
However I gave only three stars, because although the story is interesting and as I wrote already filled with emotions the end didn't satisfy me totally! Manderley burns down - very suddenly and quickly and then everything is over. That was definitely a fast ending. Too fast for me. There I expected more.

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Summary: A dissenting opinion
Review: I'm afraid I simply can't quite understand why this book has the reputation it does; it struck me as being little more than a pale imitation of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." Both have oppressed, rather nervous women as their main characters; in both novels this woman meets an older, wealthy man who owns a mansion, and has a dangerous former wife lurking in the shadows; in both novels the mansion is burnt down . . . But whereas Jane Eyre is a true heroine, a woman of moral courage and conviction, the protagonist of Rebecca is spineless and frightened from beginning to end. Both she and her husband are defined repeatedly throughout the book as being deeply conventional, and horrified at anything that would appear to make them otherwise. Seen in this light, it is Rebecca who has the strongest claim as being the heroine of the story: Rebecca has spirit; Rebecca is deeply, profoundly rebellious against all conventionality and, in her disdain of men and their love, against the patriarchal standards of her time as well. She emerges, to my mind at least, as a tragic character, in the classic sense: one who rebels against her human station, and pays the price. I'm not saying that I don't understand the appeal of "Rebecca"; most of us have a certain love of conventionality and find comfort in it; it can even be argued that conventionality is necessary to some degree to create a stable society. It's an interesting enough theme--just not, to my mind, well handled in this particular novel. My only satisfaction is in the knowledge that Mr and Mrs de Winter are left at the story's end (as described early on in the novel) as leading such extremely dull and frightened lives that reading the sport's column of the newspaper constitutes the highlight of their days. Bear this in mind when you consider du Maurier's novel: is this really what you would call a happy ending? Rebecca does indeed exact payment of her own. If you want to read a truly first-rate accounting of these characters, why not turn to the masterful and far more thought-provoking original model, "Jane Eyre"? And then, for good measure, give Jean Rhys "Wide Sargasso Sea" a try. These two books both deal with similar themes as "Rebecca," are quite as entertaining, and much more challenging to the discerning reader.

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Summary: The Greatest Book EVER
Review: Rebecca is one of the BEST books I have ever read. When I read this book I got SO involved, it was like I was apart of the book in a way. Once you start reading it you can never put the book down. There is not one boring part in the book, it just keeps getting better and better. After reading Rebecca I highly reccomend reading the sequal from Susan Hill "Mrs. De Winter", that book was great also, it tells you how the late Mrs. De Winter and Mr. De Winter end up and what happens and also a chilling ending just like "Rebecca". I guarentee you will enjoy these two books.

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Summary: This Book Restored My Faith in Reading
Review: This book was great. I have read so many mediocre books lately that I was beginning to think about giving up reading and doing something else with my time. This book, however, helped me remember why I like to read.

The book "Rebecca" not only has a riveting story that keeps you wondering and thinking between each reading, but it is also written perfectly, in my opinion. Daphne Du Maurier definitely knows the English language and how to put sentences and paragraphs together that flow and develop the story and characters. She seems to choose the perfect words and best writing style to build to the right atmosphere for every situation in the book. There were times when I was reading that I forgot I was reading and felt as if I was actually in the story observing what was going on.

This book is going on my "best books I have ever read" list.

Rating:
Summary: Rebecca
Review: The fact that we never find out (or I never noticed) the protagonist's first name bothered me slightly, but the book is so good that I was able to get over that. This book is wonderful . . . if you're going to read something labeled a classic, pick up Rebecca.

Rating:
Summary: ok
Review: it was an interesting book. not the best i've read

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I found it a little hard to get into, but once I did, I loved it. It's full of mystery and romance. I couldn't put it down!

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Summary: There is a reason this is a modern classic.
Review: While I am not typically a fan of the "gothic" novel, I have wanted to read this modern classic for years to see if it would live up to the hype. I was pleasantly surprized to find that "Rebecca" is indeed worthy of the praise it has received over the years. I won't re-hash the plot, (naive young woman marries widower, goes to live at his creepy estate where the memory of his former wife Rebecca is everywhere). Suffice to say this novel has great suspense, a superb sense of foreboding, and enough plot twists to keep you hooked. As other reviewers have stated, it was a particularly brilliant detail to keep our heroine unnamed, it allowed the lingering memory of Rebecca to pervade this novel just as she infiltrated each of it's characters. Rebecca does not disappoint, highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Very emotiomal
Review: This is a great emotional and mysterious story. I wouldn't so much call it romantic as what romance there was seemed very one sided most of the time. The story is told by the a nameless woman who we get to know and understand very well. She is young and marries a much older man, Max DeWinter, who has a dark secret past. His late wife is Rebecca and seemed perfect and the new Mrs DeWinter finds it hard to live up to her...and the story unfolds with a twist. Very good reading!