This is a book which I have wanted to read for a while, and I’m glad to have finally done so. The unnamed narrator marries Maxim de Winter after a short acquaintanceship with him, in order to escape her life as a paid companion.
In reality she is only swapping her situation for another similar one, destined as she is to be the wife of a man tormented by his former wife’s death, who does not declare his love for months, and is much older than her.
I found it difficult to like this tiresome, insecure girl, but as she settles into life at Manderley and becomes obsessed with Rebecca (the former wife) and the victim of the housekeeper, Mrs Danvers’, manipulations, I found myself on her side.
The book moves quite slowly until the final quarter, when I simply could not put it down. I am unsure about a few things that happened, but I know this book is going to haunt me, like Rebecca did her successor.
