Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” - Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a classic gothic novel. It follows a young woman (not named) who marries a wealthy man widow, Maxim de Winter. She moves to his house in Manderley and finds it very hard to fit in. She thinks everyone is judging and comparing her to Rebecca. All the things in the house are Rebecca's and everywhere she goes she knows Rebecca would have done it. Worst of all Maxim is getting more and more distant and she believes that he was never really in love with her but he still loves Rebecca. It seems that even the dead can win.

I will go straight to the point; I didn't like this book. I really don't get why this has become such a famous literature. It may be that I am still too young to fully comprehend the whole story of Rebecca, but I just found it wasn't as mysterious or as captivating as a gothic book should be. 

This novel is way too descriptive and I just wanted the book to go on. Right at the beginning Daphne du Maurier creates the setting where the rest of the book will take place, Manderley. However to me all I remember reading was two or three pages on flowers - the types, the places, the colours, the smells... It took me very, very long to even pass the first two chapters because I found it so boring. 

Going on wasn't that much better. I did find that I read with ease after the rut at the beginning but the book didn't seem to be suspenseful at all. Although there was a secret that Maxim has kept, it was only one and there didn't seem to have many layers of surprises. I felt that the book was more about the young woman walking around, leading a boring life than the events and mysteries surrounding the death of Rebecca. 

Last but not least I didn't like that the main female character didn't have a name. I understand the intentions. The author didn't want to give the name like other authors don't want to give pictures because it allows the reader to create their own main character and imagine them to their life experiences. It is like thinking of a character in your head as you read and then watching the movie which has a completely different type of person, it spoils the story a bit. However, I wanted to know her name, it was kind of the mystery that I thought I would find out later, I thought it was a little addition to the surprise-less book. The name was suppose to be a different name but one that 'suited' and 'matched' the character and since I couldn't come up with one that would go with her she was left nameless and I couldn't empathise as much. I had never until then realised the full impact of a name and how authors have to think really carefully about names. 

This whole book review seems to be just me complaining about this book and it wasn't because it was the worst book I've read but more because I had higher expectations. It is such a classic novel and yet to me there didn't seem to be anything special. When I was reading I didn't feel the emotions of the characters, I didn't feel for the young woman nor for Maxim and I really didn't care about Rebecca's death/murder and that really spoiled the book for me because I find that the books that I enjoy and that I find are written well are those that the story takes me in and I feel as if I were the characters.