Рецензия на книгу

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  Evelinych

  22 февраля 2016 г.

  Stories need words (“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier)

  Rebecca was my first serious reading in English and I’ve been dreaming about writing a review on this book since I finished it around a year ago. Before that I had read only some adapted texts and I can still recall those feelings when I took Rebecca from the library – I was scared that the reading would be endless. Now, when I know that it took only a month and a half to finish the book, I think of my worries with a smile.

  Surprisingly, the novel turned to be perfectly readable. Of course, while I was reading it, I came across some obsolete expressions (since it was first published in 1938) and unfamiliar words, but in most cases I could easily understand their meaning in well-structured context.

  However, when I had just started reading there was a long descriptive passage of an abandoned road, overgrown with lush green vegetation, which once used to lead to Manderley, de Winter’s estate beside the sea, where the spouses lived after they had got married. And it was very complicated, as elaborate and exquisite as all descriptive passages usually are, like nettles interlacing shrubs in a bizarre and sullen stillness. I didn’t even understand half of the details. It was like I was wading through all those bushes, straggling to reach the sense of it. I don’t think such a metaphorical effect was deliberately created by the author, but any reader who is not an English native speaker while not yet reached C2 level, will inevitably face this extra feature.

  Five years ago I attended a short course on public speaking. The aim you should set when delivering your speech is to create a “vision” of the item you’re speaking about in the listeners’ minds with your words. They should see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, and even feel it. And no doubt, a professional writer pursues the same goal in his or her written speech. In Rebecca the author brilliantly uses this method to immerse a reader into the atmosphere of the story.

  I fell in love with the peaceful passages describing a charming path leading from Manderley to a hidden beach. I could almost hear those birds’ songs, full of clear and liquid notes, and smell the salty sea breeze while the heroine was walking towards the seashore with a loyal friend – a big and lovely dog. I was thrilled with and almost frightened of the huge and sullen mansion with its silent locked rooms. I felt fear throughout my body each time I read about Mrs. Danvers, the maiden of Mr. de Winter’s first wife, Rebecca.

  But the most terrific and breath-taking descriptions were the ones of the sea. Every time the sea was described it seemed to reflect what was going on in the heroes’ minds and souls. Sometimes I even felt like the sea was a hero itself, with its own character and personality. In the climax (no spoilers!) there was a storm, and the sea was so oppressive and overwhelming, with its waves pounding the rocks in a rabid rage and its dark mist which consumed every line and every dot, that it was almost unbearable to continue struggling to keep faith. However, the heroes eventually coped with all the obstacles and hardships.

  Now I’d like to go over to the plot of the story. To begin with, it’s a story about Cinderella, in a backward way. You can say anything about it being childish, but I can’t get rid of this comparison. A regular girl by absolute chance meets a prince-like person – a rich, handsome, and famous noble man Maximilian de Winter, and marries him. But this time it’s not a fairytale and there will be no “and they lived happily ever after” kind of ending. This time the marriage of the heroes is just the beginning of their way towards each other and towards themselves.

  I should confess that I didn’t have a single thought of Jane Eyre while I was reading Rebecca, though the matches are evident. It might be due to the fact that I’ve never read Jane Eyre but only watched screen versions of the novel (the one of 2011 directed by Cary Fukunaga is my absolute favorite). The resemblances are so obvious and have been mentioned by critics so many times, that it became a bit of trivia that “Daphne du Maurier was inspired by Jane Eyre for writing Rebecca”.

  Firstly, the young girl fell in love with a noble man (and marries him in the case of Rebecca). But after a while she faces the obstacle for being close with her beloved man: it turns out that he is bound with his first wife (even though Maximilian de Winter’s wife had been already dead when he met the heroine). And the heroine needs to make choice – whether to put up with it or to reveal her feelings. Secondly, a sullen and mysterious mansion (Manderley in Rebecca) where the story takes place – a common feature of gothic novels – is similar to Tornfield Hall owned by Edward Rochester.

  I’ve read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote and speaking on gothic novels, I can say that Rebecca definitely has all the remarkable features of this genre: a sullen mansion, a sinister character (Mrs. Danvers) and also a specific mysterious atmosphere generating ambivalent feelings of balancing between materialistic reality and fantasies provoked by indefinable and frightening events. It’s sort of “flirtation” with the reader by creating tension and giving no exact explanation. Each person interprets events according to his or her own sensitivity and beliefs. There is a part in the middle of the novel in which the heroine succumbs to an invisible presence of the first Mrs. De Winter in the house. In the heroine’s perception Rebecca is everywhere: in her belongings and clothes in the locked room where she used to live, in the daily routine of the mansion, and in the very style and the atmosphere of the estate. And the most profound is that she is in Max’s thoughts and in his heart. Such a state of the heroine’s mind is strenuously supported by Mrs. Danvers who worshiped her former mistress. In the moment of greatest tension, the second Mrs. de Winter almost commits suicide by jumping out of the window, instigated by the maiden.

  While reading that part you’re unwittingly put yourself in heroine’s shoes and make choice – to follow her feelings and doubts (in a moment I even believed that there was a ghost of Rebecca in the house!) or to stay coolheaded and try to percept the events in a realistic and objective way. A susceptible reader is more inclined to surrender to the mysterious atmosphere and to look for supernatural explanations (women are more likely to do this), while people with more materialistic views persistently interpret any bizarre things as someone’s malicious joke or deliberate course of actions to innervate the heroine and to play on her nerves. It’s just the question of your beliefs and perception of reality.

  On the other hand, there’s no doubt that it’s a detective story. But you only realize it when Rebecca’s boat is accidentally found on the bottom of the sea. After that point all events happen as fast as torrent, devastating all you knew about the heroes on and on, revealing the pieces of puzzle you lacked to get the whole picture. The final scene is just perfect, burning heroes’ past in both literal and metaphorical way.

  Regarding the fate of the novel, I would like to mention that, to the best of my knowledge, during the release of the book when it had been published, the press and general public reacted to the novel without interest and with little to no enthusiasm. Surprisingly, the reality turned to be dramatically different. There’s no need to enumerate editions and translations of the book. Since it was published, the novel has been represented in almost every aspect of modern culture. There are theatre performances (Du Maurier herself adapted Rebecca as a stage play in 1939), musicals, opera and a TV serial based on the novel.

  In 1940 Alfred Hitchcock directed a screen version of Rebecca, which won two Academy Awards out of 11 nominations. It’s noteworthy that the final scene of the movie was altered and the denouement is absolutely different from the one of the book due to The Motion Picture Production Code (the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968). I haven’t watched this movie yet, but while working on this review, I’ve decided that I will definitely do it (by the way, there’s another movie directed by master of suspense which is based on Daphne du Maurier’s story – The birds). In 2012, the film studio, DreamWorks announced a new screen version of the novel.

  It’s noteworthy, that the most popular character of the novel is Mrs. Danvers. The heroine of Judith Anderson from Hitchcock’s movie got 31st place in “100 heroes and villains” rated by American Film Institute in 2003.

  The writer was against any sequels to her novels written by other authors. She refused any such offers. However, after her death her heirs gave their permission to do that. Currently there are two novels describing the life of the heroine after the events that happened in Rebecca: Rebecca’s Tale by Sally Beauman (2001) and Mrs. de Winter. The Sequel to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca by Susan Hill (1993).

  However, all of a sudden, Rebecca also went down in history as a book, which Marshal Rommel kept at his headquarter. During World War II Nazis created a key code based on one of the editions of Rebecca (it was never used because it was suspected to be compromised).

  Not bad for the book, which one of the contemporary critics of the novel, V.S. Pritchett, in 1938 in the Christian Science Monitor defined as one of the novels that “are published today, but will be forgotten tomorrow”.

  What distinguishes “classical literature” (in the broadest sense) from novelettes or “polite literature”, which is forgotten soon after publishing, is “the actual question”, which is one of the great interest in any time in human history. In my opinion, there is definitely such question in Rebecca. That it is reason why, in spite of critics’ predictions, the novel is still “alive” and arouses readers’ interest. So what is the provoking essence of the novel?

  I don’t like the currently popular “wise quotes” as I call them, from social networks. However, there’s a well-known Richard Bach’s phrase: “What a caterpillar calls the end of the world, a sage calls a butterfly”. Speaking in terms of this comparison, a known amount of effort is needed for the butterfly to escape its cocoon. It should struggle while releasing itself, for its wings to get strong enough to fly. A butterfly does it instinctively, it has no alternative – escape the cocoon or die. And it’s a perfect metaphor for a person’s life. At a certain age we make a crucial decision and embrace who we really are, establishing our own life. However, what happens is that people often stay in their “cocoons”, not even trying to get free. But why? A lack of determination? A fear that it won’t work out?

  The shyness, absolute diffidence and self-doubt of the heroine are remarkable. She comes across as a lonely and humble creature, with no ambitions and no hopes in this world. She herself believes she has nothing to be loved for. It is partly because of her youth, lack of experience and unusual circumstances she occurred to be involved in. No regular young girl meets a rich famous and handsome widower who proposes to her after a brief courtesy period. She falls in love with him (even she barely consciences that fact at first) and tells “yes” and soon after, to her great surprise, she becomes a hostess of a huge estate. Not even in her wildest dreams would she have thought it would happen! Moreover, she is eternally compared to the first Mrs. De Winter, a woman of greatest charm and beauty. She has no one to ask for advice, no one to share her feelings with. No wonder, she’s closed herself in a shell and interprets every event as hostile. She doesn’t believe in herself, no matter how trivial or pathetic this sounds.

  It seems she gave up on her life, she’s put up with her destiny of a “girl-with-no-name”. In that term, the name of the novel is brilliant – “Rebecca”. As for the heroine’s name, it is not given. We don’t even know her maiden name. She signs her name as “Mrs. M. de Winter”, using Maxim's initial. During the masquerade, she emerges in disguise and introduces herself as a “Caroline de Winter”, one of the Max’s ancestors. It is noteworthy in the early part of the novel she receives a letter and remarks that her name was correctly spelled, which she says is “an unusual thing”.

  No doubt – the name of the heroine (its absence) and the name of the novel are links of same chain. The name is a metaphor for the personality of the heroine. She herself believes it (the name) is too uncommon and complex. But she doesn’t take pride in it. On the contrary, she doesn’t believe that anyone would care enough to notice it, appreciate its unusualness and at least spell it correct. It seems that the same she thinks of herself, being too calm, too quiet, too complicated in her thoughts and too romantic, unlike Rebecca. That is a woman! That name should be the name of the novel! The heroine is supposed to be like her or die (which she almost carries out)! But who decided that? Max? Mrs. Danvers? Rebecca’s friends? No. The heroine herself. It is she who lets Rebecca’s name be in the rightful place of her own name. She believes that it should be like that. Out of humility. Out of fear.

  Unfortunately, the questions arisen in Rebecca are true for many women. In that sense, it seems to be the very essence of the story. The idea of the book, the way the events are following each other and the final scene are all about the personal responsibility. It is not our parents or the other people or government or whoever – it is we who let another people get what belongs to us or take our rightful place. It is we who let the past define our present and rule our future. Too often we sheepishly comply with the way people treat us and believe everything they instill in our minds, just like Mrs. Danvers was implementing the idea of Rebecca’s superiority in the heroine’s thoughts. We’re scared of reality. We’re scared to hear the confirmation of our own lowly thoughts of ourselves.

  Somewhere deep inside we believe we don’t deserve a better life. So does the heroine. She never doubts Rebecca’s flawless story, but often a mystery is a mystery only because you keep it being mysterious when you’re afraid or don’t have enough courage to face the reality.

  And only in the second, detective part of the story, the heroine and her husband due to chance and some accidental events finally face the past, when Rebecca’s boat is found. And then under crucial circumstances, where there’s no place to retreat and the only way is to go for broke and to show all cards, the second Mrs. De Winter finally reveals her feelings to her husband and dares to ask about his. And it changes everything. But the question is: why wait so long? And what would have happened if Rebecca’s body had been never found? Would the heroine live till the end of her days in the shadow of Rebecca’s “ghost” (which, in fact, existed only in her imagination)?

  Generalizing the idea and implementing it to our lives, why do we need distress or hardship to overcome, to stop hiding and suffering and finally to express ourselves, our feelings and demands? That is “the actual question” of the novel, addressed to every person. Why do we put up with the circumstances? What would be if we stopped doing this? And the novel gives us the answer – there will be a whole new life. There will be future. If only we dare.

  Instead of the denouement, I can only quote Diane Setterfield: “Stories need words. They need to be uttered. Otherwise, after a while, they turn to phantoms and chase you, turning your life into a nightmare”.

  Summarizing all what was written above, I want to finish my review with two laconic (unlike the review itself) sentences, drawing a conclusion from the novel. Please, remember: stories need words. Feelings need them too.

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