Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ follows the unnamed narrator in her marriage to the Lord of Manderly, Maxim De Winter. When she moves in with him however she feels constantly inferior to the deceased first wife of Maxim, Rebecca, for everyone in the house and village idolised her and all she does is compared to how Rebecca once did such. The lack of name adds so much here and  despite her being the narrator, the reader sees her as an empty spirit that is haunting the place, just as much as the deceased spirit of the eponymous character. It is a slow build up and for the first couple of chapters I did believe the narrator was Rebecca, however it is so well written and the atmosphere of always failing to live up to the unachievable is so powerful. The end absolutely picked up in pace though and the final third was so gripping! 

The morality of people is also so key in the book, Du Maurier plays with the readers sympathies and establishes villains who I don’t see as entirely antagonistic as the narrator makes out, and she and Maxim though the much loved protagonists of the story with motives of love so layered and so flawed too. The layers of relationships that Du Maurier builds go beyond love triangles, they are messy and complicated but alike to how well written her prose was, Du Maurier handles them very well. 

The Gothic atmosphere and some plot elements reminded me in many ways of ‘Wuthering Heights’, and though the very final twist I did see coming a little in advance there were a fair few earlier ones each very powerful. I am left reconsidering so much in the novels conclusion.