Virago Modern Classic Book Club: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Book of the Month: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

This March we are reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, in celebration of the 80th anniversary of its publication.

‘One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century, Rebecca has woven its way into the fabric of our culture with all the troubling power of myth or dream. A stunning book’ Sarah Waters

‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…’

Working as a lady’s companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers . . .

Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never been out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young woman consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

‘Her masterpiece . . . Seldom has a dead woman exercised such power beyond the grave. Rebecca will live for ever because du Maurier touches a fearful nerve, buried deep in the unconscious’ Kate Saunders, The Times

80 years on and Rebecca is as mesmerising as ever, do you agree? Let us know using #VMCBookClub on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here for more information about the Virago Modern Classics Book Club.