Rebecca

1938, 1971 Avon edition
Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca
Original price $1.25, purchase price 25 cents
Worn paperback
B+

I bought this book sometime in the last six or seven years, but I think this is already my third reading of it.  Yes, it's derivative of Jane Eyre, and, yes, there are no appealing characters in it, with the "hero" a murderer and the "heroine" a spineless paranoid nonentity (with no first name).  But the book is, despite a slow start, a page-turner.  Part of it is that there's a rotten core to seemingly perfect Rebecca de Winter.  We never find out what her dark secret is, but it seems similar to that of the first Mrs. Rochester, sexual perversion, in Rebecca's case probably bisexuality, definitely promiscuity.  She's also cruel, to everyone from a feeble-minded poor man to her posh husband.  Even her lover/cousin Jack is treated with dishonesty and scorn.  And yet, nearly everyone loves her and/or is obsessed with her.  The narrator herself falls under Rebecca's spell, months after Rebecca's death.

Rebecca developed cancer but told no one.  Then she taunted her husband Max into thinking she was pregnant by Jack, maddening him till he shot her.  The trusting second wife seems to feel Max was justified in killing Rebecca, even before she knows all the facts.  And he gets away with it, until Mrs. Danvers burns the houses down.

Ah, Mrs. Danvers.  It's pretty clear that she's in love with Rebecca herself, and she punishes the second Mrs. de Winter for taking the place of the first.  Mrs. Danvers certainly isn't likable, but she is interesting.  My favorite character though is Bea, Max's tactless but kind sister, particularly how she'll take off part of her costume, like a beard or a veil, at a fancy-dress party.  An apt symbol for this mysterious novel that's not at all a traditional mystery.

This is a poor edition in that it has many typos and the cover illustration gives the heroine a Harpo Marx hairdo.  Not to mention that Manderley burning in the background is a bit of a spoiler, despite the hints dropped in the early chapters.