Rebecca

A book club that began last April with the reading of Jane Eyre, on hiatus for eight months, started back up again this year. Comprised of dear friends from my hometown, we meet virtually a few times a month. We set it up this way for a few reasons. First, it allows you to miss a meeting or two when you’re busy. Second, it gives us a chance to theorize as a group. Third, well we get to chat more often of course!

The first book of the year was Rebecca by English author Daphne Du Maurier. A 1938 gothic novel that depicts an unnamed young woman who impetuously marries a wealthy widower, before discovering that both he and his household are haunted by the memory of his late first wife. The featured image was created in Canva by the lovely Haley Tyson. We found that creating a shared Canva for each book helps us stay on track with topics we want to discuss, visualization of the characters and spaces through fan art and movie references, and anything we want really. If you miss a week, you can still add your thoughts to the Canva and it’s like you’re there in spirit.

I gave this book 4.75 stars on Storygraph (add me! madelinerm). This book was so much fun to read for a book club. Our second stopping point was such a pivotal moment, and after that all hell broke loose. It was also interesting seeing the different perspectives our group members had on the MC. She is a young woman that found herself in a difficult situation. The anxiety Du Maurier is able to elicit in the reader is unsettling. Speaking of, let’s talk about the genre and the main themes you can expect when reading gothic lit:

A Desolate, Haunted Setting
Dark and Mysterious Atmosphere
Affiliation With Supernatural Forces
Emotional Extremes
The Protagonist As Anti-Hero
Women As Victims
Curses and Portents
Visions and Nightmares
Frightening Tone
Hostility of Weather
Religious Concerns
Psychological Instability
Good Versus Evil
The Touch of Romance
(List provided by Haley in our canva)

Almost all of these themes appear in Rebecca and it really is a perfect example of gothic literature. What I realized when going over my notes from the club meetings is how questionable everyone is. I credit that to the writing and the genre. You are so spooked that you really don’t know who to trust for most of the story. The anxiety is so palpable that you can make a case for anyone to be the “bad guy.” We had a running bit going that Maxim is old af at the beginning and Haley was adamant that he was not, based on watching the netflix movie. Also a running joke was that Haley has a crush on armie hammer and we kept reminding her he’s a cannibal. I have yet to watch the newer remake, but I did watch the Hitchcock movie. I think you can buy the movie on streaming somewhere, but Osh found a youtube link that I was able to watch. Apparently this is his only movie to win an Oscar, so if that says anything to you, listen up. The movie started out as a verbatim retelling of the book. As the time ticks away, they start to make some creative differences that are not ideal, but make sense nonetheless. The movie is in b&w. I think one thing that was interesting was seeing how much livelier and happier they made Maxim’s character in the movie vs how it was interpreted in our book club. A lot of our group listened to the audio book, and the person that voiced the characters made Maxim way less chipper. It was nice seeing them how I pictured them, which was in love but obvi in a weird way, haha.

As I mentioned, Haley is part of this book club, and she has also crafted up a blog post about Rebecca. She was our fearless leader with the topics of discussion this past book, and I think you would benefit from checking out her post, and her blog in general, which is called pretty prairies. Her post focuses on a more in depth discussion about the genre of gothic horror, as well as looking at the novel through a feminist lens, character development through a modern and historical perspective, and ultimately how it all fits into her personal interpretation of the book.

Now, if you have read the book or want to read it, I will give you our thoughts as a group based on our three meetings and you can review them once you are done. I took notes! If you have been following my blog for a while you know my notes can be sporadic, unclear, and chaotic.

Enjoy!

P.S. there may be some curse words below 😀

SPOILERS BELOW

Meeting #1 – Chapters 1 – 9
Our thoughts on the Narrator, who we grew to call “No Name”:
– We like her, We relate to her, We think shes naive
– Gaucherie
– Shes like 21?
– She is about to be so obsessed with Rebecca 
– Some of us are charmed by her and some hate her, lol harsh 
– She assumes the worst 
There are pages throughout the book filled with the same thoughts – anxious girlie

Our thoughts on Maxim de Winter:
– He’s sus
– He’s hotter than we thought?
– Some of the gals think he is being fake rn
– Why didn’t he tell her anything about how the house works? He either did it maliciously or he just didn’t know what rebecca did all day 
– He doesn’t love her – he is intrigued by her

Our thoughts on Mrs. Danvers, who we grew to call Dirty D:
– Obsessed with rebecca, She gay for becky?
– Spider-like, she moves when you aren’t looking

Our thoughts on Manderley:
– We picture Saltburn, Nosferatu
– East vs West whats the deal?
– Secret passages??

Our thought on Frith:
– No Name surprises him

Scent and Memory as a theme:
– If she could bottle a memory it has a scent
– The flowers at manderley, Big theme for the flowers – rhododendron – the scent of them is deadly
– Giving blood, giving bad omen
– Her scent is overwhelming in the morning room

Things we are wondering:
– Did she kill herself or get killed??
– What are his intentions? Did he seek out No Name or did it happen organically?

Meeting #2 – Chapters 10 – 18
We think Maxim doesn’t like her being older – he genuinely likes her being diff than rebecca, so when she is lost in her own mind being/thinking about rebecca he’s like bro your face is fucked rn. He may not know exactly what her thoughts are, but he still notices something is off.

She gets sooooo lost in her thoughts that its hard to remember if this is really happening or not. Some quotes from the gals:
“Its really easy to forget its a fucking book” 
“Daphne really captures a universal feminine emotions” of anxiety that you either had or have had 

Costume party scene was sus, costume wise

We stan beatrice!
She doesnt like people and tells them…and she was never around rebecca ergo she doesnt like rebecca

Is rebecca a CROOK ?
She bought all the stuff in the house, hmm

Dirty Dan is FUCKED up
She literally wanted No Name to kill herself 
Gals say she’s “Bird-like” and “Skeleton-like”

Maxim is lame as hell
He didnt have a costume?? Bruh
He didnt check on her after what went down either, like wtf

We wonder how did Maxim find out about Jack (her cousin)?

Frank Crawley called her a CREATURE and he is not one to mince words, he takes caution when speaking, so he said that and he meant it

No Name breaking the cupid seems significant
First time Maxim got insight inter her mind
He was like what? You were afraid to tell them you broke it??

There are lots of call outs to theater
Shows how dramatic this story is

Mini feet? why?

How the men see No Name correlates to how they suggest costumes for her:
Alice in wonderland
Joan of arc
Forget-me-not (lol)

What do we think is going to happen?
– Accident?
– Ben has something happen and the truth gets revealed
– Is the guy at the beginning Maxim?
– Maybe its frank?
– “Someone has to die, I feel it”
– Manderley is doomed

Do they sleep in diff beds but in the same room? Apparently this is a thing from back in the day

Haley thinks it’s cool that she could buy undies from london

When she and clarice got ready together the vibes were up it was so cute

She was too happy when he was gone, that’s relatable

What are the random memories that No Name has?
What’s her backstory?

Meeting #3 – Chapters 19 – 27
Haley was pissed that Dirty D tried to get her to kill herself and then No Name was like eh idgaf
Jacq thinks that was the moment she started to pity her
Varsh was like yeah she never spoke up about anything so she it makes sense she wouldn’t speak up about this

Osh thinks Rebecca had a temptress-ness to her
Everyone knew her in a different way so she really could play anyone, but they all thought they saw the real rebecca

Haley liked Dirty Ds perspective of rebecca – her hating men perspective
Jacq thinks she would like that about her but also knows rebecca wouldn’t like her (Jacq) either so then it wouldn’t work. But says Rebecca ate with that planned murder as a suicide

The genre makes it so grey – like who is the bad guy?
Osh started feeling bad for Maxim and Varsh said reddit is FULLY on the maxim is the villain train
Lacie said memory is the theme throughout so its hard to know what is true bc the narrator actually has no first person take on it – to escape a memory you almost have to share it with others
Memory exponentially changes peoples perceptions – if its a good memory then they become a great person

I asked if anyone thought Maxim knew about the doctors appointments and they all said no, lol
Maxim was never nervous – bc he wasn’t scared and knew he’d be fine? or because he was succumbing to his fate? Relieved that it was finally out in the open?
– him freaking out about manderley at the end was like damn dirty d really did get the last laugh and that was the first time he seemed to have not known what was going to happen 

The only time he said ILY it was used as a weapon
Rach also thinks him saying ily was more important info to her than finding out he was a murderer

While some No Name haters remain, most of us do think she sort of matures through it – like she would second guess everything at first, and in the end she was like wait that’s not true and then she stopped almost entirely

King julian stood on business haha 

The ritual of having tea and meals even through the chaos was interesting

Why’d Dirty Dan blow it up?
– If i cant have her no one can have her
– Last laugh
– I dont know rebecca as well as I thought

Car nightmares were scary!

The genre – Gothic Horror
Gothic lit stems from women being oppressed so thats why its hyper sexual but also hyper questionable – Danvers is a good example of this

If you read all the way down here, feel free to comment or reach out to chat about your thoughts! Our next book is The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende if you’d like to read.

Next book club post we will hopefully have decided on a name for this club!