Rebecca

Maybe it doesn't have the same social clout as Sense and Sensibility or even Jane Eyre (which DuMaurier is clearly inspired by) but Rebecca still holds high esteem for many a bookish nerd. “Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderly again...” is as recognized as “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” and “Call me Ishmael.” And that first chapter is as delicious a gothic introduction as one could possibly want.

Our protagonist is a child prone to wild day-dreaming discursions. Her flights of fanciful imaginings meander for pages at a time, more often than not imagining herself dull and plain, living in the long shadow of the beautiful and charming Rebecca. It is at once swooning then sinister.

At first I was sure this was a novel about the impermeability of memory. How we find the de Winters aging in a dull and listless present day which prompts our protagonist into the past to find some remembered colours, that she is willfully remembering herself the romanticizing child. Perhaps there is elements of that given how the story takes a third act turn that renders everyone in a dark, unflattering light.

Things do take a turn and it's delicious to see this play out amongst the characters in the story, but only at a bookish remove. Otherwise it's just a story of ridiculous rich people problems.