Rebecca, a bestselling novel by famed English writer Daphne du Maurier, was published in 1938, and has never gone out of print. The winner of the National Book Award for favorite novel of 1938, Rebecca has been adapted numerous times, including Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film version, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and a 1997 television miniseries. It was most recently adapted for a Netflix film in 2020 by the same name. Rebecca tells the story of an unnamed young woman who marries the wealthy owner of a splendid English estate, Manderley, and becomes obsessed with the memory of her husband’s first wife, the title character. The book functions as a psychological thriller, a romance, and a Gothic novel.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with the unnamed narrator’s dream of a return to her beloved English stately home, Manderley. Residing in a foreign country with her husband, the narrator reviews her first meeting with her future spouse, Maxim de Winter, a wealthy widower, and their subsequent married life at Manderley.

As an inexperienced, insecure 21-year-old, the narrator works as a companion to Mrs. Van Hopper, a rich American vacationing in Monte Carlo. Through the social-climbing Mrs. Van Hopper, the shy, young narrator becomes acquainted with the mysterious Maxim de Winter, the owner of Manderley, an estate famed for its beauty. The brooding Englishman is apparently grief-stricken over his wife’s death in a sailing accident almost a year earlier. Falling in love with the 42-year-old Maxim, the narrator impulsively agrees to marry him.

When the narrator arrives at the imposing Manderley as the second Mrs. de Winter, she encounters Mrs. Danvers, the malevolent housekeeper, who was devoted to Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca. Mrs. Danvers resents the second wife’s replacement of the deceased Rebecca. She tries to psychologically torment the self-critical, humble narrator, who is already fearful of undertaking the new role of mistress of Manderley. Mrs. Danvers implies that the first wife was superior in beauty, intelligence, and breeding to the second wife, as well as more adored by the troubled Maxim. Deferring to the routine established by Rebecca at Manderley and using her predecessor’s possessions, the narrator becomes haunted by the sense of Rebecca’s enduring presence at the estate. She unfavorably compares herself to Rebecca, increasingly believing that her marriage to Maxim is a failure because he is still in love with the ideal Rebecca.

The revival of the Manderley fancy dress ball, which was perfectly hosted in the past by Maxim’s first wife, prompts the narrator to select a splendid costume to try to impress her husband. Mrs. Danvers suggests that she copy the dress worn by one of Maxim’s ancestors in a portrait. Expecting to dazzle by appearing in her beautiful costume, the narrator is shocked by her husband’s angry reaction and the stunned silence of other guests. Mrs. Danvers gloats over the humiliation of the narrator who was unaware that her costume was identical to the dress worn by Rebecca at the previous Manderley ball.

When the narrator goes to Rebecca’s former bedroom to confront Mrs. Danvers about the malicious trick, the housekeeper exhibits her unbalanced worship of Maxim’s deceased first wife. Mrs. Danvers hypnotically urges the discouraged narrator to die by suicide by jumping out of the window, since she still considers Rebecca to be the real Mrs. de Winter. Explosions interrupt the narrator’s trance-like state as rockets signal that a ship has run aground in the fog. A diver investigating the stranded ship also discovers Rebecca's boat, with her body still in the cabin. Maxim’s prior identification of another decomposed body as that of his deceased wife leads to a formal inquest.

Maxim’s confession to the narrator that he never loved Rebecca releases the young woman from Rebecca’s haunting power to dominate her. After discovering Rebecca’s cruel, evil nature, Maxim remained in his first marriage to protect Manderley from the scandal of divorce. Instead of being the ideal wife and hostess, Rebecca had manipulated and deceived people. Maxim reveals that he murdered Rebecca in a rage over her claim that she was pregnant with another man's child, who would then become the heir to Manderley. Maxim disguised the murder as a sailing accident. The narrator loses her youthful innocence by hearing her husband’s shocking revelations but develops into a more mature woman who focuses on the love she shares with her husband.

At the inquest, the boatbuilder declares that the boat was deliberately scuttled, rather than accidentally sunk. Upon learning this surprising information, the jury returns a verdict of suicide. Jack Favell, Rebecca’s cousin and lover, attempts to blackmail Maxim, privately accusing him of murder. Favell possesses a note, written during Rebecca’s final day alive, which requested him to meet her so she could tell him something. When Rebecca’s engagement diary reveals that she had an appointment with a London doctor on that day, Maxim and the narrator fear that an investigation will reveal Rebecca’s pregnancy. In an unexpected twist, the London doctor discloses that Rebecca was terminally ill with cancer and unable to bear children. Maxim believes that Rebecca deliberately goaded him into killing her so she would not experience the lingering death she feared.

The relieved narrator believes that their ordeal is finally over. However, Maxim senses that something is wrong at Manderley after Mrs. Danvers disappears from the estate. On their drive back to Manderley, the couple witnesses a crimson glow in the night sky and ashes in the wind. They realize that their beloved Manderley has been destroyed by fire.