I recently read Daphne DuMaurier’s novel Rebecca. I had started reading the novel several times before, while visiting my grandmother, but I always had to leave before getting much beyond the first two or three chapters. It is a suspenseful book–and even knowing the basics of the story did not detract from the tension. What did surprise me, however, was the number of legal issues that littered the book’s landscape: divorce, inheritance, blackmail, and murder.
The book begins with one of the most famous opening lines in literature: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” The book is narrated in the first person by the second Mrs. de Winter, whose Christian name is never revealed. She is looking back on the events that led to her marriage and her time at her husband’s estate, Manderley.