The 305 Greatest Books - #181: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The next up on my reading of the 305 greatest books is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The book can be found on the BBC and My Book Lists. 

I went into Rebecca having high hopes. It is in the top 21 books on the BBC Big Read list and several of my friends commented how fantastic a book it was when I started. So, although I don't like to have expectations going into a book, I definitely had mine. And they were beyond exceeded. Rebecca is a mystery novel, with most of the plot taking place as a flashback in the first person perspective of the central unnamed viewpoint character. Our main character is a servant of a less than ideal person when she meets this mysterious man, Maxim de Winter, whom she falls in love with and ends up marrying over a very short time period. Afterwards she is swept away to his mansion, Manderley, where she is thrust into the world of the aristocratic, complete with a whole host of servants whom now wait on her. The only problem is that there is something that falls over everything that our main character does in the story, and that's the shadow of Maxim's recently dead wife, Rebecca, whom was adored by nearly everyone. I was not prepared for the many twists and turns that the story took. While there is a sense of dread over the entire book, you kept waiting for the next shoe to drop, and each time I was surprised. The only one I caught on to before it happened was the final one as the book came to a close, but even that one had me flipping back to the first few chapters, before the flashback, to see how the story ties into them. This book was just so much fun to read. And while the story did drag a little bit in the middle, I feel that the story, and how the text just flowed off the page, made this by far a fantastic page turner. It is a definite recommend from me.