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February 2010 Daphne du Maurier's
Rebecca ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ has become one of the most famous opening lines in English Literature. Published in 1938, Rebecca was the greatest masterpeice of Daphne du Maurier whose impressive literary career spanned six decades. Born in May 1907 into a wealthy and well-connected family, Daphne was surrounded by creative and artistic influences from an early age that provided her with much of the material for her books. It was on a family holiday to Cornwall that Daphne began her love affair with the county. The dramatic coastline and vivid history piqued the young du Maurier’s imagination and the romance, intruige and atmosphere that characterise her novels can be traced back to her beloved Cornwall. Shortly before her death in 1989, she commented: ‘I would rather be out walking on the beach and haedland and looking out at my Cornwall, than anything ele I come to think of.’
Daphne had already published four novels before Rebecca appeared, and was already highly regarded as an author. (In fact her husband Major Frederick Browning was first drawn to her thanks to her debut novel The Loving Spirit.) However, following the publication of Rebecca, Daphne’s place as one of the finest author’s of her generation was well and truly established. In her obituary in The Independent in April 1989 it was written that ‘…if Daphne du Maurier had written only Rebecca, she would still be one of the great shapers of popular culture and the modern imagination. Few writers have created more magical places than…Manderley…’
Manderley itself was based on Menabilly near the du Maurier’s Corwall home. Daphne first stumbled across it with her sister Angela in the early 1930s. The house would later be Daphne’s home for over 25 years. Describing her first sight of the house in The Rebecca Notebook she recalled the overgrown state of the driveway, the shuttered windows and the ivy-covered grey walls, and it was this image that inspired that famous opening line. The gripping plot was reputedly inspired by Daphne’s insecurities when she discovered that a former lover of her husband’s was a dark, exotic e beauty. There are stong echoes of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, where Max de Winter is the Mr Rochester equivalent, brooding and mysterious. Rebecca herself is the equivalent of the mad woman in the attic, an eerie, inescapable presence throughout the story. Daphne was also inspired by the former occupants of Menabilly, the Rashleigh family. One of the family had married and divorced a beautiful woman and then married a much younger woman. In the nearby Polridmouth Bay Daphne discovered that there had been a shipwreck. These strands of fact and rumour were skillfully woven together within Daphne’s limitless imagination and produced the powerful tale we know today.
Rebecca was an instant success in both Britain and America. It sold one million copies within its first year of publication and was published in 39 impressions over the following two decades. Since then, it has been translated into more than 20 languages and has become one of the most widely read books in the world. Rebecca also transcended literary form, inspiring dramatised radio versions and the famous film version directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940 which introduced an unknown Joan Fontaine to the world. St Mary’s Books is delighted to offer a unique opportunity to purchase a SIGNED, FIRST EDITION of this famous and respected work. Please find more details below.
[055129] Daphne Du Maurier. Rebecca. London: Victor Gollancz, 1938. First Edition. Very Good / Very Good. Signed by the author on a visiting card neatly placed on the front free end paper. Bound in original black cloth with gilt tooling. Original yellow and pink dust wrapper - some minor sunning/creasing to extremities but overall wrapper is in very good condition, clean and bright. A lovely copy of this much loved work. £4,250.00 To view all of our Daphne du Maurier stock, click here. Spotlight Archive, click here. | |||||||||||||||||
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