Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca: Dreaming of Manderley (Lecture on Ch. I-X)
Added 2025-10-12 21:03:10 +0000 UTC'There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls.'
Welcome to back Manderley, and the haunting world of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. Let us walk the halls together in search of the darkest secrets of its past.
Today we're discussing the fever of first love, liminal spaces in our identities, recurring nightmares, the history of gothic literature, the labyrinth of the unconscious, class, jealousy, possessiveness, and much more.
Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion even if you haven't read these chapters of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca yet. You can enjoy our talk before, during, or after your reading as I am refraining from discussing any plot points beyond the first ten chapters.
Timestamps:
0:00 ‘last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’
2:00 appreciating the title of this gothic work
5:00 do names ultimately define our destiny?
7:00 thinking about the meaning of Rebecca
8:00 what story are you telling yourself?
10:00 the novel’s allusions to Dante’s Inferno
12:00 opening as hypnotic dream induction
14:00 George du Maurier’s ‘dreaming true’
16:00 memoir, catharsis & sublimating trauma
18:00 dream analysis vs literary analysis
20:00 mystery, musicality & nightmares
22:00 on Manderley being now ‘unhaunted’
24:00 ‘there would be no resurrection’
25:00 what does the name Manderley mean?
27:00 feel of loss in postlapsarian world
28:00 meaning of being haunted by ghosts
30:00 trying to preserve the ephemeral now
33:00 ‘the past is still too close to us’
35:00 the ancient & modern in the gothic
36:00 what does melodrama mean?
38:00 penny dreadfuls & page-turners
39:00 how I feel in love with the gothic
40:00 Jane Austen defends the novel
42:00 high literature vs popular works
43:00 my ethos for which books to read
45:00 battle of good vs evil in Rebecca
47:00 ennui after enduring ordeal by fire
49:00 Daphne’s homesickness for Cornwall
50:00 fiction’s power to transport us away
52:00 losing a place as losing your self
54:00 autumnal/winter mood of gothic
56:00 fractured sense of our psyche
58:00 how do you become confident?
1:00:00 meeting Mrs Van Hopper
1:02:00 the changing UK class system
1:04:00 gothic marked by class anxiety
1:06:00 governesses, orphans, companions
1:08:00 Cinderella & the heroine’s journey
1:10:00 meeting Maxim de Winter
1:12:00 our byronic Gentleman Unknown
1:15:00 what is the narrator’s name?
1:17:00 why does Maxim fall for her?
1:20:00 fettered on the burning lake
1:22:00 how old is the narrator?
1:24:00 living in the past vs future
1:26:00 lost in the labyrinth of the mind
1:28:00 the handwriting of Rebecca
1:30:00 what causes possessive jealousy?
1:33:00 ‘my only enemy was the clock’
1:35:00 questing for corrupting knowledge
1:37:00 romance in books vs real life
1:40:00 when Max proposes to the narrator
1:43:00 ‘I would be Mrs de Winter…’
1:46:00 the narrator burns the page
1:49:00 finally arriving at Manderley
1:51:00 when we meet Mrs Danvers
1:53:00 what do you make of the heroine?
1:54:00 the self we want to become
1:56:00 estate as metaphor for the psyche
1:58:00 ‘I was sitting in Rebecca’s chair’
2:00:00 new Mrs de Winter vs Mrs Danvers
2:02:00 meeting Maxim’s sister Beatrice
2:04:00 anger & secrets in the Happy Valley
2:05:00 what are you making of Rebecca?
Resources to Explore:
Poetry: What did you make of the poem our narrator discovers in the book gifted from Rebecca to Maxim? It's called 'The Hound of Heaven' from 1890 by Catholic mystic poet Francis Thompson and you can read the full work here. You may also find it interesting to compare the opening of Rebecca with the opening of Dante's Inferno, which we have a lecture on here. Another idea would be to explore the Romantic and Victorian poets to see if you can discern a tonal or thematic influence upon Daphne du Maurier. I love the Pocket Poets series from Everyman, particularly these volumes: William Wordsworth, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Lord Byron (his closet drama Manfred is sublime too).
Fairy Tales: Daphne du Maurier, in true gothic form, subverts and weaves fairy tales and folkloric motifs throughout her story. You might find this gives you a fun reason to explore the dark classic cautionary tales of children's literature. The Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault are always great to explore. I would start with the story of Cinderella, then explore where your interest takes you.
Short Works: The autumnal season always puts me in the mood to enjoy short stories and novellas. For some complementary pairings with Rebecca, you might enjoy this volume from Oxford Word's Classics: Late Victorian Gothic Tales. This includes stories from the likes of Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, and Arthur Machen. Do you feel as though Daphne du Maurier has more in common with the nineteenth century writers than those of the modern era? Two more shorter works that come to mind for me are The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Lost Stradivarius by J. Meade Falkner (which we have a lecture on here). For more personal recommendations of short horror stories, check out this video: Terrifying Short Tales to Give You Nightmares.
Scripture: Great writers like Daphne du Maurier put an enormous amount of thought into the names of their characters. We unpicked the meaning of Rebecca, Maxim de Winter, and Manderley in the discussion, but you might find it a rewarding exercise to go to the parts of Genesis that give us the story of the matriarch prophet Rebecca. There is a biblical weight to the name emblazoned on the cover, but does the late Mrs de Winter align with or diverge from the legendary persona of the bible? Her story can be found primarily in Genesis 24-27, and it is related powerfully in this video and this video.
Psychology: What have your dreams been telling you lately? If you can learn to read great fiction, you can learn to read your dreams - and, thus, learn to harness your deepest fears and desires. For a delightfully gothic and iconic work of psychological literature, check out our discussion on Sigmund Freud's seminal The Interpretation of Dreams. If Carl Jung intrigues you, we have a discussion on Man and His Symbols. We also have a discussion, as part of a wider lecture, on Cormac McCarthy's great essay 'The Kekulé Problem' here, which asks the interesting question of why the unconscious speaks to us in pictures.
Novels: If you fancy an excursion into some related and complementary novels, then my top recommendation would be Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, followed by sister Emily's Wuthering Heights (both of which we have read-throughs for in the back catalogue). For some slim alternative options, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, which we read an excerpt from in the discussion, is good fun. You might find the work of Daphne's grandfather, George du Maurier, to be intriguing. Trilby and Peter Ibbetson would be good ones to pick up for him.
Reading Assignment:
Our next discussion will cover up to and including chapter nineteen of this dark gothic masterpiece. And we will be discussing this part of Rebecca this coming weekend.
Now we're going to uncover the secrets of Manderley and discover how the past continues to haunt the present. So continue bringing yourself to Daphne du Maurier's bestseller, making notes on any themes or ideas that capture your attention and imagination.
Questions to Consider:
1) What are your first impressions of the characters? How do you feel about the narrator, Maxim, and Mrs Danvers?
2) At this point in the work, where do you think the story is heading?
3) Have you ever felt haunted, possessed, or gripped by jealousy?
4) Daphne du Maurier makes Manderley feel like a character in its own right. Have you ever felt that way about a place?
And please do share with us your impressions, favourite passages, and striking ideas from the beginning of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. If this is your first reading, does this dark tale meet your expectations? If this is a reread, is the experience any different this time around?
Happy reading, everybody!
Comments
im trying to be totally normal about this book but the fact that when i was 21 i too dated a man who was 41 is really not helping 😂
Kelly
2026-02-05 01:37:47 +0000 UTCI think that Maxim is the ultimate villian
Celine Fu
2025-12-07 01:03:41 +0000 UTCI personally love this about her. I work with abuse victims, and honestly the narrator is such a believable portrayal of someone that gets exploited for her innocence and uncertainty. The fact that she speaks up for herself at all is so brave that I can’t help but root for her.
Libby Bundrick
2025-11-15 11:54:53 +0000 UTCI agree with some here. I don’t see Maxim’s feelings as anything other than trying to forget the past and using the narrator to do it, he doesn’t seem to love her at all, it’s manipulative, and taking advantage of her naïveté, youth and innocence. So far, I have nothing but contempt for Maxim and yes the narrator is already frustrating in her self-deception and low self-esteem. She just makes up her own idea of what others are feeling and just doesn’t seem to have a clue except to denigrate herself.
Leigh Coop
2025-11-10 19:21:31 +0000 UTCSPOILER alert!!!! It's not my idea of infatuation either. To me, Maxim embarks on a lazy seduction, possibly history's laziest ever. All he needs to do is look at her, take her for a few car rides, one which isn't even meant for her enjoyment but for him to revisit a meaningful place for himself. He doesn't even attempt to hide this or his obvious disinterest in her. His proposal is the worst one ever. It's so dry that she thinks he's hiring her! You kind of can't blame Rebecca for seeking passion and fun and romance elsewhere. But the narrator was definitely infatuated by his prestige, his wealth, his status, and most of all by his home. She's so infatuated that she can't really see him for what he is, she can't bear to even consider how disappointed she is in their romance. It's sad. And it's that desperation for love and family and home that makes her complicit his murderer. She's just relieved to have his attention and affection. And yet we know from the first chapters that he guess back to his cold disconnected self. The narrator is haunted because she sold her soul for nothing. She got nothing out of it. She even lost Manderly.
Serena J Cavanaugh
2025-11-09 21:41:12 +0000 UTCI’m loving this book! And fun to read a book with my name (although spelled the less cool way 😉)
Rebekah Sunday
2025-11-03 19:44:27 +0000 UTCThis is my second read of Rebecca. The first time I read it I couldn't put it down. This time I see the brilliance of it more but I find I am having to remind myself to pick it up. I find it fascinating how varied experiences of reading the same book can be. Daphne du Maurier brilliantly depicts anxiety and low self esteem. Oh the things I recognise in myself that our narrator thinks and does!
NicoleA
2025-11-02 02:41:46 +0000 UTCThis is my first reading of Rebecca. I can understand why the narrator developed a crush on Maxim — her self esteem is so low it’s in the basement — but at this point in the story I find him decidedly rude and unlikable.
Kathleen Kelly
2025-10-27 18:25:20 +0000 UTCThis is a re-read for me and I was thrilled when Benjamin announced that we would be reading Rebecca this autumn. It has become one of my favourites and most recommended books (i like to tell people it's kind of a starter classic or a "light" classic and pretty much everyone who I have recommended it to loved it.)) and have really been looking forward to it! I loved Rebecca the first time I read it and I am already loving it again now. The atmosphere Du Maurier creates is just amazing and so so fitting for this time of year. Beautiful. I think when I first read Rebecca, I was more in line with the narrator and her fears, more "believing" of them. But since having lived a few years in the meantime:) I've come to learn that a lot of what I project onto others is just that: my projection:) So it's very interesting to read this time with more understanding on the insecurities of the narrator. Which also adds to mystery really and makes it an even deeper read:) It's a great pick and a great read. I'm looking forward to geting into the next part! happy reading, everyone:)
Latona
2025-10-26 13:57:53 +0000 UTCIt's interesting that the feeling of being a young woman hasn't changed much in the ~90 years since this was written, especially that flutter of first love and how consuming it is. Who hasn't sat on their equivalent of the bathroom mat and wept with the unfairness of how strong those feelings are? On Maxim - I think he plays on the narrator's naivety a lot. To borrow a modern phrase, there's a lot of "breadcrumbing" her this early in the book. Enough to keep her interested, but more of a desire to possess her, and to own her innocence. I think he enjoys her lack of worldliness, and perhaps this is safer than what he knew with Rebecca, from what little of her that characters think they know. I'm careful not to apply another modern anachronism of "Daddy Issues", but the narrator describes her father as a lovely and unusual person. That's certainly how her beloved comes across in her telling of him. Might it be this still very raw loss that attracts her to Maxim?
Dorothy Watson
2025-10-26 13:40:02 +0000 UTCIt must be very interesting to read about all the parallels (and divergences), Lisa. Though certainly spooky in parts as well. Fascinating to hear that you’re enthralled by the story :)
Ylva
2025-10-25 13:27:08 +0000 UTCThis is my first read of Rebecca and I am enthralled with the book. I can empathize with the heroine as I married a widower 7 years ago. We met shortly after his wife had passed. When I visited his home for the first time her tote bag with medications were still at her bedside and clothes still hung in the master closet. After a long debate I agreed to move into the home. It has been a long journey but we have gradually made the place ours. So many aspects of this story reflect similar experiences I encountered, including the likes of Mrs Danvers and the grandmother!
Lisa Harvey
2025-10-22 13:11:56 +0000 UTCI find it so interesting that Ben says "they were infatuated with each other" and "their romance deepens". As a woman, I wouldn't have described Maxim's attention that way, so it's curious to hear a man recognize that as such. Though if I put myself in his shoes psychologically, with the backdrop of depression and gender aside, yea, he's rather infatuated with the narrator and that's exactly how I would show it.
Milla Lacey
2025-10-21 17:21:32 +0000 UTC
