rebecca by daphne du maurier

Rebecca is one of those books that you always see on those Books To Read Before You Die lists and the type that might be assigned reading in an undergrad lit course. I, however, went through life never having read until now. My best friend had it on her bookshelf, often citing it as one of her most favorite books, but I still did not read it. Finally, for some reason I decided to pick it up this week. It reminded me immediately of Jane Eyre, unsurprising to many, I'm sure. A lonely orphaned humble girl falls for the mystique of an older, brooding gentleman who owns a vast and desolate estate in the English countryside but the ghost of his past haunts their relationship, threatening to ruin them both. I ripped right through it, finding it thrilling and complicated and heartbreaking and contradictory. It's easy to point fingers and say just who exactly the villain of the story is and the hero/heroine, but I think it's not that simple. I want to explore this topic more in my blog so look out for that post in the coming weeks.