👻👻👻 3.5/5 Dead Wives – An understandable Classic but just not in a flavour that I enjoy!
Format: Kindle
Read: February 2024
I have finally read Rebecca after having it on my “to read” list for over a decade! It made sense to follow Wuthering Heights with another Gothic classic, and decide whether or not this in a genre for me. You’ll probably guess by another three star rating my conclusion is that it isn’t!
Once again, I can absolutely understand why this is a classic and beloved novel, and there are lots of lovely literary things about it, but the story and the characters are just not of a kind that I enjoy. It has lots that would be fun to think about and pick apart afterwards (I would happily have written an essay on this at university for example), but I was never excited to pick up and read the novel itself.
Summary
First off, I am aware that this has been labelled as a “Romance” in the past (by publishers), and like Wuthering Heights, there is nothing romantic about these relationships! The novel begins at the end as our narrator tells us how she and her male companion came to be living rather dull, routine life of retired ex-pats outside of England, far from their home at Manderley.
It is a little shocking to realise that she is only in her early twenties, and not many years have passed since as a naïve 21 year old, while working in Monte Carlo as a companion for a wealthy older lady, she met her husband.
This marriage is a choice she had to make quickly, and soon she was trapped in her new life at Manderley. I believe her only way through is to believe herself in love with this much older man she barely knows, despite is lacking affection and attention (his name – Maximilian de Winter is basically Maximum Cold!).
The titular Rebecca was his previous wife who died within a year ago, apparently drowned in a sailing accident. She may be dead but her presence at Manderley is stronger than any other character. By all accounts, Rebecca was charming, beautiful and renowned hostess, loved by all, but especially by the housekeeper Mrs Danvers who the new wife immediately perceives to be her enemy.
Characters
I was impressed (and relieved after Wuthering Heights!) that the characters in this novel do feel realistic and for the most part do act in a believable manner. Except for Mrs Danvers, nobody is prone to melodramatic outbursts but in fact rather the opposite, these people are from the stuffy English upper class set where they rarely say what they feel (much like in Good Behaviour) and reputation is what matters most.
An unreliable narrator
The new wife is an unreliable narrator, but in a way I found frustrating as a reader! She is young and inexperienced in life and a social class where nobody ever says what they mean (again I think of Good Behaviour), so she often picks up on things not being quite right but doesn’t look for answers. She is also prone to flights of fancy and often breaks reality to meander in her own anxious imagined scenarios, rather than ever seeking the truth.
She is also a weak character. This is definitely by design as she makes such a contrast to wilful Rebecca, the two characters make a neat duology. The new wife is so subservient to Maxim, and so afraid to rock the boat with the staff at Manderly, that she fades to the background. A dead Rebecca has more presence and life than she ever will (she never even names herself!). I can appreciate that in a literary sense but it does make her a chore to read!
If I had read this book ten years ago I would have identified more with her, because I am also an anxious, timid personality who hates to ask difficult questions. But now in my mid thirties I know there are times you just have to suck it up and push through, and there are some things you just cannot put up with no matter how awkward! I don’t think I would let a housekeeper, who I employ, push me around to live in a house that serves as a shrine to my husband’s dead previous wife.
I am going to have to get into spoiler territory now (skip past).
Click to show plot spoilers, you’ve been warned!
I don’t think it comes as a surprise to learn that Max killed Rebecca. I was quite frustrated with our Mrs de Winter’s reaction to his confession to her. Rather than being horrified that her husband committed a double murder – of his wife who had just told him she was pregnant with another man’s child – she is happy because he didn’t ever love Rebecca. This hollow confession also comes with his first ever declaration of love for the new wife, and apparently their first ever real kiss!
She’s so easily manipulated I just want to shake her.
For most of the latter portions of the book I held a tiny hope that the wife and Frank might become an item as he was the only glimmer of warmth, and the one person she seemed to openly communicate and be herself with. That was the only direction I could see any romance coming from. But Frank was apparently too blindly devoted to Maxim to make a move.
Rebecca
Rebecca becomes such an exaggerated character I find it difficult to get a handle on her. The wife learns about her from Maxim and Mrs Danvers, and what they say of her character does align so I don’t think it was just a case of Max trying to justify his actions. Mrs Danvers was obsessed with Rebecca and spoke with great pride of her careless, selfish and manipulative nature, as well as her many lovers. Unless of course the wife is also lying, or warping memories, about the things Mrs Danvers said (I often wonders if her perception was accurate, given how bizarre her behaviour and how much she feared her), as a way to justify helping to cover the murder up.
I did appreciate that Rebecca’s apparently oversexed nature and promiscuous lifestyle was such a contrast to the cold, barren almost sterile life of the new wife. She never mentions sex, and it is easy to believe that the wife remained a virgin before Maxim made his confession and they had their first passionate kiss.
Maxim
Again because of the unreliable narrator, who believes herself in love, I don’t think we get the full picture of Maxim. He is a reserved and rather cold person, although we are told he is well like with the locals and generous with helping stranded sailors. He has inspired great loyalty in Frank who seems like a good and kind man.
Perhaps keeping the secret of the real state of his marriage took a toll, or perhaps it is who he is but his treatment of the new wife does not speak well of him. He easily manipulates a young woman in a lower social class and takes her to be his new wife with little thought for what this mean for her. There is no sign that he really loves her (he barely knows her), but rather that she is merely the opposite of Rebecca – meek and pliable, unlikely create scandal and likely to provide him with a male heir. Even after his confession he still treats her more like a child than a person, and their life abroad at the start of the novel doesn’t sound any less stiff and passionless than during their time at Manderly.
He killed Rebecca and he snuffed out the life of his new wife too. She ends up in their marriage in the same role she had with Mrs Van Hopper – a companion to a much older wealthy patron. At least I guess when he dies she’ll get twenty or so years freedom with his money!
Maybe Gothic Literature is not for me
I’ve given it a shot now, and even if it is a literary masterpiece, these kind of stories just don’t excite me. They’re too gloomy and depressing, and I find it hard to find anyone to root for, and in Rebecca I didn’t feel any character development.
I also generally don’t like a “let me tell you a story” kind of narrative framing that uses flashbacks and memories. I prefer to be in the action with a character as it happens.
I definitely preferred this to Wuthering Heights, but it’s still not one I am very likely to reread for the pleasure of.
REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED
- Believable and realistic characters.
- Avoids melodrama!
- I enjoyed the contrast between Rebecca and the new wife.
- Carefully crafted, with lots of fun literary bits to pick at!
I DIDN’T LIKE
- So gloomy and depressing!
- I didn’t feel particularly engaged by any of the characters.
- The new wife makes for a frustrating perspective at times!
After so many years wondering, I finally know what this book is about… and knowing doesn’t make me want to read it! 🙂
Haha I’m glad I could inform you!