The sentence ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…’ is one of the most famous opening lines in twentieth-century literature, and Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel Rebecca has never been out of print. The novel is narrated by the shy, nameless young heroine who marries the widowed English gentleman Maxim de Winter, whom she meets in Monte Carlo when working as a paid companion to the brash American Mrs Van Hopper.
Returning to England as the second Mrs de Winter, the narrator is overwhelmed to find herself mistress of Manderley, the grand Cornish mansion, with its sinister housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, who is fiercely loyal to Rebecca, de Winter’s first wife. Both intimidated and fascinated by Manderley and its former mistress, the second Mrs de Winter gradually uncovers the secrets of the house and of Rebecca herself.
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