Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

On Thursday 7 May 2026 at 7.00pm we will be meeting at the usual place, the top floor of The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, to discuss Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier.

"Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again."

Such is the famous opening line of Rebecca, as well as the opening line of the movie adaptation, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Following the tragic loss of his first wife, the very wealthy Maxim de Winter impulsively marries a timid young woman. In this rebound from personal tragedy, he establishes her as the new Mrs de Winter. As a newly married couple, they travel to their future home together, the estate of Manderley. The timid and somewhat clueless new Mrs De Winter comments positively on the first building they see, assuming that the charming building on the edge of the grounds is their new home together. She is confused and somewhat overwhelmed to find out that this is merely the gatehouse. The estate, over which she is now Mistress, is in the distance, complete with its multiple rooms and domestic staff.

The new Mrs de Winter tries to settle in, under the disapproving eye of the head housekeeper, Mrs Danvers. Always - always - in the background, there is the haunting memory of the first Mrs Du Winter, whose first name was Rebecca. It all ends in tears, with the new Mrs De Winter eventually finding the simple love that she wanted from the start.

Rebecca is a seminal work of gothic fiction, regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century fiction, celebrated for its masterful atmosphere and its enduring influence on the modern Gothic genre.

The format of the meeting is that we chat about the book in a focused way for about an hour, and then the meeting formally ends. People stay back to speak more about the book or anything else bookish.