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Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
Oct. 25th, 2021 08:41 pmRebecca is a justifiably famous book! Extremely compelling, very more-ish, and with all sorts of interesting complexity going on.
Going into this book for the first time, I actually already knew pretty much what to expect, because I'm familiar with a musical version of Rebecca. Not that I've ever watched the musical! But there's a euro musical about her, and there's a demo album translating that musical into english -- with, and this is key, bits of narration between the songs telling the listener what's happening. So I already knew all the major emotional beats, the characters, and what to expect out of the plot. Because I've listened to that demo a LOT.
And actually the most surprising thing about reading the book was how unsurprising it was? I expected the musical to have taken more liberties with the text! But in fact it hews remarkably close.
The two things the musical does differently:
( both are spoilers I think )
Something that gets lost in the transition to musical from novel is the tenor of the protagonist's narration. She is constantly getting carried away with her imaginings of the future or the past or someone else's internal life, to the degree that she seems almost to live more in her imagined version of the world than in reality. I loved this, and how much it added to both a) the constant feeling of foreboding in the novel, and b) the sense of how young and naive and powerless she is.
She's a fascinating character to see through the eyes of; you're encouraged, as the reader, to get drawn into her point of view, to be on her side, to want what she wants, because she seems like just about the only non-sinister thing in the entire book! (well okay, Mrs Van Hopper doesn't seem sinister, just banal and unpleasant)
( more spoilers )
So yes it turns out the protagonist is a horrible person too, just like most other people in the book, and it's great. And you still care about her!
The other important thing in the book, beyond the protagonist and her narrative perspective on things, is Rebecca and Mrs Danvers being evil lesbians. Because they ARE and it's DELICIOUS.
Actually this is something thing that I think the musical does even better than the book, though the book also does a great job. But musicals are MADE for letting someone take the stage in proper dramatic-evil-lesbian fashion, and Mrs Danvers DELIVERS. Mrs Danvers is all "did u kno Rebecca is a beautiful immortal with magic powers who scorns men, and she loves me very much and would never leave me, and I WILL use this information to bully you to death via song." Amazing.
The song that singlehandedly got me interested in Rebecca back in the day, though, was the Hungarian version of Maxim's confession song, because the actor playing Maxim is just great. (Bereczki Zoltán! He's also great as Mercutio in Rómeó és Júlia, among other things.) There used to be a copy of it on youtube with English subtitles, but at this point unsubtitled Hungarian is your only option, if you want to watch the song.
And if you want to listen to the whole English demo version.......I don't know where to find it online anymore, but uh, I'd be willing to share!!
Besides Evil Lesbians, the other thing I think the musical does better than the book is feeling like it has an ending. The ending of the book is REALLY abrupt. The ability of a musical to do a reprise of a song from the beginning of the story means that it can end in the same place as the book but deliberately point you to think about how the ending ties into the beginning thematically, whereas the book just left me feeling adrift.
Anyway the last thing I have to say about this book is that since becoming interested in birding I have been paying entirely too much attention to what birds authors do and don't mention in their books, and this book has just enough birds to know that du Maurier knows birds exist, but few enough birds that I doubt du Maurier knows anything at all about birds. (There are: blackbirds singing in a flowered valley, one mention of an imagined owl at a dramatic moment, occasional pigeons, and lots and lots of gulls. Did you know gulls are the ONLY kind of bird you get by the sea.)
(the other book that annoyed me recently bird-wise is a reread of The Raven Tower, which contains: ravens and gulls. Did you know gulls are the only kind of bird you get by the sea!!)
Going into this book for the first time, I actually already knew pretty much what to expect, because I'm familiar with a musical version of Rebecca. Not that I've ever watched the musical! But there's a euro musical about her, and there's a demo album translating that musical into english -- with, and this is key, bits of narration between the songs telling the listener what's happening. So I already knew all the major emotional beats, the characters, and what to expect out of the plot. Because I've listened to that demo a LOT.
And actually the most surprising thing about reading the book was how unsurprising it was? I expected the musical to have taken more liberties with the text! But in fact it hews remarkably close.
The two things the musical does differently:
( both are spoilers I think )
Something that gets lost in the transition to musical from novel is the tenor of the protagonist's narration. She is constantly getting carried away with her imaginings of the future or the past or someone else's internal life, to the degree that she seems almost to live more in her imagined version of the world than in reality. I loved this, and how much it added to both a) the constant feeling of foreboding in the novel, and b) the sense of how young and naive and powerless she is.
She's a fascinating character to see through the eyes of; you're encouraged, as the reader, to get drawn into her point of view, to be on her side, to want what she wants, because she seems like just about the only non-sinister thing in the entire book! (well okay, Mrs Van Hopper doesn't seem sinister, just banal and unpleasant)
( more spoilers )
So yes it turns out the protagonist is a horrible person too, just like most other people in the book, and it's great. And you still care about her!
The other important thing in the book, beyond the protagonist and her narrative perspective on things, is Rebecca and Mrs Danvers being evil lesbians. Because they ARE and it's DELICIOUS.
Actually this is something thing that I think the musical does even better than the book, though the book also does a great job. But musicals are MADE for letting someone take the stage in proper dramatic-evil-lesbian fashion, and Mrs Danvers DELIVERS. Mrs Danvers is all "did u kno Rebecca is a beautiful immortal with magic powers who scorns men, and she loves me very much and would never leave me, and I WILL use this information to bully you to death via song." Amazing.
The song that singlehandedly got me interested in Rebecca back in the day, though, was the Hungarian version of Maxim's confession song, because the actor playing Maxim is just great. (Bereczki Zoltán! He's also great as Mercutio in Rómeó és Júlia, among other things.) There used to be a copy of it on youtube with English subtitles, but at this point unsubtitled Hungarian is your only option, if you want to watch the song.
And if you want to listen to the whole English demo version.......I don't know where to find it online anymore, but uh, I'd be willing to share!!
Besides Evil Lesbians, the other thing I think the musical does better than the book is feeling like it has an ending. The ending of the book is REALLY abrupt. The ability of a musical to do a reprise of a song from the beginning of the story means that it can end in the same place as the book but deliberately point you to think about how the ending ties into the beginning thematically, whereas the book just left me feeling adrift.
Anyway the last thing I have to say about this book is that since becoming interested in birding I have been paying entirely too much attention to what birds authors do and don't mention in their books, and this book has just enough birds to know that du Maurier knows birds exist, but few enough birds that I doubt du Maurier knows anything at all about birds. (There are: blackbirds singing in a flowered valley, one mention of an imagined owl at a dramatic moment, occasional pigeons, and lots and lots of gulls. Did you know gulls are the ONLY kind of bird you get by the sea.)
(the other book that annoyed me recently bird-wise is a reread of The Raven Tower, which contains: ravens and gulls. Did you know gulls are the only kind of bird you get by the sea!!)
