Customer Reviews

Rebecca's Tale: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Ever since I read Du Maurier's "Rebecca" as a young girl, I fantasized about the vivid character of Rebecca, who never makes a physical appearance throughout the whole story, yet manages to drive the action of all the players. Having glimpsed her essence, I wondered about her motivation--her real motivation--not the prejudiced opinions gleaned from the other characters. What had brought this glamorous female graced with "brains, beauty and breeding" to her less than glorious end at the murdering hand of her own supposedly smitten husband? How had her childhood injected her with the concentrated need to be mistress of Manderley?
If you are expecting all the answers from Sally Beauman's novel, "Rebecca's Tale", look elsewhere. Rather than a straight-forward account of Rebecca's story in Rebecca's voice, we get instead---in an attempt by the author to utilize Du Maurier's masterful yet underhanded heresay approach to uncovering Manderley's secrets, another go at more opinions--and these from two characters who were not even in Du Maurier's classic and do little to elicit sympathy or interest from the reader. Divided into four sections (each narrated by a different voice), the plot centers around the appearance of Terence Grey to the Manderley district. For very personal reasons, Grey is stirring up the old scandal/drama of the first book in order to seek some thread of the elusive Rebecca. Chief on his list of interviewees is Colonel Julyan, now a man in his 70s and his daughter, Ellie. Paramount to Grey's scheme to weed out the truth is the delivery of an old notebook seemingly written in Rebecca's own hand.
So, Rebecca does indeed get to speak, but through a diary written towards the end of her life to her unborn child. Even the information found here is questionable as Rebecca is touted as liar and performer who will say what she will to get what she wants. The "why" is still seeped in mystery and Rebecca sadly remains a shadowy image like film that has not quite been developed.
Ultimately, this lack of substance disappoints even though for the most part the story itself could be compelling if it left out the annoying angst of Ellie's feminism, Julyan's guilt and Grey's inability to be true to himself. Such "modern" "politically correct" dilemmas, have no place in a period piece set in the early 50s. Yes, all the "live" players' issues are resolved, but these events, while tying up the plot's loose ends again do not quite work within the context of discovering the real Rebecca.
On the positive side, Beauman does a wonderful job of weaving her rather labyrinthine tale with the use of the four distinct voices. Her tone works well in conveying the misty Cornwall coast as it carries with it that unsure quality that Du Maurier adopted initially while allowing the young and inexperienced second Mrs. De Winter to meander through her daydreams while dealing with the testy events of her story. Also interesting is the premise of Rebecca's childhood as related through the journal, even though again this is not developed to its full potential, but rather takes the easy way out by remaining slightly elusive. The appearance at the end of the second Mrs. DeWinter seemed too convenient; her characterization was silly--after living through the events of all three Manderley related tales (yes, the plot and outcome of Susan Hill's "Mrs. De Winter" is also incorporated into this story)there is no way this woman could remain so gauche.
As the Du Maurier estate has sanctioned this book as a sequel, I recommend reading it to all of you who hold "Rebecca" dear as one of the great Gothic masterpieces of the 20th century. Who knows, maybe the next one will have all the definitive answer!

Like everyone else who's ever read it, I've been haunted by Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca'. I read the early reviews of 'Rebecca's Tale' and knew I was taking a chance, but I figured what the heck. Early into 'Rebecca's Tale', I was captivated and couldn't put it down. It seemed a marvelous twist on the original. Then--what can I say?--new age sensiblities started raising their ugly heads and the whole thing desolved into a feminist rant. Sally Beauman's portrayal of Rebecca is particularly strange. This woman/child in no way matches the original Rebecca, who--even though dead before the story takes place--is still a powerful character. Beauman's rendition of the second Mrs. De Winter is even worse. She turns her into cardboard. It seems to me that the further Beauman got into her book, the less it had to do with the original, and the more it became a polemic on coming out of the closet. The main message was 'don't let a man tie you down!' That said, I still gave it two stars because Beauman's prose is quite evocative of Du Maurier's and the first section by 'Colonel Julyan' is superb.

What a disappointing read! Since I first read Rebecca, I've been fascinated by Manderley and the de Winters. I was even somewhat satisfied when I read Mrs. de Winter by Susan Hill. When I discovered this book, I was thrilled to read about what happened next. From the beginning, though, I had trouble getting into Rebecca's Tale.

One of the biggest problems for me throughout the book was trudging through the pages and pages of family history. I found myself skimming through long, drawn-out histories that failed to add anything to the story of Rebecca. Finding out about her lineage did not help me to see her as a real person. Besides that, there were too many dead-ends in this story; we are led to believe one thing, but then it all changes. While I enjoy reading novels that keep me guessing, this one just seemed to change course for the sake of changing course.

In addition, the unbelievable depiction of Mrs. Danvers (that reminded me of the witches in Macbeth), the superficial tossing aside of the second Mrs. de Winter as a frumpy, delusional ..., and the sympathetic portrayal of Rebecca all added to my distaste. The only likeable characters in the book were Ellie and Tom, but even that changed as I came to the end of the novel.

The biggest disappointment of all came at the end; in fact, I was so disgusted that I threw the book across the room. Sally Beauman did nothing to maintain the romantic element in the ending of her novel that I loved in du Maurier's book.

Had the ending of the book been more satisfying, I would have been able to overlook the other problems with it. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book to fans of Rebecca. I think the story of Manderely and Rebecca that I have conjured up in my mind is far superior to the story that Sally Beauman developed.

I loved the book Rebecca, so I went ahead and ordered Mrs. DeWinter and Rebecca's Tale. I was disappointed with both. If you read this book as though it's not a sequel, but an entirely different book, it's not so bad. The author seemed to just be using the characters to support her views. For the time frame when Rebecca would have been alive, I highly doubt feminist views would have propelled her to be admired. I also don't think people would have been as okay with homosexuality in the fifties as the book would have one believe. It's a mediocre book that just doesn't follow suit. The characters seemed to have changed so much they are like different people altogether. The nameless Mrs. Dewinter (wife number two) was made to look pathetic and almost insane. This book was a huge disappointment.

Why mess with it? Sally Beauman forces us to view Rebecca in a different, admirable light, certainly a far cry from the way Rebecca is portrayed in the original novel. I find that a bit daring of Ms. Beauman to assume that she understands a character none of us really do. I think Rebecca must have been a mystery even to Daphne DuMaurier. She also gives an unfair picture of the second Mrs. DeWinter, clearly showing that she found her to be a dull, spiritless character. This is not the same character I read in the original, but we all have our own opinions. However, the biggest problem of the book is that it spends hundreds of pages building up a pathetic romance that takes a surprising, but rather silly and disappointing turn. Finally, she rushes to end the book, lamely trying to convince us all that Rebecca was a woman of strength who manages to inspire women beyond the grave. Somehow, I think I liked Rebecca better when she was just a seductive, domineering presence. Excusing her behavior doesn't seem like the sort of thing Rebecca would ever do. Rebecca does what she wants, and answers to no one; that's why we love to hate her.

As an avid fan of the original book, I was intrigued by the idea of a novel that explores the unknown side of Rebecca. Finally, an end to the mystery! Unfortunately, after hundreds of pages, the author breaks her tacit promise to provide an answer, and ends it meaninglessly with the journalistic equivalent of "and then they all got hit by a bus." The sections purportedly written by Colonel Julyan, Ellie, and Rebecca herself are at least interesting to read, but any reader who possesses the sheer teeth-gritting determination to plough through the second section (written in lugubrious fashion indeed, and by a character who was not in the original novel) deserves a better fate than the cop-out ending provided. I admit, I was a bit tired out by the time I got to the end, but I didn't expect the same from the author!

Unfortunately, I was unable to really enjoy "Rebecca's Tale" by Sally Beauman. Partly because I was expecting something along the lines of Jean Rhys's excellent novel, "The Wide Sargasso Sea," where we got a retelling of Bronte's "Jane Eyre," except from the 'mad' wife's point to view -- what I got instead was an almost complete rehashing of du Maurier's novel, with the same questions posed: who was Rebecca? Was she an immoral, manipulative and heartless femme fatale? Or was she a beautiful and tragic heroine, much misunderstood and misinterpreted? Was her death a crime of passion? Or cold blooded murder? And after ploughing through 400 odd pages, these questions were still not answered completely.

The only new bits, discounting the new characters that were introduced to facilitate this investigation into Rebecca's life, was that we learned a little about Rebecca's past, before she met and married Max -- about her childhood and her mother's purported affair with Max's philandering father. A rather over the top plot line I thought. But even here, doubt was constantly being poured onto these new bits of information, so that you really feel as of you're taking part in some kind of futile exercise! I couldn't help but wonder what the point of "Rebecca's Tale" was, since it raised questions, but resolved very little, except to make one of the investigators, Ellie, realise that there were worse fates than ending up a spinster.

Briefly the plot of "Rebecca's Tale is as follows: twenty years after inquest into Rebecca de Winter's death was held, Colonel Julyan, the justice of the peace who had been in charge of the case, receives a mysterious package in which he finds a black notebook and two photographs, one of Rebecca, and another of Manderly, the de Winter estate. The arrival of this package coincides with the arrival of a mysterious young man, Terence Gray, who for reasons of his own, is digging into Rebecca's past. At the Colonel's behest, Gray teams up with the Colonel's daughter, Ellie; and soon, the two are busy interviewing the local people who knew Rebecca, and reading her diaries. The picture that emerges is a slightly confusing one, and more questions are raised than answered. For example: why did Max de Winter marry again so soon after Rebecca's death? (We know why of course, but for Gray & Ellie, this question is most perplexing.) Also, the portrait of Rebecca that emerges after reading her diary for the year of her death is not a very flattering one: the Rebecca of those diary entries appears to be obsessive, manipulative, paranoid, and slightly deranged. But is this the real Rebecca? That is the question that both Gray and Ellie must decide. And this of course leads to the big question of how she died. Did she plan the course of her death, using Max as an instrument of her death? Or did Max finally snap and decide to be rid of a wife he no longer wanted?

The problem, for me, is that "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, is one of my all time favourite gothic novels. I remember reading this novel for the first time with great fondness. I also remember taking to the nameless heroine, the second Mrs. de Winter, and disliking Rebecca very, very much. Nothing about this novel made me change my mind about these feelings or notions. The thing is that for me anyway, Sally Beauman's "Rebecca's Tale" did not enhance du Maurier's in the same manner that Jean Rhy's "The Wide Sargasso Sea" enhanced Bronte's "Jane Eyre." Nothing was really resolved. There was no new dimension or facet to the mystery that was Rebecca and everything remained ambiguously the same. Rebecca remains the enigma that she was in du Maurier's novel, and I just felt as if I had wasted an entire afternoon on nothing.

I had looked forward to this book with great anticipation and couldn't wait to start reading. My expectations were met beautifully until the last forty pages. I really disliked the way the author turned Rebecca into the heroine and the second Mrs. deWinter into a sad woman to be pitied when, in the original "Rebecca," it was the other way around. In short, loved the book, hated the ending!

One of the worst books I have ever read. The character of Colonel Julyan seems to have been based on Louella Parsons or Hedda Hopper, and Rebecca has had a heaping dose of Shirley MacLaine. The author has attempted to give the book more of a duMaurier feel by using surnames from duMaurier's other books for her characters. Descriptions of people and places are lifted almost word-for-word from the original. The book oozes with some of the worst of current politically correct and new age ideas.

For all those who were haunted by Rebecca DeWinter after they read DuMaurier's novel, here is a wonderful book that will answer all your unanswered questions.

From the first paragraph I was hooked, wanting to read more about Rebecca's hidden secrrets. I have most of DuMaurier's Rebecca memorized, so I instantly caught on to this story. (I reccomend rereading DuMaurier's Rebecca)

The main plot is basically the hunt for information on Rebecca DeWinter. Thomas Grey, a journalist, desperatly wants to know more about her past for an unknown reason, Inspector Juliyan, now an ancient and decrepit old man wants to clear up the rumors that have been spreading about Manderley for the past 20 years.

This book drags the reader on this search for the truth about the mysterious Rebecca. After being almost on the verge of obsession with DuMaurier's classic book, I was finally able to feel at peace.

Even though this is NOT by the original author, Sally Beauman captured the spirit of the way Rebecca was written. I was captivated by her book from the beginning to end.