I was quite fortunate growing up to have two parents that valued education as highly as they did. My mother was a graduate of Smith and my father was a graduate of Yale. My father majored in English literature, and he was the editor of the Yale Daily News; my mother minored in English. With this information, you can probably understand why they were so concerned with how I was educated. The story goes that I was not even walking when I was learning to read, granted they also said I was a late walker, so I don't know if there's anything to be proud of there. My father worked hard to teach me how to read and write at an early age. By the time I was in second grade, my father was assigning me novels to read, and then he would, at a minimum, quiz me on what I had read, or he would make me write on it. Some of my favorite books from that time were Penrod by Booth Tarkington, the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis; however, one book that resonated with me the most, and the one that I return to most often is a book called Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier.
The story was about a young woman who meets a fabulously wealthy widower, Maxim De Winters (for short), in Monte Carlo while working as a companion. Through a very shot amount of time, the young woman (who is never given a first name) and Mr. De Winters marry, and he whisks her off to his sprawling estate in the English countryside: Manderley. The second Mrs. De Winters is welcomed almost without question by the household staff, but it was Mrs. Danvers, the head housekeeper, who was cold from the start. She has been devoted to Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, and after her tragic death, Mrs Danvers enshrined her possessions in such a way that it was if she had never died.
Rebecca's death is one of my favorite types of epiphanies in literature, and it was one that took Mrs. Danvers, who I think is one of the best female villains in the books that I have read. I do have to apologize if I ruin the ending for anyone who has read it, but it is most important. You see, when Rebecca died, it was said that she had a sailing accident, which a body washed up a few weeks later that Maxim identified as his wife's, though it was thoroughly mutilated by the Channel. Rebecca was an accomplished sailor, and she often sailed alone off the coast of the Manderley estate. Her boathouse had be transformed into a lush retreat for her to entertain company, and so it was fairly often that she would be away from the main house. One person that frequented the cottage was Rebecca's cousin, Jack Favell, with whom she was sexually involved with.
Jack was convinced that Maxim staged Rebecca's death after a fight. Rebecca had sent word to him that she needed to seem him as soon as possible, and he was under the impression that it was to have news of her being pregnant. Thinking this, Jack wove a brilliant tale of a madly jealous husband killing his wife to prevent scandal, and then sinking his wife and her boat. Rebecca did tell him that she was pregnant, but she used it to her advantage.
Towards the end of the story, a wreck in the Channel brought in government divers, and they found the lost boat and discovered a body in the cabin; it was Rebecca. An inquest was held, and it was looking bleak for Maxim De Winters. Jack Favell and Mrs. Danvers (or Danny as he affectionately called her) were about to triumph over the De Winters and have justice for their beloved, and idolized, Rebecca.
It was after a visit to one of her doctors that the inquest found that Rebecca had been sick; that was the news she had for Jack, and though Maxim may have done the dirty work and murdered his wife, it was ruled a suicide. Rebecca had used her false pregnancy to enrage Maxim enough to kill her; essentially, it was assisted suicide, but the law was unaware of those facts.
The epiphany in this story that hit me the hardest was when Mrs. Danvers learned of the cancer and the secret visits to a London doctor. She had thought that she was the closest to Rebecca, and that she knew her most intimate of secrets. The fact that Rebecca had an advanced form of cancer, and that the verdict matched so well with the circumstances tore Mrs. Danvers apart. In her madness, she burned down Manderley. I began to realize that the characters needed the house to burn. It was Rebecca's house and toxic to their relationship. This was probably my first epiphany that I truly had in literature, though it was probably not my brightest.
As an additional note, the book has been adapted to the silver screen, several times. My favorite has always been the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock version. Judith Anderson was a brilliant Mrs. Danvers!
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