I’ve recently read the three novels that are continuations or, or inspired by, Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’. Of the three – ‘The Other Rebecca’ by Maureen Freely, ‘Mrs De Winter’ by Susan Hill and ‘Rebecca’s Tale’ by Sally Beaumann, the first prize must go to Beaumann. She keeps the voice of the original well, in terms of time and place, but the first narrator, in a novel of four parts, is the aged Colonel Julyan, who presided over Rebecca’s inquest. He’s always had his suspicions about what truly happened, but the mistake that Favell made, and perhaps readers too, is that he didn’t keep his suspicions quiet in order to protect Maxim and his family name, as was implied. He kept his silence in order to protect Rebecca, as he’d been very fond of her. The novel starts with him reminiscing over the past, because an upstart author wants to write yet another book about the Manderley mystery, which has become folklore in its part of the world. Julyan recollects his long relationship with the De Winter family, and I loved his description of being a boy, playing at the great old house. His portraits of the terrifying De Winter matriarch, (Maxim’s grandmother), the kind but wilting Virginia (his mother) and her glorious sisters, and of Bea and Maxim as children, are wonderful. The story draws you right in from the start because what happened to Rebecca was wholly tied up with the way the De Winters were, an ancient family going back eight hundred years. There’s more than a whiff of authors like P G Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh, in the light, acerbic wit of the writing. This is nowhere near a ‘women’s romantic novel’ as I'd mistakenly believed.I was surprised – and pleased – to find ‘Rebecca’s Tale’ keeps to the ‘canon’ found in Hill’s ‘Mrs De Winter’ – i.e. what happened to the De Winters when they returned to England, or at least as much of that as Julyan and other major characters can possibly know – which is only the bare facts. Still, this novel carries on neatly from Hill’s, (and was written afterwards), and it seems to me that Beaumann must have known of that book and kept to the same story. Or the similarities are just uncanny coincidences…Part Two of the story is told by Terence Grey, the writer who’s in Kerrith investigating the story of Rebecca. Grey is a complex character, with secrets and tragedies of his own. His interest in the old story lurches towards obsession, dangerously so. Through Grey we meet some of the other characters from ‘Rebecca’ and hear their version of events – such as the cousin Jack Favell, Frith the erstwhile butler of Manderley, and other colourful Kerrith characters. The truth about Rebecca, it seems, is more convoluted than everyone thought. Her own history is revealed in tantalizing glimpses – the girl she’d once been and the woman she became who was mistress of Manderley. The reader begins to learn about her heritage. While Grey investigates, an anonymous individual is sending notebooks of Rebecca’s to Colonel Julyan, and is also perhaps the same person who leaves a wreath at Rebecca’s old boathouse cottage, and sends a piece of her jewellery to Favell. Mysteries mount, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!Part three is Rebecca’s own tale, as found in the second notebook sent to Julyan. But we know already that Rebecca is often a minx. Is her testimony reliable? Whether this is true or not, it’s riveting to read. A free spirit, Rebecca was born ahead of her time, totally unsuited to a woman’s life in the early part of the 20th century. She suffered for her difference, as she was rarely understood. And the tragic way she narrates her story to an unborn child she believes she is carrying is moving while being unsentimental. Naturally, Rebecca’s tale is cut short by her own death. Many threads are left dangling.Part four is related by Ellie, Colonel Julyan’s daughter. Hers is a strong, true voice, but even she has her obsession with Rebecca, seeing in the dead woman a promising template for female emancipation at a time in history when women were fighting for their rights, and most men still regarded them as mistresses, mothers or domestics. Ellie’s is undoubtedly the most political account, but she is also a vibrant, convincing character with her own desires and dreams. Ellie uncovers more mysteries, and in one case solves one, while simultaneously growing as a person. During her account, the narrative never falters. All four narrators, each with their distinctive voice, carry the story along at a good pace, but it is still deep and ponderous – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. This is not a short or shallow book by any means.Most, but not all, of the threads finally weave together and the reader is left to make up their own mind. You don’t feel in any way short-changed by that, though. What Beaumann has done is create a convincing account, including the difficulty of discovering historical truths, when the main protagonists are dead. Some truth died with them. Rebecca affected everyone she met, often dramatically. She is perhaps all the things everyone ever thought her to be, and more, a girl who fought to survive throughout a difficult childhood and adolescence, who set her will at making an adult life for herself, to her liking. But she is always human, believable. Her gift to Ellie is revealed at the end of book, perhaps far different from what you expect all the way through. I loved that. My favourite book of those I’ve read over the past few years is ‘The Little Stranger’ by Sarah Waters, but Sally Beaumann’s ‘Rebecca’s Tale’ will now be stored on the same shelf.
Stupid Me!!!Fancy believing in a sequel when the author provided none and never intended one. Anyway, why would you want to know more about the De Winters?...they found true love, laid a very nasty ghost and swanned around the continent hereafter. A Very Happy Ending methinks??Oh no!!! Not for Sally.Daphne du Maurier was safely dead before Sally started meddling with her masterpiece. Sally won't have it, won't believe a thing Daphne has written. Rebecca was REALLLLLY nice!! (REALLY?????????????????????)Max was always and forever in love with Sally's Rebecca, and tops himself in this sham sequel to prove it.(NO! NO! NO! Sally dear!!)The big denoument of the original novel which hits you like a brick is that Max HATED Rebecca. Daphne makes it quite clear that he hated her.(Sally totally ignores this which is simply amazing!!)And the nameless heroine?(Boy, does Sally hate HER!!!)She matures, as Daphne has shown by a device called 'character development' Sally, and becomes a true and credible heroine, worthy of herself and her man.Then you realise what Sally's real agenda is. She is NOT writing a sequel at all. She is RE-writing du Maurier's classic book, no less!!!She is letting us in on tne Truth.Sorry Sally.There is NO Truth. We are dealing here with a FICTIONAL novel.You should have just gone off and written your own classic novel. But why do that, when you are assured of far more sales when you can just hijack sonebody else's hard work by stealing their readymade, already well-loved characters. And Fans.Lazy, Greedy, Talentless Sally!!!Please write out one hundred times:"I must not steal other people's excellent ideas and rip off both financially and psychologically the original fans not to speak of the time they will have wasted reading my longwinded, pseudo-sequel travesty." Thankyou Sally.You may now return to your desk. And pleeese...no more writing?Try crocheting.PS For all those Austen "fans" who eat up the pseudo-sequels to Austen's books. Jane would slay the lot of you with her wit.
Do You like book Rebecca's Tale (2007)?
Colonel Julyan is one of the few people alive who actually knew the real Rebecca. When he receives an anonymous package concerning Rebecca, the famed Mrs De Winter, he decides once and for all to investigate and set straight the mystery surrounding Rebecca and her death.I am such a fan of the original story and I've got to say that Sally Beauman tells an excellent story here. She sets the tone of the story in her own style and it is one which compliments Du Maurier's tone. I loved this book and read it practically in two days. I found I couldn't put it down and read late into the night; that's a good sign for me. I've read this book many times since my first read and I would recommend it to all who have read and loved the first book. Having said that, this book doesn't need you to have read Du Maurier's story, it is a stand alone book on it's own.This was my first Sally Beauman book; I've now read all her novels and found them enjoyable. It's not literary fiction but it's a really good read. 4★
—B the BookAddict
I was surprised by how hostile most of the reviews were of this book. I thought it was really good, and much better than just a "what happened after the book ended" kind of a book. I've read the novel by Du Maurier but I really love the Hitchcock film and have seen it so many times i've pretty well memorized it. I thought Sally Beauman did a very good job of capturing the nuances of how everyone thought and spoke and looked, and of taking those mannerisms and putting them into new scenes without making me feel like she'd just taken scenes from the original and moved them forward by 20 years. I found the plot interesting and compelling. I had the hardest time reading the section narrated by Rebecca Herself because she's such an unattractive clearly psychotic character (with subtle suggestions that she had a split personality). I was surprised by how many reviewers said Beauman was trying to make Rebecca a sympathetic character. I didn't see that at all. I was a little disappointed at how much she hated the second Mrs. De Winter, but I kind of got what she disliked about her; she explains it pretty well through the character of Ellie Julyan. And while the ending wasn't fully satisfying, I felt it was very honest. The original Rebecca didn't want or try to have everything make sense; it was a suspense novel and a really good one, and maybe a little less information is what helps make a story like that tick along so well. Beauman is going back and asking a million questions about how come and what if; she answers nearly all of them in a really convincing way and in the end she kind of says, "well, no one can ever really know." She does take a couple liberties with the plot of the original book and movie and changes a couple of key things, but .... I was Ok with that. This, weirdly, is one of the longest reviews I've posted on Goodreads in a while; so I guess that tells you that I felt very strongly about this book. I did really enjoy it.
—Cynthia
April 1951. It has been twenty years since the death of Rebecca, the hauntingly beautiful wife of Maxim De Winter, and twenty years since Manderley, the de Winter family's estate, was destroyed by fire. But Rebecca's tale is just beginning.Colonel Julyan, an old family friend, receives an anonymous package concerning Rebecca. An inquisitive young scholar named Terence Gray appears and stirs up the quiet seaside hamlet with questions about the past and the close ties he soon forges with the Colonel and his eligible daughter, Ellie. Amid bitter gossip and murky intrigue, the trio begins a search for the real Rebecca and the truth behind her mysterious death.
—Rebekkila
