Rebecca's Tale
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By Sally Beauman
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1 review
On the twentieth anniversary of the death of Rebecca, the hauntingly beautiful first wife of Maxim de Winter, family friend Colonel Julyan receives an anonymous parcel. It contains a black notebook with two handwritten words on the title page — Rebecca’s Tale — and two pictures: a photograph of Rebecca as a young child and a postcard of Manderley. Rebecca once asked Julyan to ensure she was buried in the churchyard facing the sea: if she ended up in the de Winter crypt, she warned, she’d come back to haunt him. Now, it seems, she has finally kept her promise.
Julyan’s conscience has never been clear over the official version of Rebecca’s death. Was Rebecca the manipulative, promiscuous femme fatale her husband claimed. Or the gothic heroine of tragic proportions that others had suggested. The official story, the ‘truth’, has only had Maxim’s version of events to consider. But all that is about to change . . .
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Rebecca’s Tale by Sally Beauman is a sequel to the 1938 Gothic novel ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier. Its title implies that the reader will be enlightened further as to the character and the circumstances behind the death of Rebecca, the glamorous first wife of Maxim de Winter. Sadly, for me, that is precisely what it didn’t do as it raises more questions than answers. It is narrated from the perspective of four individuals: Colonel Julyan, a retired magistrate, Terence Gray, an historian, Ellie Julyan, daughter of the Colonel, and Rebecca herself, albeit through a missive and her journals. It is never entirely clear if the observations of this team are accurate, convoluted or deliberately manipulated for personal ends. However, in many respects, it mirrors the miasma of interpretation of the original, a clever ploy in itself. On the whole, the past still prevails in this lengthy yarn and the mystery lives on. I’m not sure I really enjoyed it. A bit meh perhaps?
