book & it is a far cry from our last selection Rebecca, a classic that has endured for 80 years,
never out of print. Rebecca has not released her hold on me, not yet. Over the weekend, i
picked up my inter-library loan The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories and fell once again
under the spell of Daphne du Maurier and Rebecca. The first 32 pages of the book chronicles
the chapter outlines of the beginning novel; Daphne was 30 years old when she was ready to
publish, telling the reader:
"So there it was. A finished novel. Title, Rebecca. I wondered if my publisher...would
think it stupid, overdone. Luckily for the author, he did not. Nor did the readers when
it was published."
Daphne begins her notes with:
"Epilogue. Written.
Chapter 1. A companion, sketch of early life. Father a doctor in Eastbourne, mother
dead. Left with little money. Detail of companion's existence. Hotel dining room.
Henry for the first time. The courtesy of H compared to other men."
As you may have guessed, Henry was later renamed and became the Maxim de Winter
of the novel. In reading the preliminary sketch for the book, I noticed the length of the
chapters increasing as Daphne became more involved with her characters. There are
differences, and there are similarities. Our unnamed narrator takes out a snapshot of
Rebecca in one scenario and feels Rebecca talking to her, telling her what to do, that she
wants to be left alone with Henry (Max). As you will recall, it was in the book, that Mrs.
Danvers played this scene, in front of the west wing's large bedroom window.....
Another change was the character of Paul Astley (renamed Jack Favell in the book), Rebecca's
second cousin, lover and prospective husband (escape to Paris together!). Then there is
our narrators suicide attempt by ingesting Lysol that prompts Henry (Max) to declare love
and unburden his soul.
I found Daphne's ending in her Rebecca draft the most interesting of all:
"Chapter XXVI. Going towards Manderley. We still have to go away --they take the
decision, they go over it all. After all that has happened. Perhaps Rebecca will have the
last word yet. The road narrows before the avenue. A car with blazing headlights
passed. Henry swerved to avoid it, and it came at us, rearing out of the ground, its
huge arms outstretched to embrace us, crashing and splintering above our heads."
Daphne finishes the Rebecca Notebook with an epilogue. I have highlighted a few selections
here:
"We shall never live in England again, that much is certain. The past would be too close
to us..."
"What a hidebound persnickety couple we must seem to an outside, like yourself,
clinging to our routine and living like slaves to the clock."
"Well, it is over now, finished and done with. I ride no more tormented, and Henry
is free. Even my faithful Jasper has gone to the happy hunting ground, and this summer
Manderley opens as a country club......Four concrete squash courts stand where the
stables used to be, and they have sunk a swimming pool in the wilderness..."
"...The place will be packed for the opening weekend, every room is booked already,
and a famous film star is to start the proceedings by diving into the swimming pool
in evening dress. The dress no doubt to be auctioned afterwards..."
"The guests will sleep soundly in their beds. Our ghosts will never trouble them."
"And you, perhaps, you will visit Manderley one weekend, jaded and out of sorts
from your London season."
"Now, with Henry by my side, in spite of all we have lost, in spite of his maimed body
and scarred hands, those days, the terror, the distress, are over, and I feel a glow
of contentment come upon me. His maimed body and my disfigurement are things
of no account...."
"Henry draws the rug over his knees, throws away his cigarette, then closes his
eyes. I fix my dark glasses, reach for my gag of knitting. And before us, long as a
skein of wool I wind, stretches the vista of our afternoon."