Book review : Rebecca.

I finally read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. To have waited so long is unforgiveable, you might say ; but what a treat ! What a delight ! She was bisexual with a special tenderness for women ; and it shows : not in the plot, but in the sensitivity permeating the whole novel.

Descriptions take you to a higher, dreamier level than that of usual metaphors. Each sentence is perfectly balanced. Add or remove just one syllable, and the rhythm collapses, the music is gone. I hadn’t enjoyed such perfection of style since reading Sue Gee’s The mysteries of Glass.

Rebecca is one of these novels that one wishes could go on forever.