Books

First edition, first impression, signed by the author. Du Maurier wrote Rebecca during her unhappy sojourn in Egypt as an army wife. The author explores themes of jealousy "based on her own feelings of jealousy towards a former fiancée of her husband's, Jan Ricardo, but it was hailed as a romantic novel in the tradition of Jane Eyre" (ODNB). Du Maurier's inscription is on the Book Society's bookplate on the front free endpaper. This copy has the owner inscription "R Hutchinson" dated August 1938 above the bookplate, possibly that of the British novelist and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Ray Coryton Hutchinson (1907-1975), who published Testament that same year. The bookplate was designed by the British artist Rex Whistler. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. Spine browned and cocked, bumped extremities, covers lightly rubbed, faint ring mark to front cover, edges and contents foxed, minor splash marks to rear endpapers: a very good copy. .

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. The novel 'Rebecca', by Daphne du Maurier, begins with this evocative sentence, setting the tone for a story of romance, jealousy, and intrigue. The unnamed protagonist, a young and naive woman, marries the charismatic Maxim de Winter after a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo. Upon moving to his ancestral estate, Manderley, she confronts the pervasive influence of his late wife, Rebecca, whose legacy lives on long after her death.