Books

NB: No dustjacket. Sixteenth impression (September 1940). Blue hardcover with title in black on spine. Condition: Fair, with general light shelfwear to covers. Binding sound. General light browning to all pages. Previous owners name and address neatly written at top of front endpaper with gift inscription dated Christmas 1940 below. Double signed by Daphne du Maurier and Sir Laurence Olivier sideways on title page. (Sir Laurence Olivier played the part of Maxim de Winter in the 1940 film adaptation of Rebecca). A letter is loosely inserted from Daphne Browning (du Maurier's married name) to the previous owner on Kilmarth address headed notepaper and dated 1982. Sold together with a copy of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The copy is dated 1940 and published by Macmillan & Co. There is no dustjacket and the covers are in poor condition with the binding being a little loose, sunning to spine and edges of covers and splitting to the cloth at spine edges. The front endpaper bears the same name and address as the copy of Rebecca detailed above, and is signed by Vivien Leigh on the half-title (Vivien Leigh played the part of Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film adaptation of Gone with the Wind and was the wife of Sir Laurence Olivier from 1940 to 1960).

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.