Katy Reads the Classics: Rebecca (ch 1-3)

Welcome to the first installment of Katy Reads the Classics So You Don't Have To, where we're tackling Daphne du Maurier's 1938 gothic classic, Rebecca.

In this episode, we're starting at the very beginning with an introduction to du Maurier herself, her lifelong obsession with the Cornish estate that inspired Manderley, and the wild story of how a young woman became one of the most successful authors of the twentieth century.

Then we dive into Chapters 1-3, where Manderley is already gone, our narrator is living somewhere in permanent exile with a mysterious man, and absolutely nobody will explain what's happening. We meet the famously unnamed narrator, the deeply irritating Mrs. Van Hopper, and the brooding Max de Winter, whose arrival finally gives us our first real clues about the mystery at the center of the novel.

Time stamps:

00:00 Series kickoff

02:07 Author backstory

08:09 Chapter 1

12:45 Chapter 2

20:15 Chapter 3