It depicts an unnamed young woman who impetuously marries a wealthy widower, before discovering that both he and his household are haunted by the memory of his late first wife, the title character.

She continually attempts to undermine the narrator psychologically, subtly suggesting to her that she will never attain the beauty, urbanity, and charm her predecessor possessed.

Cowed by Mrs Danvers' imposing manner and the other members of West Country society's unwavering reverence for Rebecca, the narrator becomes isolated.

On the suggestion of Mrs Danvers, the narrator wears a replica of the dress shown in a portrait of one of the house's former inhabitants, ignorant of the fact that Rebecca had worn the same costume to much acclaim shortly before her death.

Rebecca, Maxim reveals, was a cruel and selfish woman who took many lovers while manipulating everyone around her into believing her to be the perfect wife and a paragon of virtue.

However, Rebecca's first cousin and lover, Jack Favell, attempts to blackmail Maxim, claiming she could not have intended suicide based on a note she sent to him the night she died.

On hearing that Mrs Danvers has abruptly disappeared from Manderley, Maxim feels a great sense of foreboding and insists on driving through the night to return home.

"[4] Her husband, Tommy "Boy" Browning, was Lieutenant Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and they were posted to Alexandria, Egypt, with the Second Battalion, leaving Britain on 30 July 1937.

"[4] On returning to Britain in December 1937, du Maurier decided to spend Christmas away from her family to write the book and she successfully delivered it to her publisher less than four months later.

[4] Du Maurier commented publicly in her lifetime that the book was based on her own memories of Menabilly and Cornwall, as well as her relationship with her father.

[7] The depictions of Manderly may have been influenced by du Maurier's childhood visits to Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire (then in Northamptonshire) home of the Wentworth-Fitzwilliam family.

[8] Shortly after Rebecca was published in Brazil, critic Álvaro Lins pointed out many resemblances between du Maurier's book and the work of Brazilian writer Carolina Nabuco.

Nabuco's A Sucessora (The Successor), published in 1934, has a main plot similar to Rebecca, for example a young woman marrying a widower and the strange presence of the first wife—plot features also shared with the far older Jane Eyre.

Immediately following a 1941 article in The New York Times Book Review highlighting the two novels' many similarities,[10] du Maurier issued a rebuttal in a letter to the editor.

On receipt, the book was read in Gollancz's office, and her "editor, Norman Collins, reported simply: 'The new Daphne du Maurier contains everything that the public could want.

"[4] The novel has been continuously in print since 1938 and in 1993 "du Maurier's US publishers Avon estimated ongoing monthly paperback sales of Rebecca at more than 4,000 copies.

"[19] More recently, in a column for The Independent, the critics Ceri Radford and Chris Harvey recommended the book and argued that Rebecca is a "marvellously gothic tale" with a good dose of atmospheric and psychological horror.

[21] In the U.S., du Maurier won the National Book Award for favourite novel of 1938, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association.

The film, which starred Laurence Olivier as Maxim, Joan Fontaine as his wife, and Dame Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, was based on the novel.

[citation needed] An Indian film adaptation titled Kohraa followed in 1964, directed by Biren Nag, written by Dhruva Chatterjee, and starring Waheeda Rehman, Biswajeet and Lalita Pawar.

Rebecca, a 1997 Carlton Television drama serial, starred Emilia Fox (Joanna David's daughter, in the same role played by her mother in 1979), Charles Dance as de Winter, and Dame Diana Rigg as Mrs Danvers.

In 2008, a two-part Italian TV adaption, loosely based on the novel and named Rebecca, la prima moglie, aired on the national public broadcaster RAI.

[36] The first adaptation of Rebecca for any medium was presented 9 December 1938, by Orson Welles, as the debut program of his live CBS Radio series The Campbell Playhouse (the sponsored continuation of The Mercury Theatre on the Air).

Introducing the story, Welles refers to the forthcoming motion picture adaptation by David O. Selznick; at the conclusion of the show he interviews Daphne du Maurier in London via shortwave radio.

[43] The Lux Radio Theatre presented hour-long adaptations with Ronald Colman, Ida Lupino and Judith Anderson (3 February 1941), and with Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Betty Blythe (6 November 1950).

[50] The stage adaptation of Rebecca was produced by the Brunton Theatre Company in Musselburgh, under the direction of Charles Nowosielski, in January and February 1990.

One copy was kept at Rommel's headquarters,[55] and the other was carried by German Abwehr agents infiltrated into Cairo after crossing Egypt by car, guided by Count László Almásy.

The 1970 Parallel Time storyline of the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows was heavily inspired by Rebecca including the costume ball scene.

The sketch, which stars Robert Webb as Maxim, David Mitchell as Mrs Danvers, and Jo Neary as Rebecca, explores an alternate approach to a filmatization of the novel.