About this title: The titles in "Longman Fiction" are mainly new editions of the most popular titles in the "Longman Simplified English" series, including short stories, modern fiction and classics. They are designed to be suitable for students at upper intermediate level, including those preparing for the Cambridge First Certificate examinations. Each book has been re-edited to ensure ease of understanding and naturalness language and keeps within the 2000 word defining vocabulary of the "Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English". Any additional vocabulary used is explained in the glossary. All titles ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Sun Dial Press, New York
Date Published: 1941
Description: Poor. No dust jacket. Nice hard cover, lightly read, shelf wear to cover, 2" wear & tear on bottom of spine, rippling to pages, light aging, first page coming loose from binding, cracks along spine inside covers, stk #2277a6. 457 p. 21 cm. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books
Date Published: 1962
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Nice soft cover, lightly read, shelf wear to cover, light creases on spine, bend on top corner of front cover, light aging, stk #2389L7. 419 p. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Morrow/Avon, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780380009176ISBN:038000917X
Description: Fair. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Good reading copy. Name written on page edges with marker & wear to cover. A couple dogearred pages. SYNOPSIS: With a husband she barely knew, the young Mrs. Maxim de Winter arrived at the immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter... read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780380778553ISBN:0380778556
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Light page tanning from age. Just a hint of light edge wear to soft cover. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 384 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Be swept away to Manderley into a brilliant mystery. The main character, with an unknown name, rises to the challenge of Rebecca's ghostly memory. Can she break Rebecca's influence on Manderley and the inhabitants of this "fairyland"? I highly recommend this mystery to everyone who wants to spirit to another world. This is my favorite novel."
"****SPOILERS FROM BOTH THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE AND JANE EYRE******
After a relatively slow start, once this book hit its climax, the suspense of what would happen next continued to build until it reached a wallop of an ending. My understanding is that there is a tendency to compare this book to Jane Eyre - the orphan who meets a rich man whom she wished to wed, but he holds a horrible secret regarding a former woman in his life. The heroines are similar too - average looking, lonely, and naive, but frankly, Bronte's Jane Eyre can't shine du Maurier's Rebecca shoes when it comes to storytelling. IMHO, Rebecca simply blows Jane Eyre away.
I'm so glad that the movie Rebecca was different from the book. My friend, Sarah, tells me that the endings between the two are different because the book ending was censored from inclusion in the movie. So the movie ends with a fire a la Jane Eyre's crazy Bertha. I guess when all else fails - burn the house down!
Nevertheless, I had been meaning to read this one for a long time, and I'm very glad that I did. Some readers found the unnamed heroine (intentionally done we believe to further cast her in Rebecca's overwhelming shadow) to be naive to the point of annoying, but I didn't. To me, she was a typical 20 something, in love for the first time, who became the mistress of an enormous estate. I'm not sure how many people would have had the strength to step into that role and to take over management of a group servants who weren't impressed and had loyalty to Rebecca, when she had done nothing prior to have built up her confidence. I think that the most interesting twist in the book is not when we find out that Maxim murdered Rebecca, but when we discover that the beautiful Rebecca was nothing but an adulterous, fake, money-grubbing, nasty bitch who was banging her cousin - oy, I never saw that one coming. And good for the author, who gave me a heck of a reason to root for Maxim to get away with murder. Yee ha!"
"Daphne du Maurier era prima hermana de los niños Llewelyn-Davies, a quienes J.M. Barrie dedicó Peter Pan y adoptó ilegalmente tras la muerte de los progenitores. Una historia, como se podrán imaginar, fascinante y truculenta que terminó como el rosario de la aurora, con homosexualidad, suicidios, Primera Guerra Mundial y traumas varios incluidos. Pasemos ahora al asunto que nos ocupa, muchísimo más aburrido sin lugar a dudas, que constituye la crítica de esta cursísima novela. Rebecca es, digámoslo sin temor, Jane Eyre revisited. Pues sí, pese a quien le pese; y no me extraña que en su época se levantaran voces acusando a la autora de plagio, aunque yo no llegaría a tanto. La diferencia con la obra de la mayor de las Brönte reside en que los personajes principales son versiones absolutamente descafeinadas de Jane y Rochester, y lo que es peor, sin un ápice de su carisma y sentido del humor. La narradora sin nombre es una jovencita huérfana que se enamora en dos semanas del típico inglés, estirado como un palo, que bien podría ser su padre (atentos todos a la declaración de amor digna de entrar en los anales de lo absurdo). Ella se fustiga todo el rato por parecer a su lado una niña, cosa más bien risible, teniendo en cuenta que describe, relata y siente como una solterona de setenta tacos. Ya los primeros capítulos me predispusieron en contra de esta obra. El hecho de que una novela de 1938 pueda tomarse como contemporánea de cualquiera de las Brönte, excepto por el detalle del peinado a lo garçon de las mujeres que se pasean por ella, no presagia nada bueno. Vergonzosos los calificativos que le regalan a la pobre Rebecca (que me recordaba a Dorian Gray constantemente): viciosa, corrompida y anormal. Es decir, divertida, sin complejos y probablemente bisexual. Que vamos a ver, yo esto lo leo en un libro de principios del XIX y me quedo tan ancha, pero en pleno siglo XX... por favor. De los otros personajes, como por ejemplo la tan aclamada Sra Danvers, tampoco tengo nada particularmente amable que decir, a parte de que es un tópico con patas y que la escenita de marras con la tonta del bote-recién desposada junto a la ventana es de lo más patético que he leído en años. Menos mal que se lee rápido; tiene 400 páginas y yo la devoré en un día. El final me gustó. Me habría gustado más si hubiera pillado a la ínclita galería de terratenientes ingleses y a sus palos de criquet dentro de Manderley en ese preciso instante."
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