Rebecca

Another book off the BBC list.  I have now read 61.  It seems to me as though I have read this before, but I don't remember, and I don't think so.  I was familiar with the story and have seen the movie, so the book didn't really hold much surprise or suspense, but it was fun.  I suppose in a way it could be considered a romance, but it is also a mystery.  

The unnamed narrator, the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter, is haunted by the memory of Rebecca, Maxim's first wife, even though she never knew her.  Upon their marriage, Maxim takes his new bride home to Manderley, where they hope to begin a new life together.  But Rebecca's shadow falls over everything they do.  The narrator feels that she is not as good as Rebecca, that she is always being compared to her.  She eventually comes to learn of Rebecca's true character and the real nature of her relationship to her husband, but at a tragic cost to her and Maxim.  

At the conclusion of the book, I was left wondering why, as a couple, Maxim and his wife are leading such a nomadic existence, when there is really nothing preventing them from having a stable life someplace other than Manderley.  At the very end of the book Manderley is burning, and I can understand them not wanting to stay there.  But why not buy a little place somewhere else in England, or even abroad.  Why live in a string of hotels all the rest of their days, never putting down roots.  Makes no sense to me.  I was left unsatisfied in that regard.  Otherwise, I agree with the cover that this book is "a classic tale of romantic suspense."