“I was both extremely short-sighted and extremely self-conscious,” she says. “I was quite an internalised child and teenager. When I look back, between the ages of eight and 17, when I went to Oxford, I think I just read all the time.” Encouraged by her mother, Lee was reading Elizabeth Bowen, Rebecca West, Rosamond Lehmann and Stevie Smith, as well as classics such as Jane Eyre. She was drawn to “emotionally intense, rather angry, heroines”. (Anna Leszkiewicz)
Vogue (Spain) has writer Carmen Posadas list the books by women writers that should be on everyone's shelves.
Wuthering Heights is one of them.
‘Cumbres Borrascosas’, de Emily Brontë
“Es un libro terrible pero también una extraordinaria historia de amor. Desde que la leí con dieciséis años vivo enamorada de Heathcliff, uno de los personajes románticos y a la vez contradictorios más apasionantes que ha dado la literatura”.
(Paloma Abad) (Translation)
And now hello and welcome to RebeccaBlog (with some mentions of the Brontës).
Pop Sugar recommends 11 films that are 'Sure to Give You a Thrill' 'just like Rebecca'.
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992)
The brooding Heathcliff, played in the film by Ralph Fiennes, was certainly the mold for Armie Hammer's Maxim de Winter. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights follows what happens when an orphaned Heathcliff is taken in by the wealthy Earshaw family and falls for his foster sister, Cathy. Cathy eventually marries Edgar Linton due to societal pressures, but can't forget her bond with Heathcliff, who vows to win her back one way or another. [...]
Jane Eyre (2011)
Jane Eyre and Rebecca share a handsome yet broody love interest plagued with issues leftover from his previous wife. In the film, Jane Eyre starts her life out as an abused orphan before taking on the job of governess at the estate of Edward Rochester. The two begin to fall in love, however, Edward's dark moods threaten everything. When Jane discovers the terrible secret Edward's been keeping, she flees — although, she can't quite quit him. (Grayson Gilcrease)
We don't know why many sites had headlines selling
Rebecca as based on a true story only to say it isn't a true story in the article itself. Well, it's called clickbaiting, we know, but it's silly all the same. See for instance
Refinery29: 'The Real Story Behind Rebecca Is More Dramatic Than The Netflix Movie' but then a couple of paragraphs into it: 'Rebecca isn’t exactly a true story'.
The other obvious parallel lies in the work of du Maurier’s literary idols. Much like the Brontë sisters, the du Maurier siblings would all pursue artistic careers of their own: Daphne and her older sister Angela became writers (although Daphne was undeniably more talented and successful), and her younger sister Jeanne became a painter.But that’s not the only thing du Maurier and the Brontës have in common – over the years, many have pointed out that the plot of Rebecca relies heavily on Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Young innocent ingenue? Check. Grumpy older man? Check. Magnificent but eerie house that ends up in ruins after a fiery blaze? Check. Problematic ex-wife who haunts the main character? Check. The similarities are undeniable, and it seems more than likely that there are elements of Brontë’s Bertha Mason character in Rebecca. (Anne Cohen)
Class discrimination, identity, patriarchy and our inability to discover ourselves... there’s a reason why this celebrated gothic novel, which bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘Jane Eyre’ and a bit to ‘Crimson Peak’, continues to fascinate us. It’s 2020 and not much has changed. Women are still made to look at other women as threat. Life is wasted if you don’t find a husband with good prospects. The protagonist with deliberate no first name obsesses over the beguiling Rebecca as she is manipulated to believe that she isn’t good enough. The film is testament to how insecurity and worthlessness can be damaging to one’s self esteem and purpose.
Gothic novels with their supernatural, erotic and suspenseful undercurrents and twists need a certain mood and paranoia. (Renuka Vyavahare)
Meaww claims that it 'fails Daphne du Maurier's classic novel'.
So what could have made 'Rebecca' better? Put simply, since 'Rebecca' was a narrative on the status of women in British society in the mid-20th century. There is one remake, if you will, that comes to mind when it comes to accurately reproduce a work of art for the modern age. 'Rebecca' has drawn a lot of comparisons to Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre' over the years -- the titular Jane Eyre is very much like the second Mrs de Winter, and like Rebecca, Bertha Mason, Edward Rochester's first wife, is never represented herself, but through the voices of other characters. In the end, Bertha sets fire to the Rochester mansion, like Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas) in 'Rebecca'.
In 'Jane Eyre', Bertha Mason is written to be of Creole descent -- the term used for the white European planting class in Jamaica and other Caribbean colonies, often of mixed-race ancestry. Bertha's insanity was often tied to her West Indian background, and in an interview in 1979, the late author Jean Rhys said that, on reading 'Jane Eyre' as a child, she resented the way in which Creole women were represented as mad and that this inspired her to present Bertha's life from an alternative perspective, giving her a fuller history. This was how 'Wide Sargasso Sea' came into existence. The 1966 novel exposed the Victorian prejudices against people of color when it chose to focus on Bertha as the main character, and present Brontë's story by showing Rhys' version of the Caribbean and its culture. In it, the themes of race, class, and gender were explored while being made relevant for the 20th century. (Neetha K)
According to
CNN, it 'offers a pretty but uninspired remake of the Hitchcock classic'.
The scenery is spectacular in "Rebecca," and that's not even counting stars Lily James and Armie Hammer. Yet this faithful, pretty-but-uninspired adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's novel doesn't breathe fresh life into the classic, much less eclipse the 1940 Laurence Olivier-Joan Fontaine version that garnered Alfred Hitchcock's lone best-picture Oscar.
Those years produced a lot of florid, macabre romances with literary underpinnings etched in black-and-white memories, among them "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights." The remakes draw inevitable comparisons, and in the case of "Rebecca" -- which premieres on Netflix amid its year-end prestige push -- inevitable speculation about whether de Winter is coming to make its claim for awards consideration.
The short answer is probably not, though the appealing star combination will likely make this a popular escape for subscribers, and Kristin Scott Thomas ("Four Weddings and a Funeral") shines in the role of Danvers, the housekeeper carrying a very, very big torch for the late lady of the manor referenced by the title. (Brian Lowry)
The A.V. Club says that '
Rebecca has now twice shown there’s no improving on the original' and yet they also say this:
Olivier appears to be mildly cranky throughout Rebecca, basically reprising all the growling, grimacing tricks he used as Heathcliff in 1939’s Wuthering Heights. (Gwen Ihnat)
William Smith Williams shares a review of the book
Charlotte Brontë’s Devotee published in the Civic Trust annual report.
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