Rebecca
Páginas: 16 (3932 palabras)
Publicado: 2 de diciembre de 2012
Teacher’s notes
LEVEL 5
PENGUIN READERS Teacher Support Programme
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier
Maurier disliked formal socialising and preferred a natural outdoor life. Despite her writing success, du Maurier remained humble and self-conscious about her books. She spent a large portion of her later life alone, walking the moors and cliff tops, and sailing the Cornish seas and rivers. Inthunderstorms she would disappear from home, returning windswept and drenched hours later. In 1952 Daphne du Maurier was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1969 she was created a Dame of the British Empire. She lived in Cornwall until her death in 1989.
About the author
Daphne du Maurier was born in London in 1907 into a richly artistic family. She grew up in a livelyhousehold where famous writers often visited. She was the favourite daughter of her father, actor Gerald du Maurier, and led an indulged idyllic childhood with tremendous freedom. However, as du Maurier and her two sisters became adolescents, their father became very possessive, discouraging friendships with boys and demanding their attention. Du Maurier later wrote several short stories that revealthe strong influence of her dogmatic father. When du Maurier was a young woman, her family bought a country home in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. Du Maurier fell in love with Cornwall’s wild seas and isolated coves. She realised that she had found her spiritual home, and later she set many of her books there. Du Maurier was fiercely independent and embarrassed by her indulgent upbringing,and was determined to support herself. In 1927 she wrote her first novel The Loving Spirit in Cornwall. When it was published, it brought her fame. It also brought her a husband. Major Frederick Arthur Montague Browning, a war hero, was 34 years old when he sailed in to Fowey harbour in Cornwall in October 1931 to find the author of the book he so much admired. A year later, they married. Theyhad a quiet wedding in Cornwall, after which they sailed off and moored for the night in Frenchman’s Creek, which du Maurier later used as the title of one of her novels. They had two daughters and one son. Daphne du Maurier and her husband found it difficult to share each other’s lives. They spent a lot of time apart during and after the war, when her husband worked for Prince Phillip at BuckinghamPalace in London. Also, du
Summary
Rebecca, published in 1938, was Daphne du Maurier’s most successful novel. In 1940, film director Alfred Hitchcock won the Best Picture Oscar with his first Hollywood film, Rebecca, based on the book Rebecca and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. The narrator of the story, a naïve young woman, marries Maxim de Winter, an aristocrat several yearsolder than herself. They return to his large country home, Manderley, in Cornwall, to a life that his new wife knows little about. Inexperienced, self-conscious and lacking in confidence, the new Mrs de Winter finds her life dominated by the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who died at Manderley a year earlier. The narrator becomes obsessed with the presence of Rebecca. She finds her newhusband distant and unapproachable. She feels the servants and friends of the family are comparing her unfavourably with his first wife, and she feels more and more inadequate. Only when a ship is blown off course at sea, does the new Mrs de Winter begin to learn just how much her husband needs her.
Chapter 1 Maxim de Winter
With the famous opening line ‘Last night I dreamed I went to Manderleyagain’, an unnamed narrator of this book recalls her past. She works as a companion to the aristocratic Mrs Van Hopper. While they are in Monte Carlo, she meets a wealthy widower Maxim de Winter. They fall in love.
Chapter 2 Manderley
Soon they are married, and Mr de Winter takes his new bride to Manderley, his country manor in Cornwall, England. Lacking self-confidence, the new Mrs de Winter...
LEVEL 5
PENGUIN READERS Teacher Support Programme
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier
Maurier disliked formal socialising and preferred a natural outdoor life. Despite her writing success, du Maurier remained humble and self-conscious about her books. She spent a large portion of her later life alone, walking the moors and cliff tops, and sailing the Cornish seas and rivers. Inthunderstorms she would disappear from home, returning windswept and drenched hours later. In 1952 Daphne du Maurier was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1969 she was created a Dame of the British Empire. She lived in Cornwall until her death in 1989.
About the author
Daphne du Maurier was born in London in 1907 into a richly artistic family. She grew up in a livelyhousehold where famous writers often visited. She was the favourite daughter of her father, actor Gerald du Maurier, and led an indulged idyllic childhood with tremendous freedom. However, as du Maurier and her two sisters became adolescents, their father became very possessive, discouraging friendships with boys and demanding their attention. Du Maurier later wrote several short stories that revealthe strong influence of her dogmatic father. When du Maurier was a young woman, her family bought a country home in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. Du Maurier fell in love with Cornwall’s wild seas and isolated coves. She realised that she had found her spiritual home, and later she set many of her books there. Du Maurier was fiercely independent and embarrassed by her indulgent upbringing,and was determined to support herself. In 1927 she wrote her first novel The Loving Spirit in Cornwall. When it was published, it brought her fame. It also brought her a husband. Major Frederick Arthur Montague Browning, a war hero, was 34 years old when he sailed in to Fowey harbour in Cornwall in October 1931 to find the author of the book he so much admired. A year later, they married. Theyhad a quiet wedding in Cornwall, after which they sailed off and moored for the night in Frenchman’s Creek, which du Maurier later used as the title of one of her novels. They had two daughters and one son. Daphne du Maurier and her husband found it difficult to share each other’s lives. They spent a lot of time apart during and after the war, when her husband worked for Prince Phillip at BuckinghamPalace in London. Also, du
Summary
Rebecca, published in 1938, was Daphne du Maurier’s most successful novel. In 1940, film director Alfred Hitchcock won the Best Picture Oscar with his first Hollywood film, Rebecca, based on the book Rebecca and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. The narrator of the story, a naïve young woman, marries Maxim de Winter, an aristocrat several yearsolder than herself. They return to his large country home, Manderley, in Cornwall, to a life that his new wife knows little about. Inexperienced, self-conscious and lacking in confidence, the new Mrs de Winter finds her life dominated by the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who died at Manderley a year earlier. The narrator becomes obsessed with the presence of Rebecca. She finds her newhusband distant and unapproachable. She feels the servants and friends of the family are comparing her unfavourably with his first wife, and she feels more and more inadequate. Only when a ship is blown off course at sea, does the new Mrs de Winter begin to learn just how much her husband needs her.
Chapter 1 Maxim de Winter
With the famous opening line ‘Last night I dreamed I went to Manderleyagain’, an unnamed narrator of this book recalls her past. She works as a companion to the aristocratic Mrs Van Hopper. While they are in Monte Carlo, she meets a wealthy widower Maxim de Winter. They fall in love.
Chapter 2 Manderley
Soon they are married, and Mr de Winter takes his new bride to Manderley, his country manor in Cornwall, England. Lacking self-confidence, the new Mrs de Winter...
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