Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...With these words a reader is swept up into a world of secrets and lies; one of the most passionate, psychologically twisting and complex stories of all-time.
Working as a lady's companion, the orphaned heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. Whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers . . .
Rebecca is a story that I was roughly familiar with, having seen a few adaptions of it that just happened to be on TV and obvious with Rebecca having never been out of print, after 80 years it has been its way into pop culture.
So I knew that Rebecca was the first wife of nameless protagonist's husband and the big twist. There were a few things I didn't know, such as the 20 year age gap between the protagonist and her husband Maxim de Winter. Also the Ableism. No one really talks about that and that the plot semi-relays on an "Idiot's" reclation of events.
It's not just dated language, the protagonist seems scared of him just because he's mentally disabled. Words like "sly" are used to describe him and his "Idiot eyes". I'm not sure what is meant by this. Is he meant to have Down Syndrome? People do seem to base his capabilities on his looks. Mr De Winter does say he's more capable than he behaviours and his part of in the solution of the book is questionable. I think I could let it go more as just a dated language if the protagonist attitude towards him wasn't so detestable.
Besides the Ableism, which is never fun to read a book with, I think my biggest problem is that our protagonist is so bland. She completely defined by her social anxiety and is easily modelable. She is so obsessed with what other people think of her while not being worth much thought by herself. Even as someone with social anxiety I found it really hard to relate to her. The words shy are used obviously, but to me, it does seem on a level above shyness since she obsesses with it even when she not with people.
I know the two Mrs De Winters are meant to contrast and be each others' wrapped reflections, but I just don't like the protagonist at all. And I know that woman characters get away with less than their male counterparts but I would hate a male character like this too. I know she a product of her time as well, as girls were raised to follow and be severdo then. It just feels like she has no spine at all, questions no one with her fantasies of Rebecca. Her obsession with Rebecca becomes really dull, her unwillingness to question anything right till the very end. I suppose I should have more sympathy for a character who messes her life up so completely.
I listen to part of this on Audiobook, I read the first 30 pages physically and rest on Audiobook. Maybe that's part of the reason why I disliked it, that the writing style can be lost with a bad voice narration or even just an okay one. The narration was okay, listen to it on 1.50x speed to match my reading pace. I usually listen to audiobooks at 2x and did have to slow down because sometimes I couldn't understand the voice actor.
Overall, I gave this 2/5 stars for Sly Eyes. This rating probably comes down to enjoyment. Yes, this a well written, crafted novel, that happens to age poorly. I think it is hard to review books this old from just your gut, even with the more recent decades that I didn't live through I can flame them more easily with their counterparts as with this. Maybe I would enjoy this book more if I took the time to deep analysis and do research on how it stood next to other works. However, I have no reason to that. Yes, at it's core it's a compelling story, which probably why there are so many different adaptions.
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