Manderley has become mistress of Manderley, senses an atmosphere of doom about it, due to the death of Max's first wife (the titular Rebecca), and it is hinted that she haunts the estate. Childhood visits to Milton Hall, Cambridgeshire, home of the Fitzwilliam family, influenced the descriptions of Manderley, especially the interior. She told the 10th Earl Fitzwilliam in a letter that when she wrote "Rebecca" 20 years later, the interior of Manderley was based on her recollection of the rooms and 'big house feel' of Milton in the First World War. The adult du Maurier's Cornish home near Fowey, called
The Parasites The bond was so strong because the children were thrown together from earliest days by parents who were always on tour (a theatrical family), and not sent to school. Obviously, the author could draw upon her own vivid memories as life as the child of one of the most successful actors of the day, Gerald du Maurier. The Parasites The Parasites is a novel by Daphne du Maurier, first published in 1949. In this novel, Miss du Maurier tells the story of the Delaney family. The Delaneys led complex and frequently scandalous lives; their strange relationship with each other closed