Rebecca (novel) Rebecca (novel) Rebecca is a Gothic novel by English author Dame Daphne du Maurier. A best-seller, "Rebecca" sold 2,829,313 copies between its publication in 1938 and 1965, and the book has never gone out of print. The novel is remembered especially for the character Mrs Danvers, the fictional estate Manderley, and its opening line: While working as the companion to a rich American woman on holiday in Monte Carlo, the unnamed narrator, a naïve young woman in her early 20s, becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, George Fortescue Maximilian “Maxim” de Winter, a 42-year-old widower. After a fortnight of courtship,
Guy du Maurier in action in Flanders in 1915. J. M. Barrie wrote to Guy's nephew George Llewelyn Davies to inform him of the death; by the time Barrie received his response, George himself had been killed. Guy du Maurier Guy Louis Busson du Maurier DSO (18 May 1865, London, England – 9 Mar 1915, Kemmel, Flanders, Belgium) was an English army officer and playwright. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and the actor Gerald du Maurier. He was educated at Marlborough and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and in 1885 became an