Rebecca (novel) his deceased wife, Rebecca. The supernatural reaction of the portrait doesn't convince him and so he places her in a cupboard. The 1970 Parallel Time storyline of the Gothic soap opera "Dark Shadows" was heavily inspired by "Rebecca" including the costume ball scene. Also the second "Dark Shadows" motion picture, "Night of Dark Shadows" took inspiration from the novel including a mention by Kate Jackson's character who hopes the housekeeper is not like Mrs. Danvers The fifth episode of the second series of "That Mitchell and Webb Look" contains an extended sketch parodying the 1940 film, in which Rebecca is
George du Maurier up to believe that his aristocratic grandparents fled France during the Revolution, leaving vast estates behind in France, to live in England as émigrés. However, du Maurier's grandfather, Robert-Mathurin Busson, was actually a tradesman who left Paris in 1789 to avoid fraud charges, and later changed the family name to du Maurier. Du Maurier studied art in Paris, and moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost vision in his left eye. He consulted an oculist in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he met his future wife, Emma Wightwick. He followed her family to London, where he married Emma in 1863. The couple