I find Max de Winter a deeply unsympathetic character. He's arrogant, bullying and insensitive. Surely he must have realised that his young, inexperienced bride couldn't cope with Mrs Danvers P.D. James on Rebecca is one of the leading figures discussing their literary bugbears (via bifurcated rivets)
Of course, even in mosaic Danny is one scary dame (via fiendish word)
For those of us who love the film, maybe it's one of those novels that was enhanced by its cinematic treatment
"Late in his life, Hitchcock told an interviewer he'd thought du Maurier's novel was "humorless," and maybe he was right. But he and screenwriters Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison found darkly humorous ways to convey the novel's tone of quietly mounting hysteria and its ultra-refined schoolgirl-passion prose"
Comments
I'm glad PD said that! Max just didn't wash with me even in my pimply innocence, and it bothered me enough to detract mightily from the read. Cousin Rachel was the one for me. Araldited said pimply innocent right into Phillip's shoes from the off.
Has boynton ever seen the film of that one? I've never seen it, and it'd have to be a ripper, no?
Posted by: Rob Schaap at June 10, 2003 03:15 AM
Shamefaced I confess I have neither read nor seen MCR. And now the Queen's birthday long weekend with filthy weather well suited to watching videos is over! But with Richard Burton in the cast, I think I'll make an effort to hire it pronto.
As for Max - yeah guess so. Maybe in one's respective girlish pimply innocence, such terrible traits were seen as millsyboony desirable. Liked Larry in the film though, and the (RL) "tension" b/w him and Joan F.
Posted by: boynton at June 10, 2003 01:03 PM
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