Rebecca: Key quotes (by chapter)

Chapter 1

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again"

"The rhododendrons stood fifty feet high, twisted and entwined with bracken..."

"Then like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me"

"For Manderley was our no longer. Manderley was no more."

Chapter 2

"We can never go back again, that much is certain"

"A mask will form, a sculptured thing, formal and cold, beautiful still but lifeless"

"They can be my secret indulgence."

"And sharp as a sword the shadow came between us."

"I suppose it is his dependance on me that has made me bold at last."

"They say he can't get over his wife's death..."

Chapter 3

"I would feel like a whipping boy"

"The raw ex- schoolgirl, red-elbowed and lanky- haired."

"I noticed, faint as gossamer, the line between his brows."

"When he had gone I put the note away in my pocket, and turned once more to my pencil drawing, but for no known reason it did not please me any more; the face was stiff and lifeless, and the lace collar and the beard were like props in a charade."

Chapter 4

"His quality of detachment was peculiar to himself..."

"You have a very lovely and unusual name"

"But something held him back, some phobia that struggled to the surface of his mind and won supremacy."

"It was as though we had known one another for a long time, and had met again after a lapse of years."

"He was already my friend of many years, the brother I had never possessed."

'Max- from Rebecca. 17 May.', written in a curious, slanting hand

Chapter 5

"And I had to call him Maxim."

'And stop biting those nails, they are ugly enough already'

"This man was a stranger"

"It was not I that answered, I was not there at all. I was following a phantom in my mind, whose shadowy form had taken shape at last."

Chapter 6

"Bitter youthful tears that could not come from me today."

"No, I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool."

"At the moment i don't think you realise anything at all."

"I would be Mrs de Winter."

"A thought forbidden, prompted by demons" (narrator thinking about Rebecca)

"To be perfectly frank, my dear, I simply can't see you doing it."

" I think you are making a big mistake- one you will bitterly regret."

Chapter 7

"A shapeless mackintosh, far too big for me and dragging to my ankles."

"On either side of us was a wall of colour, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons."

"The slaughterous red, luscious and fantastic"

Constant repetition of "Blood red"

"Prominent cheekbones and great, hollow eyes gave her a skull's face, parchment- white, set on a skeleton's frame."

Chapter 8

"I sprang to my feet at once, feeling guilty"

"I crept", "I tiptoed", "I stumbled"

"Perhaps they were laughing about me."

"As though I was staying in somebody else's house"

"I'm afraid you have made a mistake,' I said; 'Mrs de Winter has been dead for over a year.'"

"Yes, Mrs Danvers"

"'Rebecca', that tall sloping R dwarfing its fellows"

Chapter 9

"Quite different from what I expected. Doesn't answer to your description at all."

"We all expected a social butterfly."

"Funny old boy, one never quite knows with him."

"I did so obediently and waited for her approval"

He likes me in the way I like Jasper."

"You are so very different from Rebecca."

Chapter 10

"Do you like my hair?"

"There I was an interloper"

"His face was white, and his eyes strained and wretched with that dark, lost look they had had when I first met him"

"And then I knew that the vanished scent upon the handkerchief was the same as the crushed white petals of the azaleas in the happy valley."

Chapter 11

"Of course, she was so clever..."

"They came because they wanted to compare me to Rebecca"

"Perhaps it was because I was dull myself."

"I have a fearful haunting feeling that I should have never married Maxim, that we are not going to be happy."

"Their hour would soon be over" (refers to rhodies)

"I suppose she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw in my life."

Chapter 12

"I was like a guest, biding my time, waiting for the return of the hostess."

"I supposed I was not a major event."

"I am like a between-maid."

"What do you know about any gossip down here?"

"You are my father and my brother and my son."

"Rebecca knew a lot about china" (first time maxim directly speaks of wife)

Chapter 13

"I was aware of a sense of freedom, as though I had no responsibilities at all."

"Tall and dark she was,' he said. 'She gave you the feeling of a snake..."

He began to smile. The sort of smile he would give to every woman."

"It was queer, to hear Maxim talked of as Max. No one called him that."

"My heart was beating in a queer excited way."

Chapter 14

"I was aware of a growing sense of horror, of horror turning to despair"

"I shall never forget the expression on her face. Triumphant, gloating, excited in a strange unhealthy way."

"I know you want to see it all, you've wanted to for a long time, and you were too shy to ask."

"with her mass of dark hair, standing out from her face like a halo."

'Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?"

Chapter 15

"Maxim did not ask to speak to me himself."

"Brides of today are up to everything"

"Why did not Maxim bring Rebecca? I'm so fond of Rebecca. Where is dear Rebecca?"

"She had an amazing gift, Rebecca I mean, of being attractive to people; men, women, children, dogs."

"Oh, it's you...'

Chapter 16

"I wish you would not treat me as if I were six."

"I had so identified myself with Rebecca that my own dull self did not exist, had never come to Manderley."

"A husband is not so very different from a father after all. There is a certain type of knowledge I prefer you not to have."

"They all stared at me like dumb things."

"Maxim had not moved. He stared up at me, his glass in his hand. There was no colour in his face. It was ashen white."

"His eyes were the only living things in the white mask of his face."

The face of an exulting devil. She stood there, smiling at me."

Chapter 17

"It was what Rebecca did at the last fancy dress ball at Manderley. Identical."

"I had shown the white feather."

"This new one's not like our Mrs de Winter, she's different altogether."

"It was not I who watched them at all, not someone with feelings, made of flesh and blood, but a dummy- stick of a person in my stead, a prop who wore a smile screwed to its face."

We were like two performers in a play, but we were divided we were not acting with one another."

Chapter 18

"I had come for my own sake, my own poor personal pride."

"I should never be rid of Rebecca"

"He's made his own hell and there's no one but himself to thank for it."

"She did not hear me, she went on raving like a mad woman, a fanatic, her long fingers twisting and tearing the black stuff of her dress."

'She did what she liked, she lived as she liked."

"I can see her now, with her hair flying out behind her, slashing at him, drawing blood, digging the spurs into his side..."

"She's the real Mrs de Winter, not you. It's you that's the shadow and the ghost."

"Soon I would not have to think about Rebecca any more..."

Chapter 19

"It's a very warm morning, Madam. Very warm indeed. Oppressive, one might almost say."

Aye,' he said, 'she's down there all right. She'll not come back again."

"I've grown up, Maxim, in twenty-four hours. I'll never be a child again."

'It's too late, my darling, too late,' he said. 'We've lost our little chance of happiness.'

"I killed her. I shot Rebecca in the cottage in the cove."

'Will you look into my eyes and tell me that you love me now?'

Chapter 20

"Then he began to kiss me. He had not kissed me like this before."

'I love you so much,' he whispered. 'So much.'

'You were so aloof,' he said, 'always wandering into the garden with Jasper, going off on your own. You never came to me like this.'

"I hated her I tell you...."

"It doesn't make for sanity, does it, living with the devil."

"My heart was light like a feather floating in the air. He had never loved Rebecca."

"When I killed her, she was smiling still."

Chapter 21

"He did not love Rebecca, he did not love Rebecca."

"My heart, for all its anxiety and doubt, was light and free."

"Rebecca's power had dissolved into the air, like the mist had done."

"He ran his fingers through my hair. Different from his old, abstracted way... sometimes he kissed me... there were no shadows between us any more."

"I'm afraid it does not concern me very much what Mrs de Winter used to do,' I said. 'I am Mrs de winter now, you know."

"I'm glad I killed Rebecca. I shall never have any remorse for that never, never. But you. I can't forget what it has done to you."

Chapter 22

"And we all stood there, looking at one another, keeping up these little barriers between us."

"It was still hot, oppressive."

"My heart was beating in a funny, jerky way. And all the time that little nagging pain beneath my heart."

"The heat was coming up at me from the floor, rising in slow waves. It reached my hands, wet and slippery, it touched my neck, my chin, my face."

"Will someone please take my wife outside? She is going to faint."

Chapter 23

"I want to wait for Maxim"

There they were, all the way along the drive, on either side of us, blue, monotonous, like spectators lined up in a street to watch us pass." (hydrangeas)

"Hanging was quick. Hanging did not hurt. It broke your neck at once.No, it did not. Someone said once it did not always work...."

"One spot of rain fell on my hand. One spot. No more."

"You think I'm the big, bad wolf, don't you?"

"There he is, there's your murderer for you, Mr Maximilian de Winter. Take a good long look at him. He'd look well hanging, wouldn't he?'

"And Favell began to laugh, the laugh of a drunkard, high- pitched, forced and foolish, and all the while twisting Rebecca's note between his fingers."

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27