Rebecca

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 1938. First edition, first printing, together with a First Day of Issue card signed by the author and dated 1989, accompanied by a letter of authenticity issued by JG Autographs. Octavo, 20cm x 13cm x 4cm, pp. 446.

Unique, Bespoke Fine Binding of Du Maurier's Most Famous Novel

Recently rebound by the wonderfully talended Rosy Gray of Black Cat Bindery, a traditional craft bookbindery based in the heart of Somerset, UK. Sumptuously bound in full black Katsina goatskin with two raised bands to spine and onlays to hold a red leather label featuring the title in facsimile typeface, remaining thruthful to the true first. Embossed leather onlays to covers, depicting flaming-red rhodondrons such as the ones the novel's protagonist found everywhere around the Manderley estate: "They startled me with their crimson faces [...]; these were monsters, rearing to the sky, massed like a battalion, too beautiful I thought, too powerful; they were not plants at all". Hand-sewn red and black silk end bands and pure silk marker ribbon in deep red. Hand-made marbled endpapers in an intricate black, red and gold pattern.

A clamshell box covered in a beautiful black cloth houses this first edition, with a sunken panel on the case that holds a red leather label, once again featuring the title in facsimile typeface. Internally lined in dark-red suedel and embossed on the right with the famous opening lines "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.", words that would later become one of the most famous opening words ever recorded in Hitchcock's 1940 movie of the same name. On the right-hand side, nestled underneath the book, there is a small red suedel portfolio equally embossed to front and inside with the famous opening line, and holding a First Day of Issue card signed by the author and dated 1938. The card comes with a letter of authenticity issued by JG Autographs.

Condition

The text block shows light foxing to edges and moderate foxing to most pages with only a small loss to the corner of page 361 which has now been carefully repaired, as shown in the photos. Else a clean and uninscribed example of this true first.

A bestselling book which has never gone out of print, Rebecca sold 2.8 million copies between its publication in 1938 and 1965. It has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen, including a 1939 play by du Maurier herself, the film Rebecca (1940), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the 2020 remake directed by Ben Wheatley for Netflix. Rebecca is the story of a young bride who moves into her husband's grand estate only to be overshadowed and haunted by the lingering presence of his first wife.