Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - Lettered Edition

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Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is the classic Gothic suspense novel that has haunted and enchanted generations of readers.

A young woman working as a lady’s maid in Monte Carlo is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives—presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

Originally published in 1938 by Victor Gollancz Ltd., the British publishing house ordered a first print run of 20,000 copies. Within a month, Rebecca had sold more than twice that number. Since its initial publication, Rebecca has never gone out of print, selling 2.8 million copies between the years 1938 and 1965 alone. The novel has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen, including a 1939 play by du Maurier herself, and the 1940 film adaptation directed by Alfred Hitchcock which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. 

Renowned for its infusion of Gothic macabre into the romantic, Rebecca has also been celebrated as an important piece of feminist literature—a savage critique of gender power dynamics and society’s fear of powerful women. Writing for The Guardian, Olivia Laing said of the novel, “What Daphne du Maurier did was build emotional landscapes that can be entered at will, in which difficult and untamable desires were given free rein. Maybe because of her relationship with gender, she was able to make worlds in which people and even houses are mysterious and mutable, not as they seem; haunted rooms in which disembodied spirits sometimes dance at absolute liberty.”

Cited by many contemporary novelists, Daphne du Maurier’s masterpiece remains a source of inspiration. Stephen King called the novel, “excellent entertainment… du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings,” while Erin Kelly praised it as “the greatest psychological thriller of all time… I see du Maurier as a forerunner to Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, Gillian Flynn: she is the giant whose magnificent shoulders the rest of us stand upon.” 

Rebecca, the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her own identity, continues to cast its sinister spell on readers over 85 years later.

The fine press limited edition of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is presented in two states: Lettered and Numbered.

LETTERED EDITION

• Full dark green goatskin binding with linen-jointed boards.
  
• Leather is Chieftain Goatskin from J Hewit & Sons.
• Leather-jointed endpapers made from a combination of rose pink and ocean green Canson Mi-Teintes papers along with dark green leather for the joints.
• Doublures are covered in venetian red Canson Mi-Teintes paper.
• The top edge of the binding is ploughed and sanded flat, with the fore edge and bottom edge of the pages deckled.
• Head & tail bands are covered in pistachio-colored bull skin by Remy Carriat Tannerie in France, with additional pink goatskin and thread detail.
• The front cover of the book has a thinly pared bull-skin onlay applied, illustrating a Rhododendron flower. The Rhododendron is lino-printed in a variety of green, pink, white and burgundy inks. The onlay is embroidered on top of the Rhododendron using a range of colored threads and different embroidery stitches, including; French Knots, seed stitch, running stitch, whipping stitch and couching.
• The binding has a recessed title label applied to the spine, blocked onto pink Harmatan and Oakridge goatskin.
• New exclusive afterword by Laura Varnam.
• Six full color illustrations by internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Iva Troj.
• Bonus essays by the author include: "The House of Secrets" (1946) detailing the inspiration for the setting of Manderley, an epilogue to Rebecca from the author's initial draft, and an Author's Note (1981) in which the author provides a candid and personal account of how the plot for Rebecca was initially conceived and her experience in writing the novel. 
• Printed letterpress on 120 gsm Arches Text mouldmade paper.
• Handbound by Hannah Brown in the United Kingdom.
  
• Text pages are designed in Monotype Fournier. 
• The edition is housed in a clamshell enclosure with a four-sided base covered in Windsor cloth with trays covered in Dubletta cloth, and lined with marled green wool felt. There is a recessed title label applied to the spine, blocked onto pink goatskin to match the book.
• Signed by Laura Varnam and Iva Troj.
• 5½” x 8½” trim size.
• 558 pages.
• Limited to 26 copies.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Photography by Yegor Malinovskii.
Illustrations © 2022 by Iva Troj.