Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - Numbered Edition

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 editions.

NUMBERED EDITION

• Full goatskin binding with leather onlays and gold foil blocking.
  
• Leather foil blocked spine label.
• Finest goatskin leather from J Hewit & Sons.
• 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.
  
• Endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra.
• Handmade leather head and tail bands.  
  
• Printed letterpress on Mohawk Via Vellum paper.
  
• Text pages are designed in Monotype Fournier. 
• 5½” x 8½” trim size.
• 558 pages.
• Limited to 250 copies.
• Signed by Laura Varnam and Iva Troj.
• Each copy is bound by hand and housed in a clamshell enclosure covered in Coloretta cloth with velour lined floors.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

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