Structure
Rebecca's Tale is set in the summer of 1951 in England. The action is centered in Kerrith and the surrounding area, including the district near Manderley. The book is narrated in the first person in the style of du Maurier; however, unlike the original book, the narrator changes with each of the four sections. Part one is told from the perspective of the septuagenarian Colonel Julyan, who had led the initial inquests into Rebecca’s death. Part two is told by Terence Gray, an original character whose ongoing investigations are driven by a mystery from his own past. Part three is an extract from a journal kept by Rebecca, detailing the events of her early life. The final part is told by Ellie Julyan, the Colonel's youngest daughter who cares for her father at home.
The narrative shifts produce a very different structure from the original Rebecca, as well as a more postmodern tone that emphasizes the various narrators' unreliability. Also, the book is sometimes placed in a separate genre: while Rebecca is classified as a Gothic novel (du Maurier detested its categorization as a romance), Rebecca’s Tale is often considered a mystery.
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“Who says that fictions only and false hair
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Not to a true, but painted chair?”
—George Herbert (1593–1633)
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—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
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—Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)