And of course her story, her life, doesn’t really begin until she meets her man. Then Maxim de Winter, recently widowed and dashing, walks into the hotel and changes everything. She is alone in the world and set aside, a spectator, quiet and unassuming. We meet our nameless narrator in Monte Carlo, a paid companion to an older woman who enjoys putting the young woman in her place. The only name we are given is Rebecca, the title if physically absent character, the only woman in the whole book who really matters. In a way it lets the reader step inside the story, this nameless young woman becomes an extension of ourselves, and at the same time it allows the recently deceased Rebecca to overshadow everything. In Rebecca our narrator goes without a name, though other characters know her, and though Maxim, never Max, comments on how it suits her, we never hear it.

'My father was a lovely and unusual person.' 'You have a very lovely and unusual name.' I, too wanted to live in a grand manor house, wander the deserted countryside dramatically, and possibly discover a soulmate in the form of a emotionally tortured dashing older man that only I could understand. Thirteen is the perfect age to discover a penchant for people with troubled pasts and a habit of withholding vital information. Both are equally brilliant and I've been passionate about them since my early teens. The two have enough similarities that if you enjoyed one you're bound to enjoy the other. Plus there's that whole dead and/or crazy former spouse thing. It has the flavor of Jane Eyre, a young socially isolated woman dependent on the kindness of strangers and a rich, charming older man who comes in to sweep her off her feet. This is a love story in a more traditional way, defined by the era and the woman who wrote it. The most intimate moments are absent here, leaving the reader to assume things, to wonder at what must happen behind closed doors. Not romance in a modern sense, this isn’t a bodice ripper or even a kissing book (in the words of the immortal Princess Bride). The novel is generally described as gothic fiction, the pages full of suspense and with something that could be mistaken for romance. It's become a part of pop culture, a reader's touchstone, along with Call me Ishmael and It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Even if you haven't read the book you're likely to recognize it. Rebecca has one of the most famous opening lines of all time.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier