Rebecca Daphne du Maurier
Illustrations by Iva Troj
Afterword by Laura Varnam
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.
About The Edition
Our edition of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is limited to two hundred seventy-six copies and is presented in two states: Numbered and Lettered. The edition measures 5½” x 8½” and features six color illustrations by internationally acclaimed contemporary artist Iva Troj, as well as an afterword by Laura Varnam. The text pages are designed in Monotype Fournier and are printed letterpress by Joel Benson on his Heidelberg cylinder on Mohawk Via Vellum and mouldmade Arches Text Wove papers. Both states are signed by Iva Troj & Laura Varnam.
Bonus Content
Included in the edition are the following supplementary materials:
Author’s Note – Originally appeared as part of The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories (Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1981), Daphne du Maurier provides a candid and personal account of how the plot for Rebecca was initially conceived and her experience in writing the novel.
The House of Secrets – In this essay, first printed within the book Countryside Character (Blandford Press, 1946), Daphne du Maurier describes her first visit to Menabilly, the secret countryside house hidden deep within woodland near Fowey, Cornwall, that became the primary inspiration for Manderley.
The Rebecca Epilogue – Serving as part of the initial draft, Daphne du Maurier wrote the epilogue to Rebecca while making her notes and outlining the early stages of the storyline. It was not until the novel had progressed beyond the planning stage that du Maurier decided to make certain changes. The epilogue was first printed within The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories (Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1981).
Numbered Edition
The Numbered edition of 250 copies is a full goatskin binding with leather onlays and gold foil blocking. The leather is sourced from J Hewit & Sons; the historic leather merchant which was founded in 1823 and continues to manufacture the finest quality leathers for bookbinding. Head & tail bands are handmade with leather and the endsheets are Hahnemühle Bugra.
Each copy is bound by hand and housed in a clamshell enclosure covered in Coloretta cloth; a finely woven, two-toned cover material with a subtle, yet distinctive color gradient effect, and velour lined floors. The spine includes a leather foil blocked label. This state is printed letterpress on Mohawk Via Vellum paper and is signed by Iva Troj & Laura Varnam.
Lettered Edition
The Lettered edition is limited to 26 copies and is a full dark green goatskin binding with linen-jointed boards. The leather is Chieftain Goatskin in a custom color for this edition by J Hewit & Sons; the historic leather merchant which was founded in 1823 and continues to manufacture the finest quality leathers for bookbinding.
The binding features 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. The 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. The 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.
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.
This state is printed letterpress on sumptuous 120 gsm Arches Text Wove mouldmade paper and is handbound by Hannah Brown in the United Kingdom. It is signed by Iva Troj & Laura Varnam.
Limited Edition Giclée Print
We are producing a signed limited edition giclée print of a bonus illustration by Iva Troj which is not included in our editions of Rebecca. The print is sized at 17” x 12” and is printed on 300 gsm acid free cotton paper. The print is numbered and limited to no more than 100 copies. We will not be matching to book designations.
About the Author
About the Collaborators
Dr. Laura Varnam
Dr. Laura Varnam is the lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature at University College, Oxford. She is an academic, writer and poet, and in addition to specialising in late medieval literature, she is an expert in the life and works of Daphne du Maurier. She appeared on the 2017 Arte documentary Daphne du Maurier: Sur les traces de Rebecca and the du Maurier episode of the podcast Backlisted. She has published a wide range of articles on du Maurier, including on her biography of Branwell Brontë, film and television adaptations of her works, and the enduring appeal of her most famous novel Rebecca.
Iva Troj
Iva Troj is an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Iva started studying art at the age of 11. She studied art, design and art history in the United States, Luxembourg and Scandinavia before establishing an art practice in the United Kingdom in 2013. Her work is in private and museum collections in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, China, United States, South Africa, South Korea and Japan. In Sept 2022, she was invited to exhibit a body of work at The Louvre in Paris.
Matching Numbers & Letters
A Matching Pre-Order email is sent to owners of our previous publication, Boy’s Life at 9:00 A.M. PT on the day of announcement. If you did not receive the email, contact us here. If your order is not received before the deadline, your designated number or letter will be assigned to the new owner.
Order Limits
Please be aware of the order limits for our editions. You can read more about this in the Order Limits article on our support site.
Illustrations by Iva Troj
Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Lettered edition photography by Yegor Malinovskii.
Illustrations © 2022 by Iva Troj.