Wow! You answered my question before I even had a chance to post it.

Last night I was wondering about Maxim in relation to other Du Maurier heroes (yes, I'm a Gothic geek! I think about this stuff at night). I was trying to wrap my head around the question of whether he loved the narrator or not. I just assumed he did because the book is called a classic of "romantic suspense." This is the only Du Maurier book I've ever read, however, and I wondered if Maxim was similar to her other heroes. If so, his coldness would have been a standard characteristic of her male heroes.

I wonder why this became a classic of "romantic suspense." The suspense is there and the narrator loves Maxim, but we never feel his love for her. He is drawn to her because of her youth and innocence, but that's only implied in some dialogue. It's not a relationship between equals because she is very much like his puppy dog for so long. In fact, she has no real sense of herself until she finds out he never loved Rebecca. She never really develops except in relation to Maxim's treatment and perception of her.

Many of du Maurier's books have similarly "untidy" depictions of relationships, including "Jamaica Inn." Du Maurier was skeptical of romance and you can feel it throughout her work. I think Maxim is intriguing and attractive in a domineering kind of way, but I certainly don't think of him as loving.