I'm glad someone else thought Mrs. Danvers was sexually obsessed with Rebecca. There is a very powerful undercurrent in the bedroom scene.

That makes three of us! Not really surprising since Du Maurier appeared to be a closet Lesbian herself.

It's interesting though that this particular group is focused on the 20th Gothic Romance as an offshoot of contemporary women's love stories, when in fact it is the direct descendent of such highly sexually charged works, which have been cited in the past few posts, as well as Bram Stoker's notorious vampire shocker! I'm glad there are plenty of us with feet in both camps...it makes the dialogues and debates a little bit more fun.

Definitely! To make a generalization, twentieth century Gothic Romances really seem to appeal to two different crowds: romance readers vs. "light" horror readers. For the most part, I think the readers of these books were/are women interested in a romance with a bit of a creepy, sinister setting. Other people (like me, a twelve-year boy at the time of my Gothic Romance genre discovery, who was obsessed with mysteries but tired of traditional whodunits) have slipped in along the way, intrigued by the moody settings and mystery plots, and less interested in the romance plot. It seems that overt horror has taken the place (in the publishing world, anyway) to the more elegant horrors of the Gothic Romance--horrors that tended to be unseen, for the most part.

I've always found it fascinating that "Rebecca," the novel that essentially crystallized the genre for 20th century readers, actually has such a strange, unsatisfying romance at the heart of it. Maxim is a deeply troubled fellow, and at the end of the book, there aren't happy years ahead for these two. Likewise, he never really pays for his wrongdoing. Du Maurier also provided an unsettling "happy" ending for "Jamaica Inn," another work that helped establish the genre. Du Maurier said of "Rebecca" that she was shocked when people took it for a romance, since she saw it as a work about hate. Mrs. Danvers is perhaps the most passionate person in the novel; trouble is, her romantic attachment appears to be a dead, manipulative woman.

I do think the genre as a whole is regarded as "trash" by most mainstream scholars. That's one reason I was interested in trying to create a Best Gothic Romance List. I wonder which books in the future will be regarded not just as disposable Romance genre books, but real literature. Certainly, Du Maurier and Mary Stewart are on their way, but who else? It will be interesting to see if any of the less obscure (but well written) books in the genre get a reprint in our lifetime.

You're a man? So am I! (and read them for the same reasons) - lol - this is almost straight out of one of those gothic impersonation plots!

I recently watched Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. It's a testament to the acting of Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier that I was actually moved by the story. They are rather flat and frustrating characters in print, but I felt that the portrayals were passionate, especially Olivier's. If anyone can make Maxim into a sympathetic character, it's Olivier.

(I would add that, in addition to Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca was the another passionate character in the book...but she's dead!)

To quote 'Gothic romance novels, historical and contemporary, have been on the shelves for decades under many names... sometimes called "paranormal romance," sometimes "romantic suspense," but still the necessary elements of a true gothic romance--heroine in peril, isolated setting, hero of questionable motives--remained. For all of us who have loved gothic romance, and sought them out, no matter what was on the book's spine, we have created this group. Enjoy.' http://www.gothrom.net/