" Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
It seemed I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. "
"I called in my dream to the lodgekeeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.
.....Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me.
.....The drive wound away in front of me ...
There was Manderley, our Manderley ... the greystone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and the terrace. Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, not the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand."
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my view of Manderley.
Sky
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"I can see the great stone hall... the VanDykes on the walls. the exquisite staircase leading to the minstrels' gallery... and doorways leading to the rooms beyond ..."
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"It's very big, isn't it?" I said too brightly.
"Yes Madam, Manderley is a big place. Not so big as some but big enough. This was the old banquetting hall, in old days."
The Drawing Room and the Conservatory
"... a lovely room, beautifullproportioned... period furniture, chairs tables without price."
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The Powder Room
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The Morning Room
"This was a woman's room, graceful, fragile, the room of someone who had chosen every particular piece of furniture with great care, so that every chair, every vase, each small, infinitesimal thing should be in harmony with one another, and with her own personality."
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Rebecca's Desk
The Library
"It was a deep, comfortable room, with books lining the walls to the ceiling, the sort of room a man would move from never..."
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The Estate Office
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The Dining Room
... How impressed I was with the magnificence of it..."
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The Billiard Room
An oasis for the men of the house.
No English country house would be without one.
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The Kitchen and Butler's Pantry
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The Minstrels' Gallery
"The" Portrait
Mrs Danvers was right, it would be the perfect costume for the ball.
"I had always loved the portrait of the girl with the hat. It was by Raeburn, and the portrait was of Carolyn de Winter...."
The East Wing
The new suite of rooms for Maxim and the second Mrs. de Winter.
The East Wing is quieter and overlooks the Rose Garden.
"I love the rose-garden," Max said, "one of the first things I remember is walking after my mother, on very small, unsteady legs, while she picked off the dead heads of roses."
The Second Mrs. de Winter's Room
"There's something peaceful and happy about this room."
Her Dressing Room and Bath
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A private Sitting Room for Maxim and his new bride.
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Maxim's Room
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The Rose Guest Room and Bath
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"I turned the handle of the door and went inside....
I was standing in a little ante room that went through to a larger one. I went through this room and turned on the light. ... My first impression was one of shock because the room was fully furnished, as though in use. There were flowers upon the dressing table and on the table beside the bed.
...For one desperate moment I thought that something had happened to my brain, that I was seeing back into time, and looking upon the room as it used to be, before she died. . . In a minute Rebecca herself would come back into the room, sit down before the looking glass at her dressing table, reach for her comb and run it through her hair.
It was the most beautiful room in the house. That exquisite mantlepiece, the ceiling, the carved bedstead, and the curtain hangings, the dressing table beside me, all were things I would have loved and almost worshipped, had they been mine.
They were not mine though. They belonged to somebody else......
Rebecca
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Rebecca's Cottage
"The cottage did not seem so sinister as it had before... located between the woods and the breakwater ...after all it was only a cottage with no one living in it. I pushed the door open and peered inside. Cobwebs clung to every surface...."
"It's in winter you see the nothern lights, isn't it? I asked."
"That's not the northern lights, " Maxim said, "that's Manderley."
"We can never go back to Manderley again, that much is certain."
My special thanks with love and gratitude to Daphne Du Maurier for the hours of escape and pleasure she has brought to me and to lovers of Rebecca around the world.
Sky
