Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca, 1938 - First Edition, First Impression - Manderley-Inspired Painted Morocco Binding

DU MAURIER, DAPHNE. Rebecca. First Edition, First Impression, 1938. Painted Manderley Design Binding.

DU MAURIER, Daphne. Rebecca. London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 1938.

First edition, first impression. Octavo. Finely rebound in a remarkable full black morocco design binding, with a continuous painted pictorial composition extending across both boards. Against a dark ground, bands of deep blue, crimson, orange and gold sweep across the covers like reflected fire and night sky, while a stark, leafless black tree rises from the lower front board. The design powerfully evokes the haunted landscape of Manderley, the encroaching drive and the fatal glow that closes du Maurier's novel. The binding is framed in gilt, the black morocco spine divided by raised bands and decorated with red and gilt floral devices, with the title, author and date lettered in gilt. Blue and black marbled endpapers complete the presentation.

A striking first impression of Daphne du Maurier's most celebrated novel, published by Victor Gollancz in 1938. Opening with the unforgettable return to Manderley in dream, Rebecca follows its unnamed narrator from Monte Carlo into marriage with Maxim de Winter and into the shadow of his first wife, whose presence continues to dominate Manderley, its household and its secrets.

Du Maurier's fusion of psychological suspense, Gothic atmosphere and romantic obsession made Rebecca an immediate success and established it as one of the defining novels of the twentieth century. In the United States it received the American Booksellers Association's National Book Award for favourite novel of 1938. Its enduring hold upon readers was confirmed in 2017, when it was voted the UK's favourite book of the preceding 225 years in a WHSmith poll.

The novel's afterlife in film has been equally powerful. Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 adaptation, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won the Academy Award for Best Picture and remains one of the best-known screen interpretations of a modern novel.

The present binding is exceptionally apposite to the text. The black morocco ground suggests the secrecy and oppressive shadow of Manderley, while the painted colours gather into an atmosphere of gathering heat, fire and unease. The solitary tree, rendered in black against the glowing sky, recalls the overgrown approach to the house and the natural world reclaiming the estate in the novel's opening vision. Across both boards, the design moves from beauty into disturbance, giving physical form to du Maurier's themes of memory, possession, jealousy and destruction.

Internally, the original 1938 text block is preserved, with age toning and occasional spotting visible in places, consistent with the paper stock of the edition. The modern design binding presents with considerable impact, the painted surface vivid, the gilt bright and the marbled endpapers especially effective. No dust jacket, the volume having been finely rebound.

An arresting collector's copy of the first edition, first impression of Rebecca, combining du Maurier's Gothic masterpiece with a highly accomplished painted morocco binding inspired by the atmosphere, landscape and destruction of Manderley.