What was the real inspiration behind Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca? | Grim Casebooks

March 03, 2025

What was the real inspiration behind Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca? | Grim Casebooks | Case One

Written by: Aniesha Brahma | Edited by: Jash Vatsaraj

The first time I heard of the novel Rebecca was when I was thirteen. My mother told my sister and me about the books we needed to ensure we read once. She told me to read Rebecca, perhaps when I was a little older, but I remember her raving about how well the author had written the story.

Four years later, I found the book in my school’s library. But my brat of an ex-best friend whisked it from under my nose. She made me incredibly angry that day. Ten minutes before she took that book and checked it out for the week, she hadn’t heard of the author, much less the book. I had told her about it excitedly and paid the price. (I cut her out of my life when I turned twenty-six, and I have no regrets. That one action should’ve told me she was going to always take what I had my eyes on. Stupid bitch!)

Haunting First Line

It is quite easy to be pulled into the world of Rebecca – for it begins with the most hauntingly beautiful lines –

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.”

When Rebecca was first published in 1938, the novel flew off the shelves! They had to quickly reprint to keep up with the public demand for the story. And for almost eight decades readers have been curious to find out who indeed was the real inspiration for Rebecca.

Spoiler Alert

If you haven’t read the book or watched the movie (and I’m talking about the Hitchcock adaptation and not the Netflix one), then I should warn you that this is where you should stop reading. Because from here on out, this blog post is going to be chock-full of spoilers!

Parallels

There are a lot of parallels between Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and her own life. For one thing, she like her unnamed protagonist in the book, had a whirlwind courtship with her husband, who was ten years her senior – Tom Browning. In the book, the protagonist admits she only agrees to Maxwell de Winter's proposal because she had grown tired of her life as a lady’s companion. Her then-employer even cruelly lets her know not to have foolish hope that Maxwell has fallen in love with her. He had admitted that he was going insane living all alone in Manderly – his mansion to her.

i. Manderly

Manderly itself is inspired by Daphne’s love for the Cornish house, Menabilly and her childhood visits to Milton Hall. Much like the hold that Manderly seems to have over the characters in Rebecca, Menabilly seems to have the same effect on the tenants of the house. Daphne came across this house during a vacation to Cornwall in 1926, and since longed to restore this house to its former glory. She ended up renting the space for twenty long years, starting in 1943. Eventually, the owners of Menabilly got back their property.

ii. Maxwell de Winter

Most critics believe that Daphne had based Maxwell on her husband. Tom Browning had read her book and was so captivated by the novel’s young author – that he hopped on a boat to come see her. Their brief courtship led to their marriage – since Tom couldn’t imagine not having her in his life. He claimed to have fallen in love with his wife’s literary prowess! However, their marriage, in the long run, wasn’t a happy one. It had its set of challenges and felt as haunting to Daphne as the protagonist feels in Rebecca.

iii. Mrs. Danvers

Daphne confessed that she had conceived the character of Mrs Danvers while visiting Milton Hall – a Georgian-style mansion in Cambridge – that she had often visited as a child. She had been rather taken by the stateliness of the place.

Several literary critics have argued that Mrs. Danvers reflects how Daphne felt in real-life about the person she’d based her character on, Rebecca - she was quite taken by her and seemed to admire her to the point of being borderline stalker-ish! Mrs. Danvers seems to be the outlet of those pent-up feelings - as she constantly praises Rebecca and doesn’t seem to like the Second Mrs. de Winter.

iv. Rebecca

Daphne had accidentally come across the letters written to her husband by his ex-fiancée, Jan Ricardo, a socialite. She read these letters over and over again and was soon consumed by jealousy. It is alleged that she couldn’t shake off the feeling that her husband, Tom Browning, was still enamoured, or worse, in love with Jan. There is evidence to suggest that Daphne kept close tabs on the movement of her husband’s ex-fiancée.

The way she writes about Maxwell’s first wife – shines through – and makes her jealousy towards Jan Ricardo quite apparent. Perhaps Daphne felt she was living in her shadow. The protagonist in Rebecca certainly felt that way. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that Maxwell was still in love with her.

Rebecca’s presence hangs over their marriage like a ghost. It gets to the point where the protagonist realizes that even in a fight, she wouldn’t be able to win against Rebecca. For she had died young, and beautiful, and everyone seemed to remember only the best parts of her. She begins to feel everyone she meets in Maxwell’s life is comparing her to Rebecca.

But perhaps the only person who was doing that purposefully to break apart their marriage was the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers.

By the time Maxwell admits he has feelings for the protagonist, he admits it has come too late for her. They had lost their little chance of happiness. They can salvage their issues and finally find a way to be together.

The same cannot be said for Daphne and Tom - both of them remained rather unfaithful to each other throughout their lives. Daphne even had affairs with women!

v. Daphne du Maurier

Daphne and her sisters grew up in a very liberal household. Her grandfather was a renowned author, and her father was a famous theatre actor! She had grown up around her house being filled with the who’s who of the literature and film world. Peter Pan’s author, J.M. Barrie, was “Uncle Jim” to these girls. With her liberal upbringing came Daphne’s self-expression. It’s been noted that as a child, she often portrayed male characters when she and her sisters put up plays. She spent most of her childhood masquerading around as “Eric”.

There is a high chance that her obsession with Jan Ricardo made her fall in love with the so-called antagonist of her life. Her multiple women affair partners do not leave any doubt that Daphne had been sexually quite fluid.

vi. Accusations

While Daphne du Maurier had cited the Bronte sisters for inspiration, she never admitted if she had been inspired by Jane Eyre while writing Rebecca. Literary critics, however, have found striking similarities between the two novels. The Bronte Sisters weren’t around to take her to court - but there was no dearth of other authors accusing Maurier of plagiarism. It was when she was preparing to defend Rebecca in court, that she admitted that she was terrified she might be asked about Jan Ricardo – and she didn’t know what she was going to say!

Fame doesn’t come without a price. So as her fame exploded and put her on the map, she had to deal with more authors coming out of the woodwork - accusing her of plagiarizing their work. But from what I can gather, Daphne du Maurier maintained that Rebecca was her creation. Sure, it had similarities with some stories. But don’t most stories mirror each other in some way or another?

Conclusion

Several papers and studies have claimed Jan Ricardo as only one of the inspiration sources for Rebecca. When the 2020 Netflix adaptation was announced, everyone dove back into the frenzy to find out what had inspired the author to pen Rebecca all those years ago. And while there are many contenders for the role, my money remains on Jan Ricardo since there are far too many coincidences. And coincidences rarely happen unless they are made to happen!

So, who do you think inspired the author to write Rebecca? Leave your theories in the comments below. You can also watch this episode of Grimcase Books on YouTube here.

If you have enjoyed this blog post, please let me know. Also, tell me which books I should take up next to explore their connection to true crime or real-life inspirations.