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Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ turns withheld information into psychological pressure. The unnamed narrator arrives at Manderley after marrying Maxim de Winter, only to find that his first wife, Rebecca, still dominates the house through memory, gossip and silence. Everyone appears to know more than she does. The effect is suffocating. Each conversation suggests another locked door, and each revelation changes the shape of the marriage. Few novels make ignorance feel so intimate, humiliating and dangerous.