Rebecca. by DU MAURIER, Daphne - 1938

London: Victor Gollancz Limited,, 1938. With a signed slip from the author Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With the dust jacket. Spine with slight crease and lean, gentle rubbing at extremities, very light foxing, overall a very good copy, which has been read but all holding without wear and with joints and hinges intact; the dust jacket likewise in very good condition, with a slight crease to spine panel, minor chipping at extremities, 2.5 cm tear at head of rear fold, yet still a commendable example, unrestored and without any loss to detail. First edition, first impression, with a slip inscribed by the author "yours sincerely Daphne Du Maurier" loosely inserted. Du Maurier's popular second novel - scarce in the dust jacket, especially in such smart condition and unrestored - was written during the author's unhappy sojourn in Egypt as an army wife. Rebecca "was meant to be a psychological study of jealousy and was based on her own feelings of jealousy towards a former fiancée of her husband's, Jan Ricardo, but it was hailed as a romantic novel in the tradition of Jane Eyre. [Du Maurier] was astonished by the success of Rebecca—hardback copies in Britain alone passed the million mark in 1992—and mystified by the readers' interpretation of the novel" (ODNB).