Du Maurier delivered the manuscript to her publisher, Victor Gollancz, in April 1938. On receipt, the book was read in Gollancz's office, and her "editor, Norman Collins, reported simply: 'The new Daphne du Maurier contains everything that the public could want.'"[5] Gollancz's "reaction to Rebecca was relief and jubilation" and "a 'rollicking success' was predicted by him."[18] He "did not hang around" and "ordered a first print run of 20,000 copies and within a month Rebecca had sold more than twice that number."[5] The novel has been continuously in print since 1938 and in 1993 "du Maurier's US publishers Avon estimated ongoing monthly paperback sales of Rebecca at more than 4,000 copies."[5]
Promotion
Du Maurier "did several radio interviews with BBC and other stations" and "attended Foyle's Literary Lunch" in August 1938 while Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and House & Garden published articles on du Maurier.[19]
Reception in the professional and popular press
The Times stated that "the material is of the humblest ... nothing in this is beyond the novelette." In the Christian Science Monitor of 14 September 1938, V.S. Pritchett predicted the novel "would be here today, gone tomorrow."[5]
More recently, in a column for The Independent, the critics Ceri Radford and Chris Harvey recommended the book and argued that Rebecca is a "marvellously gothic tale" with a good dose of atmospheric and psychological horror.[20]
Print history
Rebecca is listed in the 20th-Century American Bestsellers descriptive bibliography database maintained by the University of Illinois. The entry, by Katherine Huber, provided the detailed information on the English and American editions as well as translations listed below.
English editions
| Edition | Edition date and place | Publisher and press | # Impressions | Printing/Impression | Date of Printing | # Copies | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English 1st | August 1938, London | Gollancz | At least 9 | 1st | August 1938 | 20,000 | |
| English 1st | August 1938, London | Gollancz | At least 9 | 2nd | 1938 | 10,000 | |
| English 1st | August 1938, London | Gollancz | At least 9 | 3rd | 1938 | 15,000 | |
| English 1st | August 1938, London | Gollancz | At least 9 | 4th | 1938 | 15,000 | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 1st | Before publication in 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 2nd | Before publication in 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 3rd | Before publication in 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 4th | 4 October 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 5th | 7 October 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 6th | 17 October 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 7th | Between 18 October and 10 November 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 8th | 11 November 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| American 1st | September 1938, NY | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. at the Country Life Press in Garden City, NY | At least 10 | 9th | 18 November 1938 | $2.75 US | |
| 29 subsequent editions | Between 1939–1993 | Doubleday Doran and Company, Inc. | |||||
| 1938 | Blakiston Co. | ||||||
| 1938 | Book League of America | ||||||
| 1938 | J.G. Ferguson | ||||||
| 1938 | Literary Guild of America | ||||||
| 1938 | P.F. Collier & Son, Corp | ||||||
| 1939 | Ladies' Home Journal (condensed) | ||||||
| 1940 | Garden City Publishing Co. | ||||||
| 1941 | Editions for the Armed Services | ||||||
| 1941 | Sun Dial Press | ||||||
| 1942 | Triangle Books | ||||||
| 1943 | The Modern Library | ||||||
| 1943 | Pocket Books | ||||||
| 1945 | Ryeson Press | ||||||
| 1947 | Albatross | ||||||
| 1950 | Studio | ||||||
| 1953 | Cardinal | ||||||
| 1954 | International Collector's Library | ||||||
| 1957 | Longmans | ||||||
| 1960 | Ulverscroft | ||||||
| 1962 | Penguin Books | ||||||
| 1965 | Washington Square Press | ||||||
| 1971 | Avon Books | ||||||
| 1975 | Pan Books | ||||||
| 1980 | Octopus/Heinemann (published with Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel, also by du Maurier) | ||||||
| 1987 | The Franklin Library | ||||||
| 1991 | The Folio Society | ||||||
| 1992 | Arrow | ||||||
| 1993 | Compact | ||||||
| 1994 | Reader's Digest Association (condensed) |
Translations
| Language | Translation | Year | Name | Publishing House |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 1972 | Hi Tieh Meng | Tíai-nan, Tíai-wan: Hsin shih chi chíu pan she | |
| Chinese | 1979 | Hu die meng | Taipei, Taiwan: Yuan Jing | |
| Chinese | 1980 | Hu tieh meng: Rebecca | Hsin-chich (Hong Kong): Hung Kuang she tien | |
| Chinese, 11 other editions | ||||
| Dutch | Dr. J. N. C. Van Dietsch | 1962 | Rebecca | A. W. Sijthoff-Leiden |
| Finnish | Helvi Vasara | 1938 | Rebekka | Porvoo/Juva: WSOY, 10 editions by 2008 |
| French | Denise Van Moppès | 1939 | Rebecca: roman | Paris: A. Michel |
| French | 1975 | Rebecca | Paris: Club Chez Nous | |
| French | 1984 | Rebecca | Paris: Librairie Generale Francaise | |
| French | Anouk Neuhoff | 2015 | Rebecca | Paris: A. Michel |
| Italian | 1940 | Rebecca: la prima moglie | Milano: A. Mondadori | |
| Ukrainian | Henyk Bielakov | 2017 | Rebekka | Kharkiv: Klub simeynoho dozvillia |
| Japanese | 1939 | Rebekka | Tokyo: Mikasa Shobo | |
| Japanese | 1949 | Rebekka: Wakaki Musume No Shuki | Tokyo: Daviddosha | |
| Japanese | 1971 | Rebekka | Tokyo: Shincosta | |
| Russian | 1991 | Rebekka: roman | Riga: Folium | |
| Russian | 1992 | Rebekka | Riga: Riya | |
| Russian | 1992 | Rebekka: roman | Izhevsk: Krest | |
| Russian | 1992 | Rebekka | Moskva. Dom | |
| Russian | 1992 | Rebekka: roman | Kiev: Muza | |
| German | 1940 | Rebecca: Roman | Hamburg: Deutsche Hausbücherei | |
| German | 1940 | Rebecca: Roman | Saarbrücken: Club der Buchfreunde | |
| German | 1946 | Rebecca: Roman | Hamburg: Wolfgang Krüger | |
| German | 1994 | Rebecca: Roman | Wien: E. Kaiser | |
| 8 other German editions | ||||
| Portuguese | 1977 | Rebecca, a mulher inesquecivel | São Paulo: Companhia Editura Nacional | |
| Spanish | 1965 | Rebeca, una mujer inolvidable | Mexico: Editora Latin Americana | |
| Spanish | 1969 | Rebeca | Mexico: Eiditorial Diana | |
| Spanish | 1971 | Rebeca | Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores S.A | |
| Spanish | 1976 | Rebeca | Barcelona: Orbis | |
| Spanish | 1991 | Rebeca | Madrid: Ediciones La Nave | |
| Swedish | Dagny Henschen & Hilda Holmberg;1970 Gunvor V. Blomqvist | 1939 | Rebecca | Stockholm: Geber, Tiden |
| Persian | 1977 | Rebecca | Tehran: Amir Kabir | |
| Persian | 1980 | Rebecca | Iran: Amir Kabir Printing Co. | |
| Persian | 1990 | Ribika | Tehran: Nashr-i Jahnnama | |
| Hungarian | Ruzitska Mária | A Manderley ház asszonya | Singer és Wolfner Irodalmi Intézet Rt. | |
| Hungarian | Ruzitska Mária | 1986 | A Manderley ház asszonya | Európa Könyvkiadó |
| Hungarian | Ruzitska Mária | 2011 | A Manderley ház asszonya | Gabo |
| Romanian | 1993 | Rebecca: Roman | Bucuresti: Editura Orizonturi | |
| Romanian | Mihnea Columbeanu | 2012 | Rebecca | Bucuresti: Editura Orizonturi |
| Polish | Eleonora Romanowicz | 1958[21] | Rebeka | Warszawa: Iskry |
| Greek | 1960 | Revekka: mythistorima | Athenai: Ekdosies Dem, Darema | |
| Latvian | 1972 | Rebeka: romans | Bruklina: Gramatudraugs | |
| Dutch | 1941 | Rebecca | Leiden: AW Sijthoff | |
| Czech | J. B. Šuber | 1939 | Mrtvá a Živá: [Rebeka] | Praha: Evropský literární klub |
| Turkish | Levent Göktem | 2020 | Rebecca | İthaki |
