If you have been reading the blogs or the newspapers lately, you have seen the chorus of people who roundly disavow any interest in the royal wedding.  Fair enough.  I admit the wall-to-wall coverage is probably annoying to people who have no interest.  It is true that an obscene amount of public money has been lavished on a ceremony when many people in England are groaning under the double-whammy of high taxation and skyrocketing unemployment, but I still hope something good can come out of this very public affirmation of marriage.  

I grew up in an era when little girls began planning their wedding before they were in kindergarten.  I remember playing Bride by walking around my bedroom with a white towel draped over my head.  This sort of thing was fun, and even though it is now eschewed by academics who believe little girls should be taught to aspire to something more professional, I am sorry the cynicism of our era has taught young women to be skeptical of marriage.  Given recent history of the royal family, such skepticism may be well-founded, but whoever thought it was a good idea for a 33-year old man to marry a 19-year old girl he barely knew?  William & Kate are both 29 and have been dating for years, so I am hoping they’ve got the foundation and stamina to make it across the finish line. 

We live in an era where a ‘starter marriage’ has become par for the course.  People get married jumping out of helicopters or at drunken affairs in a Las Vegas chapel.  Not too long ago, a celebrity got married with a whacky Alice-in-Wonderland theme.  She is already divorced.   

This morning, millions of girls dragged themselves out of bed in the dark hours of the morning to witness a big, bold, stick-in-your-memory-forever type of wedding.  I hope it becomes something for them to aspire to.  I am not referring to the horse-drawn carriage or the lavish gowns.  I want them to remember this celebration of a once in a lifetime event.  The wedding was a solemn occasion mingled with joy, pageantry, and music that soared to shake the rafters.  William and Kate were married within the sight of God with reverence, solemnity, and respect for tradition.  These girls witnessed the acknowledgement that a marriage can be a life-altering and life-affirming event.  And that is a good thing!

Wishing William and Kate all the best!

Photo courtesy of Defence Images

When Rebecca Du Maurier’s Rebecca was published in 1938, the novel single-handedly resurrected the gothic novel, a genre that was on the verge of extinction.  Gothic novels reigned supreme in the 19^th century, when works by Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Bronte, and Mary Shelly blended elements of a picturesque setting, mystery, romance, and sometimes a hint of the supernatural.  By the early 20^th century, such storylines were being discarded in favor of mysteries and more realistic forms of drama.

The book was an immediate bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.  Although it met initially with poor reviews, the public adored this story, in which a plain girl marries a wealthy and powerful widower.  Swept away to a house of bewitching splendor, there nevertheless is a sense of foreboding that pervades the great estate.  The heroine, who remains symbolically nameless throughout the book, lives in the shadow of the beautiful, glamorous dead wife.  In the course of the book, the heroine’s self-esteem is methodically ripped to shreds until she discovers that her husband actually despised his first wife.  The shift in power is subtle, but the second Mrs. De Winter gradually finds her backbone and is capable of becoming a salvation for her husband.  

It has been noted by critics that there are striking similarities between Rebecca and Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, 1847).  Both novels feature a presumably dead but haunting first wife, a plain heroine, a spectacularly gloomy estate in the English countryside, and a fire that destroys the estate and reduces the hero to a state of dependency.  It is easy to understand the appeal of witnessing an apparently plain, unassuming heroine ultimately triumph over the beautiful, privileged other woman. For my thoughts on the enduring appeal of Jane Eyre as a movie, see here. 

Rebecca sparked a new round of interest in the gothic genre in the 1950’s and 60’s, when massmarket paperback mysteries were failing to find a female readership.  Gerald Gross from Ace Books set about to find the “next Rebecca.”  Using the same formula of young and innocent heroine venturing into gloomily mysterious settings, a new wave of authors led by Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt gave rise to the modern gothic.  Soon we saw countless paperbacks with young girls dressed in  floaty gowns fleeing the gloomy mansions.  Those battered paperbacks were my first foray into romance literature, and I devoured them.  It was Rebecca which can probably be credited with having sparked that gothic revival, and for that, I will be forever grateful.