Du Maurier excels at first person narration. Rebecca is written from the point of view of Maxim's second wife, whose name is never revealed. This deliberate omission serves to emphasize her colorless personality and, by contrast, to accentuate the powerful personality of her predecessor, Rebecca.

Du Maurier has written that she had meant to begin Rebecca with the narrator meeting Maxim, then later decided to move the beginning of the action to an opening epilogue. This decision is, in large part, responsible for the success of the novel. In Rebecca—as well as in My Cousin Rachel and other of her works— the action begins with a major character's elusive memories of the way life used to be before a terrible event. The novel then describes the events that irrevocably changed the character's life.

Du Maurier allows the novel to end quickly by using...