The story is really wonderful and I so wanted the second Mrs. de Winter to stand up for herself. She (the narrator) was a shy, frightened, fish-out-of-water young woman who was placed in a very challenging situation. Her husband alternated between being uncommunicative to being angry to (infrequently) being responsive. The estate was a massive property with rules and order that were all new to her. And then, of course, there was Mrs. Danvers! The poor thing had my sympathy from the start. And while I wanted her to speak up, that really would have been out of character for her. 
 For the first 3/4 of the book, the reader and the narrator are trying to figure out what is going on - the narrator thinks she knows, but ... not so much. Even knowing what was going to happen didn't reduce the joy of reading the story, I really loved reading this book. The descriptions of the house and garden and woods and so on were just lovely. The characters were well-defined or at least they came to be. The plot was the only thing that suffered from prior knowledge. It seems strange a suspenseful story was not ruined by knowing what would happen, but that is a testament to the writing and the strength of characterization. 
 Mrs. Danvers still gives me chills. Yikes! What a character. The only one I was slightly disappointed with was Favell. The actor George Sanders has always been a favor of mine - even though he frequently played a similar character, i.e., a bit shady, sarcastic, and smug. The Favell character of the book just seems slimy and smarmy - loses a little of the fun! 
 I give the book 4/5. It might have been higher but knowing the story was a bit of a detriment - it would have been fun to watch the story unfold for the first time.