Rebecca Book Quiz
Eight multiple-choice questions on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938) — plot, characters and the moments everyone quotes. Two minutes, instant score, every answer explained below. For the full mixed-classics version, take the original book quiz — 15 questions across the whole canon.
All 8 questions and answers
Prefer to read the quiz instead of taking it? Expand for every question, answer and a one-line explanation.
- What is the novel's famous opening line? — 'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.'. A dream of a ruined gate and an invasive moonflower — the whole book folded into one sentence.
- Who is Mrs Danvers? — The housekeeper, devoted to the dead Rebecca. She runs Manderley as a shrine and the second Mrs de Winter as an intruder to be managed to death.
- How does the narrator first meet Maxim de Winter? — As the paid companion of Mrs Van Hopper in Monte Carlo. She sketches him as a widower off-limits; he marries her out of a loneliness he never names.
- What goes wrong at the Manderley fancy-dress ball? — Mrs Danvers tricks her into copying a de Winter ancestor's dress. Caroline de Winter's portrait dress — Rebecca's own costume, repeated in front of Maxim like a summons.
- What is found in the cove, and what does it change? — Rebecca's sunken boat, with her body aboard — the first 'drowning' was a lie. The salved ship turns an accidental death into a murder inquiry with Maxim at the center of it.
- What does Maxim finally confess to his wife? — He shot Rebecca and sank the boat — he never loved her. 'I hated her' — the confession the narrator receives like an absolution, because at last she is told.
- What does Dr Baker's testimony reveal about Rebecca? — She was dying of cancer and could not have been pregnant. Dying and defiant, she engineered her own murder — the final cruelty, and Maxim's accidental reprieve.
- How does the novel end? — Driving back to Manderley, they see the west wing burning. The red glow over the drive: the house Rebecca ran is finally put to the torch — by whose hand, the book does not say.
About Rebecca
A shy paid companion marries the widowered Maxim de Winter and comes to Manderley, where the dead first wife still runs the house — through her monogrammed stationery, her devoted housekeeper, and a boathouse nobody will discuss. The most imitated gothic of the century. The novel runs about 132,000 words (roughly 380 pages in a standard paperback) — about 9 hours and 15 minutes of reading at an average pace. Before you commit, see the full breakdown in how long it takes to read Rebecca or calculate reading time for any other book.
Easy-to-moderate — page-turner prose; the gothic pressure builds quietly in the background. If you get 6 or more of the eight questions right, the book clearly stuck.
What this quiz covers
Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca sits in our gothic & horror shelf, and the eight questions follow the book the way a reader experiences it: how the story opens, the turn in the middle, the characters who carry it, and the ending people still argue about. You will not be asked for page numbers or publication trivia — but three or four questions are built to separate people who read the book from people who read a summary. If a question stumps you, that gap is your reading list talking.
Fair warning for the ambitious: readers who clear this quiz often move straight to the reading-time breakdown for Rebecca to plan the reread, then test the rest of their shelf against the mixed classic literature quiz.
More book quizzes
Frankenstein quiz, Dracula quiz, The Picture of Dorian Gray quiz, Wuthering Heights quiz, 1984 quiz, Animal Farm quiz, Brave New World quiz — or browse every book quiz on the site. For scale, Rebecca is the 36th longest of the 133 classics timed here — shorter than New Moon but longer than The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Doing the whole author? Our Daphne du Maurier books in order guide lists every book with the best entry point.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in the Rebecca quiz?
Eight multiple-choice questions covering Daphne du Maurier's plot, characters and most famous moments. The quiz takes about two minutes and your score is instant.
Is the Rebecca book quiz free?
Yes — no signup, no email, nothing to install. Answer the eight questions and get your score immediately.
What score should I aim for?
8/8 means you know the book cold; 6+ is a solid score. Below 4, the book is calling you back for a reread.
Is the Rebecca quiz hard?
Easy-to-moderate — page-turner prose; the gothic pressure builds quietly in the background. The questions themselves stick to famous, load-bearing moments — the scenes and lines the book is remembered for — so a genuine read usually scores 6+.
How long is the Rebecca reading itself?
About 132,000 words — roughly 380 pages, or about 9 hours and 15 minutes at an average pace. The full pace breakdown is in how long it takes to read Rebecca. It runs 28 chapters, averaging 4,714 words each; see the book-count guide for its full structure.