(I wrote this same text and published it on the reddit dedicated to the films, since I also mentioned Hitchcock in this text and also mentions about him will also be in this text since he was kind of a part of it. However, Rebecca was originally a book too, so I think there’s nothing stopping me from posting on the reddit dedicated to talking about books. The more people who know the truth, the better)
OKAY, here’s all the explanation, and I warned you this text it’s kinda long, but I believe you will understand everything in end, here we go;
*” Marina, a young woman raised on the farm who marries widower Roberto Steen. When moving to his mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Marina comes across the portrait of Alice, his late wife, and begins to feel her presence. In an environment where many compare her to the first Madame Steen, will her love for Roberto resist the ghost of such a special woman?”*
Does this sound familiar to you? Of course, because if we only change the characters names and the setting from Brazil to England, we will have the perfect synopsis of “Rebecca”, Daphne du Maurieri’s book and also Hitchcock’s 1940 film.
“The Successor” (original called “A Sucessora”) by Carolina Nabuco is a brazilian book published in 1934, and Daphne’s work and Hitchcock’s work has so many similarities that are almost too absurd to even be called “similarities” with Carolina’s work.
In 1934, Carolina Nabuco, daughter of the diplomat and co-founder of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, Joaquim Nabuco, wrote the book The Successor, which soon achieved public success in Brazil (I’m Brazilian, so I know this well. Carolina’s work was such a success that in 1978 it received its own adaptation in the form of a soap opera.) Therefore, she decided to translate the book into English and send the translation to her international agents. The contract for publishing abroad never arrived, but the story of The Successor was just beginning.
In 1938, on the other side of the Atlantic, British writer Daphne du Maurier signed the publication of Rebecca (only 4 years after The Successor, huh). In 1940, a film adaptation of Rebecca, by Alfred Hitchcock, opened the Berlin Film Festival and competed for the Oscar in 11 categories, winning two prize statuettes, including best film. The film starred Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, who also competed for an Oscar in the Best Actress and Best Actor categories, respectively.
In the newspaper *Correio da Manhã*, at the time, the journalist Álvaro Lins spell: for him, Daphne du Maurier plagiarized Carolina Nabuco. Carolina Nabuco agreed on Lins’ criticism. In her autobiography, the writer says she believes that Daphne du Maurier wrote “Rebecca” after reading a manuscript of “The Successor” in English. “I had translated the book into English with the hope of seeing it published in the USA. This translation was offered -unsuccessfully- to several publishers by a literary agency in New York, to which the manuscript was entrusted for this purpose, under contract. I had asked this literary agent to also try to find me a publisher in England.”
After reading “Rebecca”, the Brazilian author contacted her literary agent, asking if he had sent the manuscript to an agent in London. At first, he denied it. But after accusations of plagiarism that reverberated in the international press, he finally admitted that he had.
“At first I was very unhappy, but I was convinced that plagiarism had really happened” says Carolina Nabuco, who chose not to take Daphne to court “Although many people advised me to start the process, I was completely satisfied to see the plagiarism being generally proclaimed for those who had read both books”
With the success of the film, the case of possible plagiarism made headlines in Brazilian newspapers and soon reached the USA (I’m kinda repeting what I said before, but I just want to give all facts here). In 1941, the New York Times Book Review published an article pointing out an “extraordinary” coincidence between the British and Brazilian books.
In her memoirs, Carolina recalls that the film producer’s lawyers sought Carolina’s legal representation in Brazil so that she could sign a document admitting the possibility of a mere coincidence, for a sum of money that she describes as being “of considerable value “. She did not accept the agreement, but it also does not appear that she sued those involved for plagiarism.
You might want to say to me “oh it’s just a coincidence”, but I don’t buy this. Hitchcock has a long profile of bad behavior behind the cameras ( just remember what he did with Tippi Hedren) so I have no doubt that he would have the audacity to plagiarize a Brazilian book, it would be a piece of cake for him, with all his influence. Daphne du Maurier had access to the Brazilian writer’s original book, it’s impossible to say no soncidering all facts and absurd coincidences, and while Carolina have no sucess in translating her book, Daphne may tough on “”getting inspired”” in the brazilian woman original work. She practically stole all her work, changing some character names and changing the story to take place in another country doesn’t change the fact that this is plagiarism!! I’m only publishing this because this fact is well known here in Brazil, and we all sympathize and feel bad about this very unpleasant situation that Carolina must have faced, but however I’ve never seen any foreigners or people from another country commenting on this, so I wonder if you knew about this… I decided to vent and reveal this truth, because I don’t think it’s right for foreigners to benefit from all the credit and fame of “””Rebecca”” while no one remembers our Carolina. That’s it, thank you for your attention, and read everything up to here, but tell me if I’m wrong, and if in fact someone from a country outside of Brazil knew about this controversy, because I’ve never seen anyone from Brazil give an opinion about this.
by Saturn_SAN
2 Comments
> Daphne du Maurier had access to the Brazilian writer’s original book
Not sure I’m following – is the theory that Du Maurier’s agent sent her the manuscript? Why? She already had a strong literary career by that point, didn’t she?
I’m not saying it didn’t happen, because things like this *do* happen, though I’d be interested to see the line-by-line analyses which are apparently out there. Just wondering if there’s any proof she ever actually read the manuscript.
There’s a interesting discussion of the alleged plagiarism on *Rebecca*’s Wikipedia page, including claims made in *The New York Review of Books*, which were countered by Du Maurier, and the similarities of Nabuco’s work with a 19th century novel. So the controversy is not forgotten I suppose.
OP, have you read both? Are the similarities glaring beyond the plot? I would be interested to hear these! I would say a lot of the power of *Rebecca* is not in its plot, but the narrative devices, such as the unnamed narrator, the dream opening, and some beautiful imagery.