When the unnamed heroine of Rebecca thought she went back to Manderley again, she was dreaming, of course, about the grief-drenched mansion where she had been so scared and had acted so dumb. But there has nevertheless been a real and steady procession back to Daphne du Maurier's literary landmark by women who know exactly how to conduct themselves. Some of the world's most prosperous authors check in every year either at Manderley or at one of the two other historic homes on the tour: Thornfield Hall, where Jane Eyre was governess, and Wuthering Heights.
Although the book trade often inaccurately lumps the results together as "gothics," romantic suspense stories or romantic biography would be more descriptive. Under any heading, the genre comprises one of the few boom areas in a generally depressed publishing industry. In the past year or so, sales have almost doubled. Three notable examples—Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave, Victoria Holt's Secret Woman and Elizabeth Goudge's Child from the Sea —all spent a comfortable winter on the bestseller lists. For top gothics, paperback sales—the real and durable market—can run into the millions.
According to Doubleday and Fawcett, the principal publishers, the readership for such romances consists mostly of women looking for nonelectronic escape: teen agers, housewives, travelers and other solitary people. Literary reviews are rare and have little influence. What sells is the author's name on the jacket and that illustration showing a girl and a castle.
Women's romance was rediscovered as a really rich commercial prospect in the late '50s when sales of straight historical novels and detective stories sagged and publishers needed a new kind of formula entertainment to promote. Today the field is dominated by Victoria Holt, the most prolific writer, and Mary Stewart, the most accomplished. Right behind come such veterans of genteel fiction as Norah Lofts, Catherine Gaskin and Phyllis Whitney, the only American in this group who has a major reputation. Elizabeth Goudge tends toward "atmosphere" and romantic biography. There are newcomers coming along—Jill Tattersall, Jane Aiken Hodge—but neither has yet had a major hit.
For the genre, the breakthrough book was Victoria Holt's Mistress of Mellyn (1960), which sold a million copies. Though it was in itself a touchingly direct tribute to Rebecca, Mellyn has become the model for many of the new romances. The plot concerns Martha Leigh, a young gentlewoman in reduced circumstances, who comes to a vast mansion in Cornwall to care for the motherless daughter of enigmatic Connan Tre-Mellyn. Even before Martha falls reluctantly in love with Connan, she learns that his wife's death was both scandalous and mysterious, that he is surrounded by neighbors with ambiguous motives and that there is now a child at the gatehouse that provocatively resembles his daughter. Martha becomes mistress of Mellyn, but not before she is nearly buried alive.