Solution: Classic novel narrated by the second Mrs. de Winter - NYT Crossword

It would probably help to explain the plot of this movie. The 1940 film “REBECCA,” Alfred Hitchcock’s American directorial debut, is about the wives of the brooding widower, Maxim de Winter, played with suitably furrowed brow by Laurence Olivier. His first wife, REBECCA, has died before the film begins, but Mr. de Winter soon meets Joan Fontaine and she becomes his second wife, thereby earning the right to be called REBECCA as well. He eventually takes his new bride back to his windswept estate, REBECCA (pronounced Manderley), and introduces her to the foreboding housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who in all likelihood is also called REBECCA. Mrs. Danvers, driven to derangement by the fact that almost everyone in the movie is named REBECCA, sets fire to the estate, but everyone besides her escapes so that they can eventually name their children REBECCA.