I’m in the middle of reading Rebecca right now and keep thinking of you while reading it. Not sure if you’d appreciate surface-level thoughts or find them annoying, but in case they’re fun, I think from the way it was sold to me I expected more of a haunted house story, except so far (I’m about a quarter of the way in) it could just as well be a perfectly ordinary house with zero supernatural ghosts. And that’s fascinating too, because it’s… how grief/death works. Someone used to live here, made a daily routine and many close relationships, and made at least one room of the house her own. Now, the new bride is marrying into the old house, and her husband still feels intense grief for his late wife, and that affects their marriage. The dogs remember the late wife, and that affects her relationship with them. The entire staff remembers the late wife, and that creates a set of expectations that, regardless of their intent, makes her feel like an interloper. And, of course, the way the rooms are furnished and the place where the late wife died — all of it says “You are not the first to be here, you are stepping into a place where this person left behind many, many imprints and now she is dead.” There’s also the whole Downton Abbey deal with being a commoner who married way up and doesn’t know how to do anything that noblewomen are supposed to do. At first I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any real haunting, but I’m starting to come around on how.. the dead can haunt the living without ever being a real ghost, and that’s very profound and true. Still, I can’t imagine being willing to “give my five senses” to avoid that sort of haunting. How would you even function then? One or two senses, maybe; but then I think I’d be haunted by that loss. But I’m only 25% in, there’s still plenty of opportunity for things to get much, much worse.
Apologies if there were unwanted spoilers; I’m assuming you’ve already read Rebecca because… well. The book seems to scream that it’s the kind of thing you read and enjoyed a long time ago.
Yes, I read it! It's one of my favorite Gothics for exactly the reasons you mention, though of course, I find that haunting less horrifying than sensual, both emotionally and physically intimate. Original x The Second Mrs de Winter OTP, and someone please toss Maxim off that cliff in Monte Carlo. Though I probably shouldn't get too detailed about my opinions if you're only partway through.
I recall having this thought around the time I read Rebecca but your ask reminds me how little distinction there truly is between supernatural ghost Gothic and psychological Gothic. And then, many original Gothics like Anne Radcliffe's novels, Castle of Otranto, and Jane Eyes are all in the latter camp (IIRC - I might be misremembering either Otranto or Radcliffe, but I know at least one of them has a materialist explanation for everything). The more recent wave in the 1970s and 1980s leans a bit more supernatural, but I don't think much of it relies on supernatural powers to carry the tale -- it's ultimately about the people. And when you have a setup as perfectly, thoroughly haunted as Rebecca, I'm not sure what a ectoplasm-and-blood ghost could even add to the story. Though Wuthering Heights is one of the original Gothics that does have a 'real' ghost, there to do things that the living people couldn't do beyond their deaths. I suppose that's something to watch for as you read on to the end of Rebecca--how much power is that woman still able to exert, beyond her death? If she was ectoplasmically present, what would she even need to do to make things turn out differently?
The one novel I've read in which the two Mrs De Winters kiss does involve a touch of the supernatural, a time-travelling vision, because Rebecca can't kiss her successor without it! I believe the title of that one is Rebecca's Tale by Sally Beauman. Some might accuse it of making Rebecca overly sympathetic, but I think even in the original tale, Du Maurier has to rely a lot on faith in her audience's cynicism, plus misogyny, to convince us Rebecca is so bad. But damn was she an excellent writer. If you enjoy Rebecca, there are several other novels by her to check out. Including at least one with time travel, The House on the Strand. I found Jamaica Inn an entertaining page-turner (the villain has some great lines at the end even though he's writing cosmic horror checks he can't cash), The King's General is an interesting historical about the British Civil War with some Gothic secret rooms, and My Cousin Rachel is one of my favorites even as I find it painful to reread; I'd call it a take on Rebecca that's more sympathetic to Rebecca, while remaining tragically unfair to her (maybe?).
[Perhaps ironically, I am currently reading a book about 'real ghosts,' Allan Kellehear's Visions at the End of Life. He would probably frown at me for saying "ghosts" but oh well. They're dead people who visit, why can't I call them that? I'm pretty certain the phenomenon of deathbed and bereavement visions has inspired depictions of ghosts in fiction over the years, and in any event it's quite interesting! Though real ghosts tend to be too well-behaved (so behaved that Kellehear, a sociologist, can write this book about the patterns of their behavior) to make for good horror fiction.]
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