The location of Edgecombe is important to Rebecca as a novel because it is the location where the original body of Rebecca was identified. The location, which is quite far up the coast from where Manderley is, represents one of the most major forms of lies and deceit that Maxim de Winter uses in the novel. This information comes from page 298 of Rebecca, where Maxim reveals that "the woman buried in the crypt is not Rebecca... it's the body of some unknown woman," as he begins to unravel all of the lies he has told to the narrator and others, beginning at the location of Edgecombe. This location illustrates the erasure of identity because Maxim replaces the identity of the unclaimed woman washed ashore with that of Rebecca, and thus replaces the relevance of Edgecombe with that of Rebecca's presence and the lies told around her. Mapping this location on COVE reveals how the novel’s real geography grounds its atmosphere due to the surprising distance between Edgecombe and Manderley, especially for the time period in which this book was set. It makes the fact that Maxim said the body was Rebecca's even harder to believe due to the distance her body would've traveled.
Image: https://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/attractions/mountedgcumbe/images/mountedgcumbe-exterior3.jpg
