The Key to Rebecca
E401397
The Key to Rebecca is a World War II espionage thriller novel by Ken Follett that follows a German spy in Cairo using a code based on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca to aid Rommel’s North African campaign.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Key to Rebecca canonical | 2 |
| The Key to Rebecca (1985 television film) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3949383 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Key to Rebecca Context triple: [Ken Follett, notableWork, The Key to Rebecca]
-
A.
Rebecca
Rebecca is a feminine given name of Hebrew origin meaning “to tie” or “to bind,” widely used in English-speaking countries.
-
B.
Rebecca (1940 film)
Rebecca (1940 film) is a 1940 gothic romantic thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s novel, and renowned for its haunting atmosphere and Laurence Olivier’s performance.
-
C.
My Cousin Rachel
My Cousin Rachel is a 1952 gothic romantic drama film, adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s novel, in which Olivia de Havilland plays a mysterious widow suspected of murder and manipulation.
-
D.
Winterbourne
Winterbourne is a large village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, situated near Bristol and known for its suburban character and local amenities.
-
E.
Backstairs Passage
Backstairs Passage is a narrow strait in South Australia that separates Kangaroo Island from the mainland.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Key to Rebecca Target entity description: The Key to Rebecca is a World War II espionage thriller novel by Ken Follett that follows a German spy in Cairo using a code based on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca to aid Rommel’s North African campaign.
-
A.
Rebecca
Rebecca is a feminine given name of Hebrew origin meaning “to tie” or “to bind,” widely used in English-speaking countries.
-
B.
Rebecca (1940 film)
Rebecca (1940 film) is a 1940 gothic romantic thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s novel, and renowned for its haunting atmosphere and Laurence Olivier’s performance.
-
C.
My Cousin Rachel
My Cousin Rachel is a 1952 gothic romantic drama film, adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s novel, in which Olivia de Havilland plays a mysterious widow suspected of murder and manipulation.
-
D.
Winterbourne
Winterbourne is a large village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, situated near Bristol and known for its suburban character and local amenities.
-
E.
Backstairs Passage
Backstairs Passage is a narrow strait in South Australia that separates Kangaroo Island from the mainland.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
espionage novel
ⓘ
historical novel ⓘ novel ⓘ thriller novel ⓘ |
| adaptation |
The Key to Rebecca
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
The Key to Rebecca (1985 television film)
|
| author | Ken Follett ⓘ |
| basedOn | use of the novel Rebecca as a code key ⓘ |
| conflict |
North African campaign
ⓘ
surface form:
North African Campaign
|
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| followedBy | The Man from St. Petersburg ⓘ |
| genre |
historical fiction
ⓘ
spy fiction ⓘ thriller ⓘ war novel ⓘ |
| hasPageCount | approx. 320 ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
betrayal
ⓘ
codebreaking ⓘ espionage ⓘ loyalty ⓘ survival ⓘ war ⓘ |
| inspiredBy | real German spy Johannes Eppler ⓘ |
| involves |
British intelligence officer
ⓘ
Erwin Rommel’s North African campaign ⓘ German spy ⓘ code based on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryReference | Rebecca ⓘ |
| literaryReferenceAuthor | Daphne du Maurier ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Alex Wolff
ⓘ
Elene Fontana ⓘ Major William Vandam ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| notableFor | use of a popular novel as a cipher key ⓘ |
| partOf |
Ken Follett
ⓘ
surface form:
Ken Follett’s World War II thrillers
|
| plotFocus |
German espionage in Cairo
ⓘ
use of a literary code based on the novel Rebecca ⓘ |
| precededBy | Eye of the Needle ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1980 ⓘ |
| publisher | William Morrow and Company ⓘ |
| settingPeriod | World War II ⓘ |
| settingPlace |
Cairo
ⓘ
Egypt ⓘ North Africa ⓘ |
| targetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| timeSettingStart | 1942 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Key to Rebecca Description of subject: The Key to Rebecca is a World War II espionage thriller novel by Ken Follett that follows a German spy in Cairo using a code based on Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca to aid Rommel’s North African campaign.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Ken Follett
this entity surface form:
The Key to Rebecca (1985 television film)