The Scapegoat (Virago Modern Classics)

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There is also another way to interpret the story, one which goes deeper into the psychology of identity - I won't say any more about that here, but if you read the book this theory may occur to you too. John finds that he has to pacify a demanding wife, sooth a domineering mother, evade a hostile sister, reassure an unwanted lover, grow tactful with an indifferent brother and dote on a hyperactive daughter, while also try to manage a glass foundry almost in ruins. The language is rich and hugely descriptive – all in a good way – and as the tale gallops along more and more problems seem to crawl out of the woodwork.

A word, a look, a smile, a frown, did something to another human being, waking response or aversion, and a web was woven which had no beginning and no end, spreading outward and inward too, merging, entangling, so that the struggle of one depended on the struggle of the other.In Rebecca the most powerful presence in the house is that of one absent person – the first Mrs de Winter. I think the author's aim was to show how a person, unavoidably, changes the atmosphere around him or her, especially when he or she changes his/her behaviour patterns. A dozen years have passed since the Occupation and there is still friction between those who were members of the Resistance and the collaborators. There's a fair amount of suspension of disbelief that is required on the part of the reader, but du Maurier is so skilled at engaging us, there were very few times that I stopped or scratched my head.

John, our narrator, is a lonely academic, someone who always felt like an observer rather than a participant in life. The psychological complexities and moral dilemmas, the Gothic-like atmosphere, and the superior writing that I have come to expect from Daphne du Maurier left me thoroughly satisfied. The basic plot is that a Frenchman in his early 40s runs into another man, an Englishman in his early 40s, who is a body double of him (doppelgänger).

There he meets his doppelgänger's family: Jean's feeble, pregnant wife Françoise and over-imaginative young daughter Marie-Noel; his dull brother Paul and embittered sister Blanche; Paul's frustrated wife (and Jean's mistress) Renée; and Jean's elderly, morphine-addicted mother. She has great command of the psychological thriller and weaves her tales to that you are never far from the edge of your seat. He learns how his doppelgänger had influenced the destinies of these individuals, mercilessly twisting their lives to his own purpose. I was delighted to be able to add copies to my collection; and to realise that I hadn’t looked for those books before because they made such an impression on me the first time I read them that I hadn’t needed to look for them again; and to know that those books would be ready and waiting for me when those impressions faded enough for me to need to go back. Archives Archives Tags Art Biography Book List Book Review Books Book Tag Classical Music Classics Debut Novel Detective Fiction Fantasy Fiction French Literature Historical Fiction History Horror Italian Literature Japan Japanese Books Japanese Literature Literary Fiction Music Mystery Non-Fiction Novella Paintings Philip K.

When Virago started reissuing those books I was astonished to learn that all but one was out of print. Blending the surreal and the realist, du Maurier creates a fascinating psychological situation, a deep and intricate central character study and vivid minor characters, while touching on such themes as the nature of identity and the unpredictability of the human nature. There are fewer of the traditional gothic tropes on display (the house as a main character, ghosts or dead who preoccupy the minds of the characters, letters received from people long dead, animals who meet bad ends, dark eroticism). One thing I noticed and found surprising is that the book is less gothic than the other novels of hers that I've read ( Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel).

When she wrote about the character Françoise needing a blood transfusion, in real life shortly afterwards, her daughter Tessa gave birth to a son who needed two blood transfusions. There was some building-up towards the end, but, any effect it might have on the story was destroyed by the anti-climactic end. This isn’t a book I recommend to all my friends but if you’ve enjoyed Rebecca or Jamaica Inn or just good old fashioned classic novels then this might well be a good choice for you. The sheer theatricality of life is on display in The Scapegoat, as Jean is torn between a surreal nightmare and a comedy, between a farce and realism of a tragedy.

John is an Englishman well-educated in everything French – the language, the history and the culture. Another thing I love about Daphne du Maurier's writing is her ability to always keep the reader guessing right to the final page (and sometimes afterwards too). When Jean's chauffeur arrives at the hotel, John is unable to convince him of what has happened - and ends up accompanying the chauffeur to Jean de Gue's chateau, where the Frenchman's unsuspecting family assume that he really is Jean de Gue. Perhaps John is Jean de Gué’s scapegoat, or maybe another is fulfilling this role in the drama that plays out in this wounded family. I knew that what had happened on a dark night nearly fifteen years ago had not come about by chance but was something planned and done deliberately by a man without heart or feeling, who saw perhaps, in the other someone finer than himself possessing.I have two possible DDMs but alas I doubt I will get to them this week – but maybe the book will push me into reading them! When the priest leaves, Jean arrives and mocks John's attempts to help the family, mistakenly thinking he only wants to stay with them for the money and comfort, but John reveals he has grown to love them.