The Scapegoat (Virago Modern Classics)

Product Information

John goes completely unprepared into Jean’s life. Jean has a chateau, a glassworks, a wife, a mistress, a lover, a brother, a mother, a daughter and a sister who hasn’t spoken to him for fifteen years. The whole context is strange to John, who has to find ways of dealing with all of these things—and Jean’s life really does feel as complex as real life, and the tightrope John walks through it keeps you holding your breath as you read.

The Scapegoat is a tightly plotted novel, full of suspense, coincidence, and secrets. Like My Cousin Rachel,

Need Help?

Years of study, years of training, the fluency with which I spoke their language, taught their history, described their culture, had never brought me closer to the people themselves.” I don't want to go too much into the story because how the story unfolds is the greatest pleasure of this movie. Daphne Du Maurier always has good stories that grab you into the mysteries but I think this movie has some improvements on the original literature on which it is based.

Du Maurier’s skill creates as much suspense in The Scapegoat as it did in Rebecca. Her characters are linked by dependency, hostilely, old hatreds, and money. Carefully, John listens and digests remarks, cautious not to denounce the absent Jean and so reveal himself to this accepting family. Even the structure of this one sentence gives the impression of hurtling towards doom. It does not let up; there is no break. I could not ask forgiveness for something I had not done. As scapegoat I could only bear the fault."During this evening the men continue drinking and talking. Jean de Gue takes John to a restaurant....driving John's car ( after all, he knows it city best), and brings them to a shabby hotel.... and says "Sometimes, these places can be useful". Yet another Daphne du Maurier book that I struggled... to put down! French language academic John is astonished to bump into his exact doppelganger at a provincial French train station.