My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier
Oct. 28th, 2021 06:03 pmMy! Cousin! Rachel! My gosh what a BOOK. Recommended to me by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lirazel in the comments to my post on Rebecca, for which I'm very grateful! I'd never even heard of this one before.
Let me start with what's obviously the most important thing, which is that du Maurier has learned about more birds in the years since she wrote Rebecca :P Nicely done, du Maurier, keep up the good work!
Okay but actually. Brace yourself for too many words, because I have a LOT to say about this book.
So, as with Rebecca, this is a book involving an unreliable narrator, an old estate by the sea that looms large in the lives of the lead characters, unhealthy relationships, and mysterious threats. Well: it's a gothic, of course it does! Gothics might not be a genre I gravitate to, but apparently when they're well done I'm THERE because both du Mauriers I've read now have been highly worthwhile experiences. Maybe du Maurier is just magic or something.
My Cousin Rachel's narrator-protagonist is Philip, a rich young man who has been raised by his much older cousin Ambrose in a context with basically zero women around, because Ambrose is a raging misogynist. And everyone's always talking about how much Philip is like Ambrose!
Anyway Ambrose fucks off to Italy for health reasons, and while there he meets a woman (the titular Rachel), is captivated by her, marries her, sends some paranoid letters home to Philip, and then dies of what the doctors diagnose as a brain tumour.
Philip, understandably given his background, is VERY SUSPICIOUS of Rachel and hates her immediately -- until Rachel appears in person in his life, and the reality of what she's like changes his tune completely. She's small and beautiful and kind and gentle! Obviously he was wrong to suspect her of anything!
Rachel is a fascinating figure, for certain, and there's much that's mysterious about her. She doesn't say much about her past, but what little you hear, it's clear she's been through a lot of trauma, and is doing her best to live her life and move on from it but is still deeply affected by it.
( spoiler time! extensively so! )
lirazel in the comments to my post on Rebecca, for which I'm very grateful! I'd never even heard of this one before.Let me start with what's obviously the most important thing, which is that du Maurier has learned about more birds in the years since she wrote Rebecca :P Nicely done, du Maurier, keep up the good work!
Okay but actually. Brace yourself for too many words, because I have a LOT to say about this book.
So, as with Rebecca, this is a book involving an unreliable narrator, an old estate by the sea that looms large in the lives of the lead characters, unhealthy relationships, and mysterious threats. Well: it's a gothic, of course it does! Gothics might not be a genre I gravitate to, but apparently when they're well done I'm THERE because both du Mauriers I've read now have been highly worthwhile experiences. Maybe du Maurier is just magic or something.
My Cousin Rachel's narrator-protagonist is Philip, a rich young man who has been raised by his much older cousin Ambrose in a context with basically zero women around, because Ambrose is a raging misogynist. And everyone's always talking about how much Philip is like Ambrose!
Anyway Ambrose fucks off to Italy for health reasons, and while there he meets a woman (the titular Rachel), is captivated by her, marries her, sends some paranoid letters home to Philip, and then dies of what the doctors diagnose as a brain tumour.
Philip, understandably given his background, is VERY SUSPICIOUS of Rachel and hates her immediately -- until Rachel appears in person in his life, and the reality of what she's like changes his tune completely. She's small and beautiful and kind and gentle! Obviously he was wrong to suspect her of anything!
Rachel is a fascinating figure, for certain, and there's much that's mysterious about her. She doesn't say much about her past, but what little you hear, it's clear she's been through a lot of trauma, and is doing her best to live her life and move on from it but is still deeply affected by it.
( spoiler time! extensively so! )
