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The Scapegoat (Virago Modern Classics)

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A Du Maurier blueprint, containing all the elements which made her a much appreciated author of her times.

This is a disturbing tale, and it comes as no surprise to learn how emotionally drained and disturbed the author was on its completion.She was one of a small number of authors that my mother guided me towards when I progressed from the junior to the senior library.

French language academic John is astonished to bump into his exact doppelganger at a provincial French train station. I wondered how it would look at nightfall, this town of Villars, turning early to sleep and silence like all provincial market towns, the inhabitants behind their shutters and in bed, the houses in shadow, the mellow roofs sloping to pitchy eaves, the flamboyant Gothic spire of the cathedral church stabbing an ink-blue sky; no sound, perhaps, but the passing footstep of a loiterer homeward bound and the hardly perceptible ripple of the canals still and dark beside the walls". Events in Daphne du Maurier's own life were mirrored within the novel, and the author became increasingly jittery and confused as to which had actually happened first. Before long John has passed out and when he wakes he realises that his identity has been stolen – Jean, his Gallic lookalike, has run off with his clothes, wallet and car.

The narrator continually suspects various members of his family - including his doppelgänger - of not only duplicity, but also of some evil deeds in the past.

With du Maurier, readers know that they are in the safe and confident hands of a master who will deliver something subtle, unsettling and over and above their expectations. Instead, she lets it fall into monotony with the dull narrative of the story from the victim, John's, point of view. This one sounds pretty appealing, and your high rating is very encouraging; also, as I loved Rebecca, I’m happy to see there are perhaps some similarities between the two! In some of her novels, however, she went beyond the technique of the formulaic romance to achieve a powerful psychological realism reflecting her intense feelings about her father, and to a lesser degree, her mother. In The Scapegoat, her ancestral glass-blowing foundry became the failing business of the de Gué family.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). He never reflects back on what has led him to this point, or what his life has been so far, but always concentrates on remaining undiscovered, and as the novel proceeds, on influencing the future of his "adopted family" for their good. Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, the narrator finds himself in another world; a world that he finds curiouser and curiouser. In one week happen the events that years could not have brought about: “ the strangeness of a dream is always natural to the dreamer, and I began to move with ease amongst my phantoms, who talked to me, smiled at me, or ignored me” [du Maurier, 1957: 133]. 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.

Her family connections helped her establish her literary career, and she published some of her early work in Beaumont's Bystander magazine. filled with an intense desire to get away from that dingy, shabby hotel and never set eyes on it again, and as my anger rose and self-disgust took possession of me. 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.From this religious tradition developed the meaning of a person, group or thing who takes the blame for the mistakes or crimes of others.

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