Hey guys it's Brittany, I hope you're doing well
Today we are reviewing My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
I hope you guys are in the mood for traditional, gothic, romantic sweeping countryside
while a whole lot of creepy because that's what this book is all about
This is a spoiler free review so if you haven't read the book you are welcome to stay
This was remade into a film that was just released, actually it's being released nationwide
in the States today. It stars Finnick Odair from the Hunger Games and
and Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones
and Rachel Ashley is being played by Rachel Weisz
Daphne du Maurier is a novelis and playwrite whose career for the most part, more or less
spanned from the 1930's through the 1960's. My Cousin Rachel was first published in 1951
The book is set in the 1830's and in my opinion the book feels more like it was written in the 1830's more
in the romantic time period of literature rather than in the 1950's
The book is full of emotion and set in this gorgeous English countryside
with this big country manor. It reminds me a lot of Wuthering Heights or
or maybe kind of like it came out of a Thomas Hardy novel or something
the book is set in Cornwall in that English country that kind of sticks out
at the very southwestern end of it. This book told in the first person point of view
and the narrator for the book is a young man in his early 20's whose name is Philip
Philip was orphaned as a child as was sent to live with his very wealthy bachelor cousin named Ambrose
And Philip is set to be Ambrose's heir to his estate
Ambrose starts having some health problems later in life and he starts spending the winters in Italy
while Philip stays behind and kind of manages the estate. Well one day Philip gets a letter
from Ambrose saying "I found a wife, Rachel"
And Philip is like super jealous about this
mostly because he liked having Ambrose's undivided attention
but he's also like - wait- am I going to lose the estate because I'm not cool with that
I think du Maurier did such a fantastic job writing the first chapter
and hooking the reader into wanting to know more about the story
And I want to tell you about how she sets up the book. If you don't want to know anything about the first chapter
That's totally fine, but it's just like the first 5 pages in the book. The book's over 300 pages
So I don't think it's a spoiler but if you don't want to know anything
That's fine you might want to exit now
In the first chapter Philip is obsessed with recalling this memory he had as a child
where his town hung a man for murder
And his cousin made him go out and look at the corpse
that had been hanging on this tree for like 4 weeks
and he's haunted by this and he starts identifying with the hanged man
and feels like his shadow is following him and decides at the end of the first chapter
the hanged man's shadow is the same as his own shadow
so right way you're kind of like - did you kill somebody? Cause it seems like you might have killed someone
And we learn from the first few pages that Ambrose, his cousin, is dead
And we get this following quote that I loved - I'll read it to you-
"No one will ever guess the burden of blame that I carry on my shoulders
nor will they know that everyday haunted still by doubt
I ask myself a question which I cannot answer
was Rachel innocent or guilty?
maybe I shall learn that too in purgatory.
And from this you're like "did you kill her? cause it seems like you might have killed her..."
du Maurier gives away so much information about the fate of the main characters
right away in the first few pages of the book