My Cousin Rachel

What a magnificent writer, so skillfully written that you felt you were in every page soaking up the details & becoming part of the story. Was he going crazy with lust? The hero must have questioned himself many times, he must have known the truth but refused to give in to it. I read this book in one day, hours, because I needed to know. Now I want more!

It's nice to know that there are authors like Daphne du Maurier out there who can always be counted upon to provide an enjoyable reading experience. If one has struggled through a couple of sub-par contemporary novels, one knows with du Maurier he can sink his teeth into something excellent, and My Cousin Rachel delivers big time.

It is the story of a young man, Philip, 25, who has been brought up by his older, male, bachelor cousin, Ambrose. They are well-to-do and live on an estate in the Cornwall, England so beloved by Ms. du Maurier, and have a varied and busy life. Neither seems too particularly interested in women. As he gets older, Ambrose decides for health reasons that he must begin to winter in Italy, leaving Philip behind to take care of things.

Ambrose, of course, writes to Philip, and eventually tells him he has met a woman--their cousin Rachel--with whom he has fallen in love with and whom he has married. As time goes by, however, the letters become less enthusiastic. She is spending too much. He is becoming ill. He no longer trusts her or the Italian friend who seems to be hanging around her all of the time. Philip decides that he must go to Italy, but by the time he gets there, his beloved cousin is dead and buried and Rachel is nowhere to be found. Philip returns to England, disconsolate, heartbroken and angry.

Shortly thereafter he learns that Rachel is coming to pay a visit. And this is where the meat of the novel begins: although determined to get to the truth of the matter out of her, Philip instead becomes smitten.

The reason the novel works so well--indeed, the reason all of du Maurier's novels work so well--is that the characters are perfectly etched. Philip is not unintelligent and he is not uneducated. But he is 25, and he has traveled practically nowhere. The story is written in the first person by him, and although he is clearly self-confident, the reader sees how easily he is manipulated by the beautiful Rachel. She has him, as a major character points out, wrapped around her finger.

Rachel, of course, is etched through the eyes of Philip, and she is also a distinct, memorable character. Always dressed appropriately, always made up perfectly, she knows precisely how she must act with the various persons in the community in which Philip lives. They are enchanted by her, as is Philip, to whom she is alternately bewitching and standoffish.

The suspense begins when Philip learns little things about Rachel’s actions that don’t seem to fit with her overall charm. She is spending too much. He discovers additional letters from Ambrose that never made it to him previously. He is beginning to feel ill. Philip does not want to believe the implications of these things and does his best to ignore them. And then the Italian friend comes to visit.

Best not say more, except that the tension continues to build until the conclusion; a conclusion which, again typically of du Maurier, is unexpected. First-rate, page-turning fiction all the way.

"They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more, though...."

I'm a mystery writer, and Daphne du Maurier was one of my earliest inspirations. REBECCA is her masterpiece, followed by two other novels, THE SCAPEGOAT and this 1951 bestseller. The opening sentences of MY COUSIN RACHEL (above) are second only to the immortal opening line of REBECCA.

In 1840s Cornwall, young Philip Ashley inherits the fortune of the cousin who raised him, who has recently married abroad (Italy) and died under mysterious circumstances. Philip's pleasant life is disrupted by the sudden arrival of his cousin's beautiful widow, Rachel. Initially planning to send her on her way with a generous pension, he soon finds himself falling in love with her--even as he begins to suspect that she murdered his cousin and may be planning the same fate for him.

Rarely have I read a novel in which the tension and suspense arise almost exclusively from character. Who is this woman? What is she doing? How is the young hero going to respond to her? These questions have haunted readers since the book first appeared, and they will continue to do so for a long time to come. Reading the book again after all these years, I was amazed by du Maurier's plotting, her use of language, and the way she can create an atmosphere of foreboding that is almost palpable. Writers can learn a lot from this master, and RACHEL is a must for anyone who loves the very best in suspense.

PS: The 1952 film version, with Olivia de Havilland and an incredibly young Richard Burton in the leads, is also excellent.

In my 20+ years as a story analyst for Hollywood film studios and production companies, I've read my share of stories and we are always looking for that "sense of foreboding," no matter the genre. This is easy to achieve for a scene or two but difficult to sustain. My Cousin Rachel not only opens with a sense of foreboding but Daphne du Maurier has the skill to continue it all the way to the very last word.

I have been a longtime fan of du Maurier's Rebecca; in fact, it's in my Top 10 all-time favorite novels. But, I found My Cousin Rachel to be just a tad more accessible than Rebecca and equally as compelling.

This is the story of Ambrose Ashley and his ward, his young cousin Philip, who are torn apart by the appearance into their lives of a distant cousin named Rachel. When Ambrose, who is not in good health and must spend winters in warmer climates, moves to Italy for the winter and marries Rachel suddenly, Philip is not pleased. In fact, he's jealous and thinks the worst of Ambrose's new bride. But when Ambrose ends up dying while abroad, all kinds of evil thoughts float through Philip's mind, prompted by letters to him from Ambrose. The most important thought is: did Rachel poison Ambrose?

And then Rachel comes to England and meets Philip. At first suspicious, Philip soon finds his cousin Rachel to be sweet and kind and considerate...or, is she?

This gothic-romance is stirring and engaging and a wonderful literary experience. I highly recommend it.

this is a very interior book. it's not just the first person pov. it's about a lonely young man, who, having had an incredibly isolated childhood under the benign and loving influence of his guardian, ambrose, confronts a crisis in his life, and does all the rash, impetuous things that his interior world dictates.

i found this to have a very slow start, and was about to give it up, when the momentum of events in the plot increased with the death of philip's guardian, ambrose. it's here, within the description of young phillip's journey to italy, that the questions about how his beloved father figure died begin to unspool, and the outward thrust of the narration begins to delve inward with assumptions about the motivations of the characters involved. du Maurier's ability to to nestle mystery inside mystery is flawless, until the whole plot resembles a russian nesting doll,

the ambiguity builds in this novel until it's just about unbearable. is rachel truly a fortune hunting murderess? is philip's illness a by-product of her plotting? was ambrose's paranoia about her and her advisor, rainaldi, justified? du Maurier never lets up, even in the last scenes. this is the product of a mature, brilliant writing mind, as du Maurier has scaled the pinnacle of gothic suspense tales. in my cousin rachel, she shows us how it's done; she's the master of the genre.