Daphne weaved a compelling tale from the off, from the mystery of the identical men to the shit-show that Jean's life is; but where she excels is the intricacies of the extended family's life and history; the multiple distinct voices and relationships with Jean, and then John, and just overall taking a superb suspense thriller and making it much more, very much more! 9 out of 12.

Two men....one English, "John"...( the narrator), the other French, "Jean de Gue", meet by chance one evening. It's like looking into a mirror: they look almost identical- other than the color of their eyes. A fluttering sound by the window made me turn my head. It was a butterfly, the last of the long summer, woken by sunshine, seeking escape from the cobwebs that imprisoned it. I released the butterfly from its prison, and it hovered a moment on the sill, then settled once more amongst the cobwebs."

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whether he will inherit the money if she dies. '"What happens if I die? You get everything, don't you?" "You're not going to die"' Further, his love for the real Jean de Gué's family and his distaste for the man's apparent selfishness is shared by the reader. His discomfort at the circumstances in which he finds himself, and his willing collaboration with the deception, causes not judgement from the reader; rather, we wish him success in the plans he sets in motion, thereby exposing our own active entanglement in his scheme also.

The language is rich and hugely descriptive – all in a good way – and as the tale gallops along more and more problems seem to crawl out of the woodwork. Can John possibly add value here, can he right the wrongs and solve some of the problems? He is certainly going to have his hands full as there is much to do if he is to right this particular ship. But the question that really bugs me is why doesn’t anyone seem to notice that he’s not Jean – not his brother, his mother or even his wife and child?]

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A bewildered Barratt allows himself to be taken to De Gué's chateau, where he meets "his" family: daughter Marie-Noel, wife Françoise, sister Blanche and formidable mother the Countess. None of them believe his story - it appears that De Gué is a malicious liar - so Barratt resigns himself to playing along. As time goes on, he feels needed, something missing in his sterile prior life. One had no right to play with other people's lives. One should not interfere with their emotions. A word, a look, a smile, a frown, did something to another human being, waking response or aversion, and a web was woven which had no beginning and no end, spreading outward and inward too, merging, entangling, so that the struggle of one depended on the struggle of the other."

The ending she refers to comes across to the reader as quite weak. It provides neither the delicious twist we have learnt to expect from this author, nor the massive ambiguity she can do so well. Clearly from this letter though, it is what she intended, and perhaps had to wrestle with internally herself. Perhaps after all it is a fitting ending to a novel, in which she delved into John/Jean's - and possibly her own - psyche and explored other, imaginary selves. Did she explore mere fantasies, or their secret lives? Increasingly after this novel, she became intrigued by what she called the "dark side" of our natures, and some of her best short stories and novellas, explore this theme. "Don't Look Now", "The Blue Lenses", and "The Breakthrough", are examples. They too are macabre and strange, tense and chillingly unexpected tales, relying on the same speculative atmosphere of suspense and mystery, both disturbing and uncanny. When Jean's chauffeur arrives at the hotel, John is unable to convince him of what has happened - and ends up accompanying the chauffeur to Jean de Gue's chateau, where the Frenchman's unsuspecting family assume that he really is Jean de Gue. Naturally, they expect him to continue running the family glass-making business and arranging shooting parties - things that John has absolutely no experience in. Before long, it starts to become obvious that Jean is using John as a scapegoat; Jean's family and business are both in a mess and he wants someone else to have to deal with them. The film makes no mention of the earlier murder of Maurice Duval. The incident in which John deliberately burns his hand to avoid taking part in the shoot does not occur in the film, nor does his wife's fall from the bedroom window or her subsequent death. In the film, Spence surreptitiously enters the house during the shoot and manipulates Frances into taking an overdose of morphine. Standing arrives in time to save her. looks around her at the house and John suddenly realises that 'what she was looking at had once been part of her life' I just looked at an Excel database I have kept for some 15 years or so and have discovered I read this in 2001. How could I forget reading this book??? It’s like I read it for the first time today! In fact you can see from my review above I was assuming this was the first tine I had laid eyes on this book. I know some books are certainly worth reading two times��but yeesh. Maybe I should be taking a buttload of Prevogen. After all, it contains an ingredient found in jellyfish. Or so the ad says…I wonder if jellyfish have good memories? Apparently they have better memories than I.🤨The Scapegoat is a 1959 British mystery film based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, and starring Alec Guinness, Nicole Maurey and Bette Davis. [2] [3] Plot [ edit ]

He thinks the only motive force in human nature is "GREED". People in Jean de Gue's life were never satisfied--[from his point of view].

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This is a disturbing tale, and it comes as no surprise to learn how emotionally drained and disturbed the author was on its completion. 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. When she wrote about the character Françoise needing a blood transfusion, in real life shortly afterwards, her daughter Tessa gave birth to a son who needed two blood transfusions. Her biographer Judith Cook says, of the odd coincidences and connections,