However, what turned out to be more telling than cousin Rachel herself is Philip’s response to her. For over threehundred pages, I, too, was obsessed with that question: did she do it? Knowing Du Maurier the way I have come to, I was holding my breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
At one point I was so engrossed in the story that I had completely missed the fact that the friends I was supposed to meet were twenty minutes late and had been calling me repeatedly – none of which I noticed. In many ways, My Cousin Rachel is full of what Du Maurier does best: beautiful descriptions of the scenery, insight into the inner worlds of the protagonist, and a brooding plot so tense that it will keep you reading through the night. However, when she shows up at his door in Cornwall, Philip begins to have doubts:ĭid Rachel murder his cousin or is she an innocent woman? In his last letter to his nephew, Ambrose implies that Rachel has poisoned him, leaving Philip devastated and out for revenge. His cousin and father figure, Ambrose, travels abroad to recover from an illness, only to unexpectedly marry “cousin Rachel” and pass away shortly afterwards.
It tells a story of a young man by the name of Philip Ashley in what may or may not be Georgian/early Victorian times ( Du Maurier never specifies the time period). With a new film adaptation (starring Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin) having hit the screen this year, it seemed like the right time to dive back into my pile of Daphne du Maurier books and pick up My Cousin Rachel.
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