Product Description

By chance, two men - one English, the other French - meet in a provincial railway station. Their physical resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupour. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing. Gripping and complex, The Scapegoat is a masterful exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56525 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'This book is one of her best' TIME AND TIDE

About the Author
Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.

Customer Reviews

An almost forgotten masterpiece
It's great to see Daphne du Maurier getting a reprint of all her novels with revamped covers. It's easy to think of her as a writer of romantic melodrama but she isn't and this book, as if the others haven't anyway, proves that she has plenty to say about the human condition. Beautifully written and cleverly paced The Scapegoat draws you in and keeps you fascinated to learn the truth about the protagonists double.

Apart from being an atmospheric and well written thriller the book has a number of philosophical questions to ask about the nature of self and the different perspectives we all bring to the same situation. Above all it's about the choice we all have to do good or evil in our lives. It never at any point gets bogged down in what it is trying to say. A deftly written well told story that shows you don't have to sacrifice content, character and storytelling on the altar of style and structure to make a point.

Another 'can't put it down' Daphne du Maurier book....
A lonely single English man John who longs for a life so different to his own meets a Frenchman Jean who has all the ties and responsibilities John has never known ; a crumbling family business, a sick mother, a dependent wife and child, and a reputation.

John and Jean also happen to be identical, so Jean (who is also tired of his life but for the opposite reasons to John) decides to trick John into swapping places. John finds himself in someone elses shoes and leading the life of a person he has always wanted to be, but it doesnt turn out as he hoped and the masquerade leads to disaterous consequences.

Im not going to spoil it for you though so just buy it! Its another fantastic Daphne du Maurier book.

A nail-biter
I could not put down this book! It started out rather depressing and slow, but soon I was hooked, and I desperately -- foregoing sleep -- wanted to know what would happen to the lead character, John. Just when I thought his situation could not get worse, something else came up and I wondered, how could he get out of it this time? It is amazing how Du Maurier is able to make this novel's villain almost likeable.