My Cousin Rachel (1951) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 4 stars

“I will admit it took me a while to finish the book. I can't say it exactly drags but it is explained into in a great detail. It has a plot that will keep you guessing through out. This is one book I assure you where you are not going to guess the ending. Jealousy or greed is one emotion that is very prominent in the book.Overall it is a good book if you have the patience to read it.”

• Rated 4 stars

“My Cousin Rachel's opening, with a dead body swinging on a gibbet, reminded me somewhat of Great Expectations. That the narrator is also an orphan called Philip cemented the connection. In some ways you can look at it as a version of Great Expectations PULPed and reconstituted. It is also unmistakably from the same hand as Rebecca, using a similar structure and setting.
That Philip himself may be a guilty man, and Rachel a guilty woman, is introduced early on, before Rachel herself: "No one will ever guess the burden of blame I carry on my shoulders; nor will they know that every day, 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.
How soft and gentle her name sounds when I whisper it. It lingers on the tongue, insidious and slow, almost like poison."
Philip is raised by confirmed bachelor Ambrose in a house without women, to be his heir, heir to a house that seems once again based on Menabilly House the same source as Manderley in Rebecca. Ambrose starts spending time in hotter climes for his health where he meets a distant cousin who lives in Florence and shares his interest in gardens. Then to general shock they get married.
At first all seems happy but then Philip receives a few strange letters which suggest that all is not right in Florence. Without knowing Rachel, Philip is quick to jump to conclusions about her. At this time it is as well to drop the plot precis before I have given too much away.
Her characters may be from the stock rooms of literary tradition but Du Maurier is an author I will return to again because of the vitality with which she manipulates these characters, and the hectic vividness of her descriptions.
Longer review @ http://theknockingshop.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-cousin-rachel.html”

• Rated 4 stars

“Liked it. Definitely leaves a question in the air at the end... what was it about Rachel?? Interesting. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“Brilliant - full of suspense and so vividly written”

• Rated 4 stars

“great quick book. Another weekend captivating novel. Just like Kings General was...”

• Rated 4 stars

“Incredibly taut Gothic character study that manages suspense almost solely through the personalities in its pages.”

• Rated 5 stars

“(A)”

• Rated 2 stars

“I very rarely stop reading a book before I finish it, but this was one that I did just that on. It was a slow read with too many details that took forever to get in to. I finally had enough about 3/4 of the way through and put it down. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“I have to admit that Du Maurier kept me in suspense all the way to the end. Is she a devil or an angel? You decide! This story is worth the journey.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I thought it was good, but the ending was a disapointment I wanted to know more, there was a hint to what happened, but not a very good one. ”