The Scapegoat in Who Doesn't Love a Classic?

Nov 04, 2014 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: movie, 20th-century, france, suspense, family, psychology, library, concierge, women-writers, literature

From the book jacket - Two men – one English, the other French – meet by chance in a provincial railway station and are astounded that they are so much alike that they could easily pass for each other. Over the course of a long evening, they talk and drink. It is not until he awakes the next day that John, the Englishman, realizes that he may have spoken too much. His French companion is gone, having stolen his identity. For his part, John has no choice but to take the Frenchman’s place – as mas From the book jacket - Two men – one English, the other French – meet by chance in a provincial railway station and are astounded that they are so much alike that they could easily pass for each other. Over the course of a long evening, they talk and drink. It is not until he awakes the next day that John, the Englishman, realizes that he may have spoken too much. His French companion is gone, having stolen his identity. For his part, John has no choice but to take the Frenchman’s place – as master of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a large and embittered family, and keeper of too many secrets.

My reactions
Du Maurier writes wonderfully complex psychological suspense, and this is a stellar example of her skill. Told almost entirely from John’s point of view we see him go from a depressed professor, to a befuddled (and very hung over) victim of a cruel “practical joke,” to a concerned outsider doing his best to keep things going, and finally to a man who had found new reserves of inner strength.

The way in which John muddles along as “Jean de Gue” reveals much about his doppelganger. For no matter how badly he behaves, what horribly embarrassing mistakes he makes, how much he hurts (however unintentionally) Jean’s wife, sister-in-law, brother, sister, mother, employees, everyone forgives him because Jean has so charmed them in the past that they overlook his “bad-boy” behavior. But John, not knowing when or if Jean will return, tries to make the best of things. Touched by the loyalty of workers in the family’s glass foundry, he agrees to a contract that will bring financial ruin to the Comte de Gue. Trying to find a way to make amends, John discovers the realities of the family finances. Jean’s wife has a significant trust fund but a modest annual allowance – unless she bears a son or dies before her husband. Francoise is about seven-months pregnant and having a difficult time of it, so John tries his best to be solicitous hoping to hang on until the long-awaited son is born, but this is clearly a troubled marriage.

That’s not the only difficulty in the household. The dowager countess is a bed-ridden old woman with a somewhat sinister handmaid, Charlotte. Sister Blanche has not spoken to her brother in fifteen years, and is a repressed and bitter woman who spends much time praying at the altar in her room. Brother Paul is an ineffective businessman, saddled with doing his best to manage a business his older brother completely neglects. Paul’s wife Renee is a bored housewife whose sexual yearning for Jean is evident to everyone. Ten-year-old Marie-Noel is a spoiled child who dotes on her father, is jealous of the not-yet-born baby brother, ignores her mother and spies on the household (which at least provides John with information, because the little girl loves to tell her father all the secrets she uncovers).

The plot is full of twists and turns which kept me interested and intrigued from beginning to end. I had seen a British movie on PBS Masterpiece, but it differs significantly from the book, so my expectations of where the plot was going were quickly proven wrong. Then, just as I thought I had figured out what would happen, du Maurier changed direction on me again. There is no neat solution to the mess Jean de Gue has made of his life, despite how John tries to set things right. The book ends with many questions left for the future.
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