My Cousin Rachel

My Cousin Rachel
1st edition cover
Author(s)	Daphne du Maurier
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	1951
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	1-57912-569-7
OCLC Number	70160575

My Cousin Rachel is a novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, published in 1951. Like the earlier Rebecca, it is a mystery-romance, largely set on a large estate in Cornwall.

Plot overview

The basis of the novel is the tension set up in its young protagonist when Philip falls in love with his cousin, while uncovering, and trying to deny, evidence that she is pretending to care for him while she has only her own interests at heart.

Plot summary

Philip Ashley, the protagonist, has been brought up by his cousin Ambrose, to whom he is devoted, on Ambrose's Cornish estate. While travelling in Italy for his health, Ambrose falls in love with and marries Rachel, a distant cousin and penniless widow of an Italian count. Just months after their marriage, Ambrose falls ill and dies, leaving Philip to inherit the estate.

Rachel returns to England, and Philip is subjected to contradictory forces: he falls in love with her, but at the same time evidence grows that Rachel might be funneling money to Italy and that Ambrose died under suspicious circumstances. Philip's infatuation leads him continually to make excuses for her behavior, and indeed the author leaves the reader to decide between Rachel's character and Philip's delusions. After he impetuously settles the estate on her and proposes marriage, she grows cold to him. He suffers an illness similar to that of Ambrose and discovers poisonous seeds in her desk drawer. In a sudden and dramatic end, Rachel walks alone on a bridge that Philip failed to warn her was incomplete, and falls to her death. She dies in Philip's arms, calling him Ambrose. It gives us an insight into the most pernicious quality of the human mind; jealousy.^[1]

The book's title reflects Philip's consistent references to Rachel as "my cousin Rachel" right up to the moment he realizes he is in love with her.

A film My Cousin Rachel, starring Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland was made in 1952, and a television adaptation, starring Christopher Guard and Geraldine Chaplin.

References

1. ^ http://www.dumaurier.org/reviews-rachel.html