This is a wonderful book, and how happy I am to be able to say so. Somehow I have been a little disappointed by some recent reads, but not this time. Honestly, I cannot fault it. I know that Rebecca is always said to be Du Maurier's masterpiece, but this one comes pretty close, I think. The strange thing is that I thought I had read it before -- as I had a bit of a Daphne-fest many years ago -- but clearly I had not as I would have remembered.
So -- what's it about? Like Rebecca it is told in the first person, but this time the narrator is Philip Ashley, a young Cornishman. Orphaned as a baby, he has been brought up by his cousin Ambrose on Ambrose's great Cornish estate (based, I believe, on Daphne's own Menabilly, as of course Manderley also was). The two cousins have lived a contented life in their fine but shabby house, surrounded by dogs, waited on by faithful servants, taking good care of the tenants. But, before the story begins, Ambrose's health has begun to fail and he has travelled to Florence to find better winter weather. There, much to Philip's shock, he has met and married a widowed contessa, Rachel Sangatelli, and moved into her Florentine villa. Already resentful and anxious, Philip is profoundly worried by a letter he receives -- "For God's sake come to me quickly. She has done for me at last,
Rachel my torment. If you delay, it may be too late. Ambrose." -- and sets off for Florence. It was only at this point that I realised that this novel is set in the past -- when, exactly, is never stated, but probably the early 19th century, and certainly before the coming of the railways, as the journey to Italy takes three weeks. And by the time he gets there, and finds his way to the villa, terrible news greets him -- Ambrose has died, and Rachel has left the villa and gone, no one knows where. Philip, miserable and disturbed, returns to Cornwall, his head full of anger and resentment against this unknown woman who, from Ambrose's letter, he suspects of having possibly harmed his cousin. But when Rachel unexpectedly turns up in Cornwall, everything changes. At 24, Philip has never even considered the possibility of falling in love, but this beautiful, charming, seemingly sweet-natured woman quickly draws him in and soon he is completely infatuated with her. Discovering that Ambrose made, but never signed, a will leaving the house to Rachel for her lifetime, Philip decides to honour his cousin's wishes and draws up a document transferring the property to her on his 25th birthday. But a number of discoveries -- letters which turn up unexpectedly, certain aspects of Rachel's behaviour -- begin to suggest that all is not quite as it seems with Rachel, though Philip determinedly puts all suspicion out of his mind and lives for some time in a kind of mindless euphoria. At last, though, events take a sinister turn and the outcome is, finally, tragic.
The greatness of this novel, for me, was in the skill of the narrative voice. Philip is absolutely convincing -- likeable, well-meaning, human, but desperately naive and ultimately self-deceived. Or is he? Of course that is the question on which this novel finally turns. Are the suspicions of Rachel he finally, and in great mental torment, allows himself to acknowledge based on reality, or are they a product of his own confused and fevered imaginings? We will never know. And, it seems, Daphne herself did not know. And, while I was grousing about lack of closure in my post on The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, here it is the very same thing that lifts this novel into the top rank.
If you have never read this, you really must do so forthwith. And thank you, thank you, Sourcebooks, for sending me this lovely new edition and giving me hours of pure enjoyment.
