““We were dreamers, both of us, and like all dreamers asleep to the waking world … We would have both survived, had we been other men” — Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel
About two or three years ago I read Daphne du Maurier’s classic romantic suspense novel Rebecca. It didn’t grab me the way it has so many others. But what I did take note of was how beautifully Rebecca was written. And so I resolved to eventually read another of du Maurier’s novels. But which would it be? Jamaica Inn or My Cousin Rachel? I went with My Cousin Rachel and I am so happy I did.
My Cousin Rachel (1951) is a novel where the narrator Philip Ashley is looking back to when he was a young man living in Cornwall, England. The time is the 1830s. Philip is the heir to the Ashley Estate deeded to him by his older cousin Ambrose. Philip was a three-year-old orphan when he came to live with Ambrose.
But as good a father figure as Ambrose was, there were flaws in how he raised Philip. Ambrose was a bachelor and the Ashley Estate a bachelor’s paradise. No female housekeeper or aunt was asked to move in and help raise Philip. And so Philip, growing up, had no experience with women and, like his cousin Ambrose, didn’t trust them.
And then in his 40s, Ambrose, while vacationing in Florence, meets his distant cousin Rachel Sangaletti. Ambrose writes home to Philip about how wonderful Rachel is and soon they are married. Ambrose will be bringing Rachel back to Cornwall and he can’t wait for Philip to meet her.
Philip is not happy with this turn of events. Rachel as Ambrose’s bride will be the new mistress of Ashley estates and where does that leave Philip? But soon Ambrose begins writing to Philip in a darker tone. Ambrose is ill and he has grown suspicious of the servants at the villa where he is living, the doctor treating him, and of Rachel herself. He tells Philip in one of his letters that he fears his wife Rachel is trying to poison him. And shortly thereafter Ambrose dies.
Philip is devastated to have lost Ambrose and he develops a seething hatred for Rachel. She will be visiting the Ashley Estates to meet Philip and return some of Ambrose’s possessions that she knows Philip would like to have. But when Rachel arrives she is not the black widow that Philip imagined. Rachel is beautiful, cultured, she brings a breath of fresh air to the crusty mansion where Philip is living. And she too is grieving Ambrose’s death.
Rachel tells Philip that Ambrose was suffering from brain inflammation. And at the end he developed paranoid fantasies about everyone around him. Philip feels that maybe he misjudged Rachel and he begins to fall for her as Ambrose once did. But is Rachel telling the truth? That’s the mystery at the core of this novel.
If you like beautiful writing, gothic romantic suspense and a captivating narrator then My Cousin Rachel is a must read. Philip is naive in manys ways and he has been sheltered from life. But there is also a self awareness and introspection in Philip, at least at the beginning of the novel, that I found lacking in Mrs DeWinter who narrates Rebecca. And even better the audio version of My Cousin Rachel is read by the acclaimed actor Jonathan Pryce.
I am so glad I took a chance on My Cousin Rachel. A 5 star read for me.
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