My Cousin Rachel

My Cousin Rachel

Review #1

My Cousin Rachel audiobook free

Why This Book
After reading Rebecca several years ago, I placed My Cousin Rachel, another of Daphne du Maurier’s famed novels, on my To Be Read (TBR) shelf. Earlier this year, a Goodreads buddy, Michael, and I were chatting about various books when we decided to do a buddy read together, selecting this wonderful Gothic edition. We were both interested to see if it lived up to the hype and how it compared to the author’s other words. We agreed on early March and got to it this week. I’ve only started doing buddy reads in the last few months, but they are quite fun… I recommend them.

Approach & Style
I purchased the Kindle Reader version from Amazon to read on my iPad. It contains ~350 pages and took me four days to read. The novel is written in first person point of view and told from the perspective of Philip Ashley, a 24-year-old English man set in a somewhat unknown time, but likely the early/mid twentieth century given some of the details in the background setting. The language is intense and full of amazing imagery and astounding descriptions.

Plot, Characters & Setting
The novel centers around the Ashley family. Philip’s parents die when he is less than a year old, but his cousin Ambrose raises him in their England home. At some point years later, Ambrose unexpectedly marries a widow named Rachel who is half-Italian and grew up in Tuscany. It’s an odd pairing, as she has a bit of a reputation for husband-hunting and spending lots of money. After ~2 years, Ambrose mysteriously dies and Rachel disappears. Philip is distraught, but searches for her in Italy. Rachel eventually shows up in England looking to meet her pseudo-stepson, and that’s when the story really begins to get interesting. There’s an air of darkness concerning Ambrose’s death–was Rachel involved? She has a suitor of sorts who follows her from Tuscany–yet both claim there is nothing but friendship. Philip intends to crucify his cousin Rachel after reading a few letters from his late cousin, Ambrose; however, things take a surprising turn when more secrets are revealed and there’s a bit of romance developing in the background. Add in a few traditional English families, an inheritance upon Philip’s 25th birthday, and a possible proposal to/from a neighboring family… and you’ve got quite a Gothic story unleashing it’s power on you.

Key Thoughts
1. du Maurier truly engages the reader with lyrical and ethereal descriptions of everything going on in the story. You will feel like you are sitting at a table in the house watching everything occur around you. The super-fine details are what challenge your intellect to decide what is real and what is not.

2. As a plot, it’s classic — did she or didn’t she kill him? But here’s the interesting part… that question hardly ever comes up in the book. It’s not a mystery in terms of researching the past to see if murder actually happened. It’s entirely psychological in the relationship between Philip and Rachel… where you listen to the words or what isn’t said, think about whether you trust either of them… and in the end, you just wish you could have spoken to Ambrose yourself to get the answer.

3. I went back and forth multiple times deciding whether I liked Rachel and Philip as characters and as human beings. Humanity and kindness are huge themes in this novel. Attitude and disinterest are also keen to make themselves present within the relationships. Sometimes I wanted to throttle both, other times, the tenderness was admirable. The last few chapters truly push the envelope in terms of engaging more doubt before there is a final reveal.

4. While reading the first ~75 pages, I was also editing my novel. I had on my ‘writer glasses’ and couldn’t stop analyzing the word choice in du Maurier’s initial chapters. It was disconnected and hard to attach myself, too. I also found a few words that were repeated a couple of times on the same page (a pet peeve for me in my own writing) and after the third or fourth, I slapped myself and realized it wasn’t important. 99 amazing words on every page and 1 every so often that didn’t work. That’s way too high of a percentage to ever get stuck! Stick with it past that initial 15% mark and you’re in for quite an intellectually stimulating ride.

5. If you love Italy or the quintessential proper English culture and decor, you will enjoy this novel. The only thing that bugged me from time to time was not really knowing enough about Philip prior to meeting Rachel, so I could form a strong enough opinion on who he was as a person, i.e. before he became mesmerized by his cousin Rachel.

6. My favorite part of the whole book… Philip ALWAYS refers to her as ‘My cousin Rachel’ until a certain event changes their lives… then she simply becomes ‘Rachel.’ The meaning of the novel is hidden in that ever-so-small alteration in their relationship and future.

Summary
du Maurier is quite skilled at creating scenery, characters, and undetermined truth. We really never know who to believe, even in the end. But it works. Whereas Rebecca was a stronger plot, I think My Cousin Rachel pushes the envelope more in terms of who should we believe. Either case, I really enjoyed the read, especially discussing it with Michael, who is an author you might want to take a look at (new book coming out in April ’18). I plan to review the author’s bibliography this summer to see if there’s another potential novel of hers I’d like to read. Overall, I’d give this 4+ stars as I really enjoyed it, but there was some repetition and missing pieces so I couldn’t quite knock it up to a 5-star rating.

Review #2

My Cousin Rachel audiobook Series

at’s it like to follow a story through the eyes of an unsympathetic character? A great read, in short. The power relationships make for plenty of modern speculation, but the story is of itself terrific, and a page-turning mystery with twists. Highly recommended.

Review #3

Audiobook My Cousin Rachel by Daphné du Maurier

It was good getting back to reading Daphne Du Maurier, and her book My Cousin Rachel is a reminder that I need to read more of her works. (I read Rebecca years back and loved it.) As she did with Rebecca, Du Maurier paints vividly a Gothic, mysterious tale that keeps the readers both engaged and guessing, a novel filled with anticipation as to what will come next.

The basis for the story is young Phillip Ashley inheriting the rights to a great Cornwall estate. He admires his older cousin Ambrose and reflects at times and the memories of him. At one point, Ambrose goes off to Italy and Phillip gets word that he has married his cousin Rachel. Points of the narrative are told through letters of correspondence from Ambrose and Phillip’s reminisces of the past. When Ambrose dies suddenly, it raises quite an alarm in Phillip’s mind. However, being young and naïve, what is the reader to make of Phillip judgement? Rachel visits, and the reader waits in anticipation for what is to follow.

One effective technique that Du Maurier effectively employs is simply crafting an air an ambiguity throughout. As we explore further along in the novel questions arise in our heads: Is Rachel duplicitous, pulling manipulations and deceptions, or is Phillip simply too young to understand reality? Was Ambrose losing his mental faculties at his untimely demise, or was there an evil circumstance at play? We, as audience, must follow along and make our own judgements as we see things unfold.

Another highly effective method is the top-notch level of storytelling by the author. Du Maurier aptly weaves suspicions and doubts on both sides through carefully timed revelations. In this way, she keeps the readers on their toes as they try to guess the next move. Through Phillip’s point of view, we see a picture—and puzzle—unfold. There are also carefully placed shifts in the narrative that allow for the added dimension of building tension, especially in the novel’s final parts.

If there is one blemish, I did believe there were a few slow spots in the novel that slowed down the overall momentum. Still, in the big picture, these did not diminish the reading experience.

In the end, while I do not think My Cousin Rachel is quite on par with Rebecca level, it is still particularly good, and fans of the author will most likely be please (or anyone who enjoys this genre). It is a fun, suspenseful mystery, one that keeps the suspense coming and the pages turning.

Review #4

Audio My Cousin Rachel narrated by Jonathan Pryce

This is a beguiling, beautifully written Gothic tale. Mysterious, ambiguous, yet mesmerizing in its telling, it draws in the reader. It is is a story of good and evil. Yet who in this story is good? Who is evil?

Ambrose Ashley is a wealthy man, living on a large and beautiful estate in Cornwall. His heir is his young cousin, Philip, whom he has raised as a son. Ambrose is about twenty years Philip’s senior.

Ambrose travels to Italy for health reasons, but while there, he meets a woman with whom he falls in love and marries. When Ambrose dies unexpectedly without a new will, his widow, Rachel, travels to Cornwall. Philip, suspicious of the circumstances of Ambrose’s death for a number of reasons, is determined to make short shrift of Rachel’s visit, only to find himself unexpectedly drawn to her. She all but weaves a spell over him. So besotted by her does Philip become, that he seems to completely lose his senses, He becomes somewhat irrational and makes decisions that are sure to be problematic and defy reason.

Yet, is Rachel misunderstood? What are her motives? Why does she act as she does, in ways that are subject to many interpretations? Is Philip the real transgressor in this tale of conflicting accounts? Things are not all as they seem. The reader must decide, as there is no clear answer in this most ambiguous of stories. All permutations of this Svengali like tale seem to be equally plausible.

Review #5

Free audio My Cousin Rachel – in the audio player below

I so enjoyed this book mainly because what you thought was going on was turned on its head right at the very end. Did Rachel poison Philip and Ambrose? I was positive that she that she did until the end. If she was she why hand back all the valuable jewellery. Rachel seemed to have such a spellbinding effect on men and also demonstrated that falling in love for some men can be a form of madness. These days Philip would be accused of stalking. I watched the most recent film version of this while reading the book and I don’t understand why the ending was changed. The film had Rachel committing suicide while the book had her dying accidentally. Actually preferred this book to Rebecca, definitely recommend.

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