It is evident that he is travelling through France, where he meets a man who eerily is his double in looks; a confident French count, Jean de Gué. At the start of the novel we learnt that John is dissatisfied with his life as a university lecturer, and tending to become depressed with what he sees as a futile life. This vision, which underlies Julius, Rebecca and The Parasites, is that of an author overwhelmed by the memory of her father's commanding presence. Again, less gothic, but satisfying (although I must say, it left me quite curious as to what followed the final page).

The smell of the soil, the gleam of the wet roads, the faded paint of shutters masking windows through which I should never look, the grey faces of houses whose doors I should never enter, were to me an everlasting reproach, a reminder of distance, of nationality.I dragged myself to my feet, and with my hell-hound in tow started off once more through the vastness of the wood, feeling, as the poet did before me, that my companion would be with me through the nights and through the days, and down the arches of the years, and I should never be rid of him. The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier, published in 1957, was one of the British author’s successful mid-career novels, coming after Jamaica Inn, Rebecca,and My Cousin Rachel. This new version of Daphne Du Maurier's famous novel (published in 1957) changes the setting from France to England, anglicizes several character names and backdates the story by several years to the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. All the while, though the reader is hoping this man will succeed, du Maurier in her inimitable fashion leaves you feeling that it cannot possibly end well. This formula delights du Maurier audience because it merit to the human curiosity and gives the reader's a reason to continue.

All of this said, I would still recommend watching this oddity the next time it happens to come around. du Maurier's writing entertains the reader executing techniques like implementing her family history to tell the book's story, questioning of identity, and her writing style. The 1952 bestseller Giant by Edna Ferber also implements vigorous depictions of Texan life coinciding with dialogue.Indeed in her own life, she seems to have had an almost obsessive love for her "Menabilly" the house she rented for so many years. My only complaint with reading a Daphne du Maurier novel is that every book I pick up for some time afterwards pales in comparison. And so I began, and barely did I stop for breath from start to finish, such was the brilliance of this book. He finds himself saddled with a gross distortion of a mother, the ancient Comtesse, now brought low by drugs; with a wife, pregnant, terrified that she will not bear the son that will bring the Chateau and the works new life through an inheritance; with a nine year old daughter, who adores her father, and is fearful that a brother will displace her; with a sister, carrying a fifteen year grudge for the death of her fiance, charged as being a collaborator; with a brother, who inadequately carries the burden of the factory on unwilling shoulders; with a sister-in-law who is interested only in prolonging an affaire, and with a mistress in the village who can take it or leave it, as suits her lover's whim.