The Scapegoat

St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 4th December 2019.

The scapegoat. Daphne du Maurier.

Everyone enjoyed reading this book, though the chief comment was that the impersonation of Comte Jean de Gue by his lookalike John was not really credible in the circumstances, not least because the Comte was French and John was English. Belief had to be suspended in the idea that no one except Jean's mistress and his dog recognised the deception, especially since there was hardly any time interval between Jean leaving and John returning to the château.

We talked about how the other characters, i.e., Jean's family, were introspective and self-absorbed (which might have helped facilitate the deception), and how difficult a task it was for John to sort out their identities and preoccupations. Another feature that defied belief was that he managed to do so much in only one week, and other examples were cited from Daphne du Maurier's books where an awful lot seems to have been achieved in an incredibly short space of time.

We noted that all the actions John took to improve Jean's family and business situation took place after the death of Jean's wife (and the subsequent release of finances to Jean). We were not sure whether Françoise fell from the window by accident, or whether she jumped; the alibi for it being an accident is provided by the child Marie-Noel, who seemed to have an agenda of her own about everything.

Several readers had read this book before, some of them many years ago, and re-read it for this meeting; those who did so found the second reading quite different from the first. Other titles concerning impersonations were discussed, most of them being more convincing than this one, though not necessarily so well written or absorbing – we all agreed we love Daphne du Maurier's style.