He tries to reassert his love in trying to win her back, speaking softly, lovingly, and increasingly with desperation. We’re taught that this means “keep this in mind because it will become important later on,” and yet in these films the objects never return in a significant way.īut after an incident where Philip puts his hands around her neck, just as Ambrose allegedly did, we become heavily aware of just how much the film was aligned to his view.

This may be an unintentional allusion to the abundant visual misdirections of others du Maurier adaptations like Don’t Look Now, where the camera constantly pauses on certain details-an accessory, a portrait, etc. This kind of evil is one that Romantic plots rarely leave unpunished, usually with death.Ĭonstant lingering shots on the tea she brews also place the suggestions of poisoning early on in the film, long before Philip even suspects this (another popular theme, also in Crimson Peak!). Rachel is a distant cousin of Ambrose and is half Cornish and half italian – the impoverished widow of the Count Sangalletti”įlorence is as mysterious as the lady herself – shrouded in veils and mist, the houses grand and elusive.The blue-beard character, the one who murders their spouses one after another is another familiar Gothic trope (one that Guillermo del Toro similarly plays with in Crimson Peak), as is the hidden spouse, and while they aren’t present in My Cousin Rachel the possibility appears when we’re told Rachel keeps sending money away to a mysterious place out of the country. Philip Ashley, left behind, learns of events in Italy only intermittently by letter… “There, Ambrose travels in search of plants for his garden, and an improvement in his health. There/ two men, served entirely by male staff, lead an isolated, philistine, inward-looking existence.”Ĭould this be that house? This is the mansion which inspired the story and its setting – /antony Florence We discover a house from which women have been banished. And this Cornish estate, unnamed in the novel, has had all fictional allure ruthlessly scrapped away. “The location of My Cousin Rachel is familiar du Maurier territory at du Maurier’s own home, Menabilly (fictionalised in other novels, most notably in rebecca.)įrom the first, there is a sense of displacement, which gives it a curious, dreamlike air of timelessness.

Cousin rachel book