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. Will John fool them all and turn his madcap Shadow's Evil plans into Good - and finally give his own life purpose in the process? For instance, what if her ancestors did not land up in England but remained in France, running a glass-blowing factory (the verrerie). This is one of the best books I've read this year - it is definitely the best fiction that is not a reread. Chock-a-block full of symbolism, this is a very well thought out plot but I think the less said the better.

In this story, Englishman John is Lecturer in French History when he travels to France for a holiday.She was sidetracked by a walk, in the square of a French town, du Maurier saw a man who looked just like someone she knew. A driver comes to pick up Monsieur le Comte, and John goes into Jean's life without any background knowledge. When he acts out of a redemptive motivation, you begin to think his plans might work and improve matters.

Teacher John Standing, who has just lost his job, meets his doppelgänger Johnny Spence, a failed businessman. I've come across many dislikable characters in Daphne du Maurier's books, but I've not met a bunch like in here, not quite.

The sheer theatricality of life is on display in The Scapegoat, as Jean is torn between a surreal nightmare and a comedy, between a farce and realism of a tragedy.

John, a discontented English academic travelling in France meets an unhappy Frenchman who, by chance, is his doppelganger.Would you rather be without a family, with no responsibilities, but also feel lonely, depressed and empty? Again, less gothic, but satisfying (although I must say, it left me quite curious as to what followed the final page). As I approached the end I started to worry whether du Maurier would land a bail out happy ending on her readers, even though I couldn’t really work out what this would look like.

Theory is 'serves as an opportunity to explain failure or misdeeds, while maintaining one's positive self-image. John persuades the mother to resume her position at the head of the family and give up the morphine.She often drops hints to the reader; clues carefully planted so that the reader is able to puzzle out the various roles and relationships before the viewpoint character John does.