My Cousin Rachel is a 1951 historical mystery novel by Daphne du Maurier. It has been adapted several times, most notably as the 1952 film My Cousin Rachel (1952) (which Du Maurier disliked for not being faithful enough to the novel). Other adaptations include a 1983 miniseries, two radio adaptations, a theatre production, and a 2017 film.
Philip Ashley lost his parents as a child and has been raised by his older cousin Ambrose. When Philip is in his twenties Ambrose goes to Italy. While there he meets and marries Rachel Sangalletti, who is distantly related to the Ashleys. Ambrose takes ill and dies before he can return to England. But Philip receives two alarming letters written during his illness, which suggest Ambrose's death wasn't natural and Rachel may have been involved.
Rachel herself comes to stay with Philip, who initially wants to hate her but instead falls in love with her. Then he begins to suffer from severe headaches, exactly like Ambrose did...
Contains examples of:
- The Ace: Rachel is very beautiful, intelligent, well-mannered, cultured and good at everything she does, whether it is gardening, decorating, entertaining and riding. Her talents are very quickly remarked upon by everybody who meets her.
- Ambiguous Situation: Everything involving Ambrose's death and Philip's headaches. Was Rachel poisoning them both? Did Ambrose simply die of a brain tumour? Were Philip's headaches caused by his fever? The book never answers these questions.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The book's first chapter is about Philip remembering himself as a child.
- Black Widow: Philip suspects Rachel of being one after he finds out about her extravagance, spending habits, her debts and the mysterious circumstances of his cousin Ambrose's death. We never find out whether or not she is.
- Book Ends: The book starts and ends with Philip thinking about the now-discontinued practice of hanging criminals beside the road. The wording is the same.They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more, though.
- The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Ambrose's father and (possibly) Ambrose himself died of a brain tumour. The word "cancer" is never used to describe this.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Ambrose is a reactionary misogynist who banishes all women from his country house, making his head-over-heels fall for Rachel all the more inexplicable. Phillip inherits both the misogyny... and the obsessive love.
- Mirror Character: Phillip and Rachel mirror Maxim and Rebecca from Du Maurier's earlier novel Rebecca - a possessive, violent man who kills his love interest, albeit less directly than Maxim.
- Murder by Inaction: Philip lets Rachel go for a walk, knowing she'll cross an unfinished bridge that won't bear her weight. Sure enough, she falls through the bridge and dies.
- Oblivious to Love: Philip hilariously fails to pick up on any of the very obvious hints that his godfather's daughter Louise is head over heels for him. It also takes him a very long time to figure out that he is attracted to Rachel.
- Title Drop: The phrase "my cousin Rachel" is used at least a hundred times throughout the novel.
- The Unreveal: Is Rachel innocent or guilty? Philip never knows for sure, so neither do we. As soon as a piece of evidence supporting one interpretation pops up, another follows that seems to prove the exact opposite.
