Quite apart from that, the plotting is so good, the tension wound so tight, that even crusty old 1950s newspaper reviewers had to admit that it showed incredible story-telling ability. My Cousin Rachel, as Sally Beauman points out in the introduction to this edition, is a different kettle of fish, because there is so obviously some serious social commentary going on under the surface. They tended to settle for dismissing her work as feminine pot-boiling Jamaica Inn and Rebecca, probably her two most famous novels, are deeply melodramatic and romantic, so you can see the justification in a way. The excellent Daphne DuMaurier suffered, during her lifetime, from critics not knowing where to put her. ~~here be not-really-spoilers, but I do tell you my opinion of the novel’s central “crime”~~ “There are some women, Philip, good women very possibly, who through no fault of their own impel disaster.”
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