The Scapegoat (Virago Modern Classics)

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Dimitris Lyacos: Poena Damni: I: Z213: Exit; II: With the People from the Bridge; III: The First Death | Pangyrus". Yet another Daphne du Maurier book that I struggled... to put down! French language academic John is astonished to bump into his exact doppelganger at a provincial French train station.

The scapegoat, as a religious and ritualistic practice and a metaphor for social exclusion, is one of the major preoccupations in Dimitris Lyacos's Poena Damni trilogy. [18] [19] In the first book, Z213: Exit, the narrator sets out on a voyage in the midst of a dystopian landscape that is reminiscent of the desert mentioned in Leviticus (16, 22). The text also contains references to the ancient Greek pharmakos. [20] [21] In the second book, With the People from the Bridge, the male and female characters are treated apotropaically as vampires and are cast out from both the world of the living and that of the dead. [22] In the third book, The First Death, the main character appears irrevocably marooned on a desert island as a personification of miasma expelled to a geographical point of no return. [23] [24] See also [ edit ] While contemporary writers were dealing critically with such subjects as the war, alienation, religion, poverty, Marxism, psychology and art, and experimenting with new techniques such as the stream of consciousness, du Maurier produced 'old-fashioned' novels with straightforward narratives that appealed to a popular audience's love of fantasy, adventure, sexuality and mystery. At an early age, she recognised that her readership was comprised principally of women, and she cultivated their loyal following through several decades by embodying their desires and dreams in her novels and short stories. stay at the chateau for the money and comfort, but John says 'I happen to love your family, that's all' (p.349). Jean laughs in disbelief that he could love them, listing their faults: 'Paul, I dragged myself to my feet, and with my hell-hound in tow started off once more through the vastness of the wood, feeling, as the poet did before me, that my companion would be with me through the nights and through the days, and down the arches of the years, and I should never be rid of him." Oddly, though, the term ‘scapegoat’ is something of a translation error (as these things so often are). The original Hebrew text of Leviticus should more properly be translated into English as ‘And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for Azazel’. ‘For Azazel’: not ‘for the scapegoat’. But who, then, was Azazel?

What Is a Scapegoat in the Bible?

Daphne weaved a compelling tale from the off, from the mystery of the identical men to the shit-show that Jean's life is; but where she excels is the intricacies of the extended family's life and history; the multiple distinct voices and relationships with Jean, and then John, and just overall taking a superb suspense thriller and making it much more, very much more! 9 out of 12. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Davis, Sara. The Scapegoat. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. Jean de Gue, master of a chateau, and director of a failing business says, "You complain that your life is empty", to me it sounds like paradise. An apartment to yourself, no family, no business worries".

filled with an intense desire to get away from that dingy, shabby hotel and never set eyes on it again, and as my anger rose and self-disgust took possession of me..." Immediately beside me was a gargoyle's head, ears flattened, slits for eyes, the jutting lips forming a spout for rain. The leaded guttering was choked with leaves, and when rain came the whole would turn to mud and pour from the gargoyle's mouth in a turbid stream... seeping down the walls, swirling in the runways, choking and gurgling above the gargoyle head, driving sideways like arrows to the windows, stinging the panes... there would be no other sound for hour after hour... but the falling rain, and the flood of leaves and rubble through the gargoyle's mouth."N wanders into a lecture, where a man begins speaking about Spanish colonization of the Americas and the religious missions they established there. He then accuses N of making racist remarks. The guest lecturer appears and tells the increasingly angry attendees to stop harassing N. Later, he receives a call from Sharon, the realtor, who tells him that “they” (182) want the hotel to close. She asks N to meet her. N realizes he is still holding the whale paperweight from Professor Pindar's desk. He puts it in the briefcase and goes to the hotel. Do you know so little about children, Monsieur Jean,’ she asked, ‘that you imagine, because they don’t cry, therefore they feel nothing? If so, you’re much mistaken.” Paris was ampoules of morphine. 'But his mother was not ill or dying, neither was she in pain' (p.234). He reluctantly administers the drug and she loses consciousness.

Location filming for the film was carried out mainly at Knebworth House in Hertfordshire. [5] Home media release [ edit ]

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His alter ego, Jean de Gué, was a count with a castle he didn’t care for, a marriage he called a trap, “too many possessions — human ones.” The ate and drank together, the wily Frenchman feeling out his double. Due to his depression - he walked the streets at night in the rain and knew he must get drunk. He also was thinking of spending a few days at a monastery in hopes of finding the courage to go on living before returning to England. The film makes no mention of the earlier murder of Maurice Duval. The incident in which John deliberately burns his hand to avoid taking part in the shoot does not occur in the film, nor does his wife's fall from the bedroom window or her subsequent death. In the film, Spence surreptitiously enters the house during the shoot and manipulates Frances into taking an overdose of morphine. Standing arrives in time to save her.

As with many of Daphne du Maurier's novels, there are so many elements of mystery that it is sometimes rather like reading a detective story. 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. We suspect Renée's behaviour, for example, before John seems to have an inkling of why she seems so overly flirtatious and petulant. And we know who the woman Béla in the neighbouring village of Villars must be.

This story is told by John, an Englishman who teaches French history at the university. While on holidays in France, he finds himself in the place of a doppelgänger and feels strangely compelled to hold up to that almost untenable situation. As the days pass, we find out, along with John, who is who in the large family of Jean ('Monsieur le Comte'), the relationships between them and the past events that led to the present state of affairs. N goes to the Van Gelders' house, where he thinks to himself that Ann Van Gelder looks like an “old shoe” (205). However, he has clearly spoken aloud, because Ann repeats what he has said. Gerry Van Gelder says that Kirstie Johanssen is missing. N faints, and when he wakes up he is handcuffed to a bed and there is a strange older man in the room with him. N remembers the only time he saw his father on the university campus. It was 20 years ago and his father was standing next to the Burghers of Calais sculptures, which had been covered with canvas and rope. The feeling of power, of triumph that I was outwitting this little group of unsuspecting people had turned again to shame. It seemed to me now that I wanted Jean de Gué to have been a different sort of man. I did not want to discover at each step that he was worthless... I had exchanged my own negligible self for a worthless personality. He had the supreme advantage over me in that he had not cared. Or had he, after all? Was this why he had disappeared?"