Print List Price:	$16.00
Kindle Price:	$9.99 Save $6.01 (38%)
Sold by:	Hachette Book Group Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $12.49

Audiobook Price: $20.52

Save: $8.03 (39%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Daphne Du Maurier

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Scapegoat Kindle Edition

by Daphne du Maurier (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 2,063 ratings

See all formats and editions

By chance, John and Jean -- one English, the other French -- meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared. So the Englishman steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.

Gripping and complex, The Scapegoat is a masterful exploration of doubling and identity, and of the dark side of the self.

"A dazzlingly clever and immensely entertaining novel."-New York Times

From the brand

More from Daphne du Maurier

Visit the Store
More from Daphne du Maurier

Visit the Store

Editorial Reviews

Review

What a magnificent thriller this is―NY Times Book Review

No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of "real literature", something very few novelists ever do―Margaret Forster

She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense, and she was, too, a writer of fearless originality―Guardian

About the Author

T.K. LEE is an award-winning member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers, and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, among others. In addition to poetry and drama, he has also crafted prize-winning short fiction and is core faculty in the nationally ranked MFA programs in Creative Writing as well as in Theatre Education, at the historic Mississippi University for Women, the nation's first public academic institution for women, in Columbus, Mississippi.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GR5MZFK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company (December 17, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 17, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1313 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 276 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1543250122

Best Sellers Rank: #224,002 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,718 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #2,560 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #3,352 in Psychological Thrillers (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 2,063 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Daphne Du Maurier

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

2,063 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

M.K.

It's thoughtful and has many beautiful moments. I especially connected to the main character's ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

I was searching for a movie to watch when this movie popped up. I have a strong rule about reading the book version first, because it has never failed me in the past. Had I watched the movie instead of reading the book, I **never** would have touched the book, which would have been a shame. This book is a gem. It's thoughtful and has many beautiful moments. I especially connected to the main character's struggle to let "the man within" out to play. This book is for anyone who wishes they could break past their own prison bars and live the life they fantasize about....

29 people found this helpful

Helpful

m stone

Du Maurier's Great, but...

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

Terrific writing and a great premise. The latter has been done before, but she had a great setting for this with complicated relationships and vivid characters. A favorite writer of mine, her prose stands among the best.

The ending disappointed, sadly. I was left thinking that she might have done more to her MC. It was written almost as if great possibilities presented and she made almost a U-turn back to the way things were.

The book was adapted to film and the screenplay corrected the problem. MC was redeemed and it was more uplifting. Read the book and decide. She's long gone, but Du Maurier's imprint on literature remains.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Warren Criswell

Another great "double" story

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2010

Verified Purchase

I bought this book after watching the Robert Hamer movie starring Alec Guinnes. This is Daphne Du Maurier's contribution to doppelganger literature, taking its place beside Dostoevsky's The Double, Saramago's novel of the same name, Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Nabokov's Despair, Poe's "William Wilson," Conrad's "The Secret Sharer," Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and others.

It's a good movie, a murder mystery with a happy ending, but it completely distorts and reverses the meaning of Du Maurier's novel, which has neither a murder nor a happy ending. She worked with the filmmakers on this movie--Alex Guinness was her choice--and I'm surprised that she signed off on these changes. Well, not surprised, ($) but disappointed. The novel, like all doppelganger stories, is an allegory about the two sides of human nature, and Du Maurier's ending reveals a very important thing about the double, something that Stevenson also knew--but which Hamer did not: Jekyll can't live without Hyde. Just as there can be no light without darkness, without the evil twin there can be no good twin.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

QGJA

Terrible Kindle Edition

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a book that I read many years ago and loved. In rereading it, I still love it. Dauphne duMaurier is a gifted story teller and her writing really conveys the atmosphere and characters. But this Kindle edition is riddled with typos throughout, and some that have been a real puzzle to figure out. Read another edition for this wonderful story.

Helpful

Ann P. Chapman

Great character study

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

I read this book because I had seen the movie. I read the reviews of the movie stating it was nothing like the book, and it isn’t. The book is much better. The story makes more sense. It does keep you interested in the characters, wondering what is going to happen next. Part of that comes from watching a movie and thinking , “ oh this is where this is going to happen. ” Then it doesn’t. I highly recommend this book. It’s a very good read!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Billard

Great... as always

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

A word of warning, I read the introduction to this book on Kindle and it contained a few spoiler alerts!! I am a great fan of Daphne du Maurier. I love all her historical dramas so I wasn't sure if I would like a more modern theme. I was not disappointed. That ability she has to make the reader feel they are almost part of the scene is evident in this book also. She really brings everything to life. It seems a ridiculous idea that two people could swap identity and no one would know. Somehow it worked here. So many situation occurred that I wondered how John ( or Jean) would get out of but somehow he pulled it off and it didn't seem far-fetched or unrealistic. I wasn't sure I liked the ending of the book because I didn't know how the next era of Jean would work out but i guess that's left to the reader's imagination.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Fran Tyler

Better than the movie - much better

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

I am embarrassed to say that it took the 2012 movie with John Rhys to turn me on to Daphne Du Maurier. She was one of those author's on my must read one day list. I am sorry I waited so long. Following the movie I read Du Maurier's probably most noted book Rebecca, which was annoyingly good (I wanted to dislike the main character as she is so servile - but I couldn't help but feel some empathy for her). Then decided to read the Scapegoat, having thought that I would have ruined my enjoyment of the book because I had seen the movie first. I was wrong. The book is really quite different - in fact you could probably say the movie is "loosely" based on Du Maurier's story. And as is often the case the book was so much better. A really good tale with clever plot twists and strong characters. Don't put off reading Du Maurier's works - you will only be disappointed with yourself for waiting.

35 people found this helpful

Helpful

James Weaver

Amazing story of lookalikes and the deceit of one upon the other.

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

What would it be like to find an exact image of yourself, but with all the personality traits reversed. This is what happens when an English man and French man meet in Le Mans, France. One is drugged and the other assumes his identity. It’s not the poor man taking over the rich, the rich assumes the poorer. He frees himself from family and all monetary problems and hands them to the poorer who then tries to deal with it, and make it work. Daphne Du Maurier has written another terrific book, I now have read three, only two dozen left to go.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Valk

Imortal

Reviewed in Brazil on November 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

Ótima história, du Maurie é imortal

Translate review to English

P Johnson

Captivating

Reviewed in Italy on March 23, 2024

Verified Purchase

I loved this book! Ok, so you ave to suspend disbelief right at the start and accept that two men can be identical in every way. Having got over that hurdle I just enjoyed getting to know the various characters, especially the young girl and the matriarch. The intricate weave of their various relationships was fascinating, as was the voyage of self discovery, the mysteries from the past, the revelations, the twists and turns. I thought it was a great read!

Ruby

Hooked from the start of it.

Reviewed in Germany on September 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

Only few authors can compete with this genius. Haven’t enjoyed a thriller like this in a while.

Amazon Customer

Expectations met and more

Reviewed in Canada on November 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

Loved the story, have always been a Daphne fan. Not many people read her now and they are missing a good yarn. The book was used and in excellent condition. Thank you Amazon

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

The Scapegoat Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

From the brand

More from Daphne du Maurier

More from Daphne du Maurier

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Daphne Du Maurier

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries