The Scapegoat

The extraordinary story takes hold of the reader and never lets go; the setting in a French chateau in these times is wholly real; the prose is simple and assured; and finally, the characters speak, act, and react precisely as they would have done in that family network of hatred, deceit, and jealousy. In particular the portrait of a neurotic child is exquisitely drawn. By an intriguing device the role of scapegoat for the sins of a charming, idle, and destructive French aristocrat and his family is thrust upon a lonely English traveller.