Jamaica Inn

by Daphne Du Maurier

When her mother dies, Mary Yellan makes the grim journey across bleak Cornish moorland to Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience and her husband, Joss Merlyn.

On arriving at the gloomy, threatening inn, with the coachman's warning echoing in her mind, she finds her aunt a cowering shadow, and her uncle a hulking, vicious brute. Even more alarming, Jamaica Inn has no guests and is never open to the public. Mary finds herself powerless to help her aunt, and is drawn unwillingly into the misdeeds of Joss and his accomplices. Even more disturbing are her feelings for Jem, a man she dare not trust . . .

Jamaica Inn is a dark and gripping gothic tale that will remind readers of two other great classics, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

• ISBN10: 0349005133
• ISBN13: 9780349005133
• Publish Date: 27 March 2014 (first published 1 January 1960)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Virago Press Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Mary Yellan leaves her home after her mother dies to live with her aunt Patience who lives with her husband at Jamaica Inn. Her aunt has gone from being a strong character to being a downtrodden victim of her domineering husband Joss Merlyn who is a smuggler. Mary has to cope with all this and live.
It's interesting and Mary is a great character, I found myself somewhat spoiled by the introduction and it would probably be better read after the book. I found the ending to be a bit rushed and the romance wasn't well developed for me. I'm pretty sure I read this before but I don't recall much of it.

[MurderByDeath]

One of the most beautifully written books I've ever disliked.  And let's be clear - my 3 stars is my attempt at objectivity, because it is a beautifully written book, and I did dislike it.  A lot.   From the first sentence there's no doubt this story is dripping with dark, forbidding, gothic atmosphere.  By the second page, it's swimming it in.  By chapter 2, it's drowning.  I don't know if du Maurier was trying to pad out a short story, or if she just really wanted to make sure her readers knew this was going to be a dark, dreary, forbidding story; either way, too much of a good thing is still too much.  There might have been some skimming.   I liked Mary well enough, but I was unable to muster any sympathy for poor Aunt Patience; I really just kept hoping someone would push her down the stairs.  I do not much like enablers any more than I like those they enable.  Still, I was really getting into the plot (once I deep dived through all that atmosphere), until I got to the part where Mary meets the vicar.   What is up with the albino trope?  I realise that when this was written the whole thing might have taken readers by surprise, but has there ever been an albino in a book that wasn't the evil villain? (hide spoiler)   At that point, I was truly just reading to get 'er done. There was no way the book was going to surprise me from that moment on.   Aaannnddd then there's the ending.  I liked Mary until that point.  Hell, I liked Jem until that point.  Now, I think they both deserve a horrible ever after.   She should just change her name to Patience and be done with it.

Daphne Du Maurier is known for her elegant narrations, beautiful romances, and intriguing storytelling in general. This books kept me interested with it's mysterious plot and interesting characters. Recommend for Du Maurier fans to read at least once.

[brokentune]

I finished Jamaica Inn in the early hours of this morning and spent most of today thinking about whether I should give it 3 or 4 stars and whether to add a review – there have been so many already, and so much of what can be said about JI has been said:

There’s a lot of scope for discussion whether the characters are too simple, whether the plot is predictable, whether Du Maurier had found her voice as a writer, yet (even though JI is not her debut and Rebecca was published only two years later), and whether JI merits the praise it seems to get.

It’s a story set in the early 19th century, it’s gothic, it’s formulaic, atmospheric, and it’s possibly also well represented by other adjectives ending in “–ic”....

What I would like to add, though, is that despite its short-comings it is a good read (- well it kept me awake anyway).

I was drawn into the story and the setting right from the start of the book and I had to double check the publication date as it was strange to read a story that written around the same time as In Dubious Battle, The ABC Murders, or Mephisto but had the feel of a Bronte novel. I guess this is where Du Maurier’s ability to create a time warp that will absorb a reader really shines.

Of course there are the occasional lapse in good judgement of her protagonists and the unbelievable – literally unbelievable – good luck of the would-be-detective Jem, but the quite extraordinary addition of the nihilist attitude in both extremes of the local society - the wreckers and the local clergy (two sides of the same coin)- is entertaining enough to forgive for such obvious flaws.

The part of the book I found irritating was the ending. I wish it had ended before the rescue party arrives.