When Mary Yellan, a farmer's daughter from Helford, obeyed her mother's dying wish and went to live with her aunt near Bodmin, she had no idea that her attractive, laughing relative was married to the landlord of Jamaica Inn, miles from anywhere on Bodmin Moor. As the coachman warned her: 'Respectable folk don't go to Jamaica any more'. And as her evil giant of an uncle soon told her, after a few glasses of brandy: 'I'm not drunk enough to tell you why I live in this God-forgotten spot, and why I'm the landlord of Jamaica Inn.' In her first famous novel Daphne du Maurier transferred the world of the Bronte's to Cornwall in the early nineteenth century. In the dark events along the Cornish coast, in the ugly brutality of Joss Merlyn, and in the enigmatic character of his brother Jem, the reader gets an exciting foretaste of her next novel, Rebecca.
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.
Reading updates
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3 April, 2018:
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3 April, 2018:
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