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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
This was only my second Daphne du Maurier novel. I loved Rebecca which I read many years ago, in translation. I've sort of forgotten what a wonderful writer du Maurier was.
The writing was scrumptious, with descriptions out of this world. I'll repeat what many others stated before me - this was a very atmospheric novel.
Besides the stunning descriptions, the characters were multi-layered and diverse. Mary Yallan, the heroine of this novel, was only twenty-three when she became an orphan. After selling everything she goes to Bodmin to live with her Aunt Patience and her husband, the proprietor of Jamaica Inn. Aunt Patience is no longer the vibrant and happy woman Mary knew, but a much older looking woman, frightened and weak. The cause of this change is her brute of a husband, the giant Joss Merlyn, who's an alcoholic and a bully.
Oh, how I loved Mary. She's earnest, stoic and tremendously self-assured. She won't be bullied. She concedes to some of her uncle's demands as she wants to rescue her aunt from the hands of her domineering husband. Can you help somebody who doesn't want to be helped?
There are a few other characters who come to play a role in this story. One of them is Jem Merlyn, her uncle's much younger brother. He's a charming rascal, given to stealing horses. He's in many ways like his brother while also being very different. Mary is discombobulated by his brazenness, although she holds her own. Another man who comes to Mary's help on different occasions is the albino Vicar of Altarnun, Francis Davey. He's kind and caring and Mary finds herself confiding in him about the hardships at Jamaica Inn. There's also a small cast of drunk men who hang around uncle Joss, carrying out illegal business.
Will Mary save her aunt Patience and herself from the inhospitable Jamaica Inn is? Read and you'll find out.
Jamaica Inn was spellbinding. I was mesmerised and I didn't want to wake up.
This terrific audiobook opened my appetite for more du Maurier. I'm particularly keen to see the BBC adaptation of Jamaica Inn. Also, I hope there's a du Maurier biography, because going by Wikipedia, she had a very interesting life.
The writing was scrumptious, with descriptions out of this world. I'll repeat what many others stated before me - this was a very atmospheric novel.
Besides the stunning descriptions, the characters were multi-layered and diverse. Mary Yallan, the heroine of this novel, was only twenty-three when she became an orphan. After selling everything she goes to Bodmin to live with her Aunt Patience and her husband, the proprietor of Jamaica Inn. Aunt Patience is no longer the vibrant and happy woman Mary knew, but a much older looking woman, frightened and weak. The cause of this change is her brute of a husband, the giant Joss Merlyn, who's an alcoholic and a bully.
Oh, how I loved Mary. She's earnest, stoic and tremendously self-assured. She won't be bullied. She concedes to some of her uncle's demands as she wants to rescue her aunt from the hands of her domineering husband. Can you help somebody who doesn't want to be helped?
There are a few other characters who come to play a role in this story. One of them is Jem Merlyn, her uncle's much younger brother. He's a charming rascal, given to stealing horses. He's in many ways like his brother while also being very different. Mary is discombobulated by his brazenness, although she holds her own. Another man who comes to Mary's help on different occasions is the albino Vicar of Altarnun, Francis Davey. He's kind and caring and Mary finds herself confiding in him about the hardships at Jamaica Inn. There's also a small cast of drunk men who hang around uncle Joss, carrying out illegal business.
Will Mary save her aunt Patience and herself from the inhospitable Jamaica Inn is? Read and you'll find out.
Jamaica Inn was spellbinding. I was mesmerised and I didn't want to wake up.
This terrific audiobook opened my appetite for more du Maurier. I'm particularly keen to see the BBC adaptation of Jamaica Inn. Also, I hope there's a du Maurier biography, because going by Wikipedia, she had a very interesting life.
Check out this review and more on my blog!
3.5 Stars
If Daphne du Maurier had only ever written Rebecca, she'd still be a famous author now. Luckily for us, du Maurier wrote a heck of a lot!
Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn are du Maurier's most well-known novels, and as I've already read Rebecca and Frenchman's Creek, I figured it was about time I got Jamaica Inn under my belt - especially as I might be visiting the real Jamaica Inn later this year!
For me du Maurier is such an easy author to read; I open a du Maurier book and I sink into the story, and Jamaica Inn was no different. Mary Yellan, like all of du Maurier's heroines I've read so far, is so present and jumps from the page. What I love about du Maurier is that she wrote so much, a lot of it historical fiction, and yet none of her work ever feels samey; The Second Mrs. de Winter, Dona St. Columb and Mary Yellan are all so separate from each other, and when pretty much everything du Maurier wrote is compared with Rebecca I love that she wrote so many different kinds of stories so it's almost impossible to directly compare any of her other work with Rebecca. (Aside, perhaps, from My Cousin Rachel, which I've heard is the closest of her novels to Rebecca).
Where Dona St. Columb is privileged and selfish and The Second Mrs. de Winter is meek and shy, Mary Yellan is a tough, salt of the earth kind of girl; she's not afraid of hard work and she's no stranger to how difficult life can be. Mary doesn't have any fantasies about falling passionately in love or becoming an advocate for woman's rights, she just wants to live in the countryside and run her own farm. But when your fate's in Daphne du Maurier's hands, you're destined for something more troublesome than farmwork.
After Mary's beloved mother dies she's sent to Bodmin Moor to live with her Aunt Patience at Jamaica Inn, but when she arrives she discovers that the bubbly, lovely woman she remembers has transformed into a woman who is constantly terrified, thanks to her brutish husband Joss Merlyn. Mary works at her uncle and aunt's inn, where no one ever stays, and soon discovers Jamaica Inn's dangerous secret, all while battling the strange attraction she feels to Joss's younger brother, Jem.
Considering Jamaica Inn was written before Rebecca, I've always thought it unfair that readers who read Rebecca first mark Jamaica Inn down because it isn't Rebecca, but now that I've read Jamaica Inn myself, having read Rebecca, I can understand their point of view a whole lot more. I didn't compare Jamaica Inn with Rebecca, they're two very different stories, but they do have similar themes; they're both fairly Gothic, with heroines in isolated places that feel like characters in their own right, and questionable love interests. In my edition of Jamaica Inn there's an introduction from historical fiction author Sarah Dunant, who claims that in Jamaica Inn it's easy to see that du Maurier was 'on her way' to Rebecca, and I'd agree with that, there's just that extra something missing from Jamaica Inn that makes Rebecca so special.
The more I think about it, the more I think the main problem I had with Jamaica Inn is that it's trying to be two different novels at once. Set in Cornwall, at the height of Cornish smuggling, there's not quite enough action to make this an adventurous, historical romp - Mary spends most of her time cooped up in Jamaica Inn or wandering alone on Bodmin Moor - but at the same time it's not quite slow-moving and atmospheric enough to be the kind of Gothic novel that Rebecca is. It never fully satisfies either type of story, so I couldn't fall in love with it the same way I fell in love with du Maurier's other work.
While this may be my least favourite du Maurier so far, though I still really enjoyed it, I do think Jamaica Inn has a fascinating villain. I won't say too much, I don't want to spoil it for anyone (though I have a feeling the villain is fairly obvious once you get into the book) but he was both unsettling and yet strangely enticing. In fact the villain may have been my favourite character in the book, because while Mary is written very well, as are Jem, Joss and Patience, she just didn't capture me quite as much as the villain did.
As I said above Mary is very different from the other du Maurier heroines I've met, and that I did really appreciate; both Dona and The Second Mrs. de Winter are romantic people, in very different ways, and while Mary does experience a romance of her own it's very different to the other du Maurier books I've read. Mary thinks about romance in the same way she thinks about animals on the farm - at some point it's natural for them to gravitate towards a member of the opposite sex, even produce offspring, but it's not something they think passionately about, if they think about it at all. I found it really refreshing to meet a heroine who was written in the '30s who has such a casual, practical opinion of relationships.
Ultimately Jamaica Inn is well-written, easy to read and a lot of fun, as well as being sinister in places, and I did enjoy it. If you ever find yourself stranded on Bodmin Moor, this would be the perfect book to have with you!
3.5 Stars
If Daphne du Maurier had only ever written Rebecca, she'd still be a famous author now. Luckily for us, du Maurier wrote a heck of a lot!
Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek and Jamaica Inn are du Maurier's most well-known novels, and as I've already read Rebecca and Frenchman's Creek, I figured it was about time I got Jamaica Inn under my belt - especially as I might be visiting the real Jamaica Inn later this year!
For me du Maurier is such an easy author to read; I open a du Maurier book and I sink into the story, and Jamaica Inn was no different. Mary Yellan, like all of du Maurier's heroines I've read so far, is so present and jumps from the page. What I love about du Maurier is that she wrote so much, a lot of it historical fiction, and yet none of her work ever feels samey; The Second Mrs. de Winter, Dona St. Columb and Mary Yellan are all so separate from each other, and when pretty much everything du Maurier wrote is compared with Rebecca I love that she wrote so many different kinds of stories so it's almost impossible to directly compare any of her other work with Rebecca. (Aside, perhaps, from My Cousin Rachel, which I've heard is the closest of her novels to Rebecca).
Where Dona St. Columb is privileged and selfish and The Second Mrs. de Winter is meek and shy, Mary Yellan is a tough, salt of the earth kind of girl; she's not afraid of hard work and she's no stranger to how difficult life can be. Mary doesn't have any fantasies about falling passionately in love or becoming an advocate for woman's rights, she just wants to live in the countryside and run her own farm. But when your fate's in Daphne du Maurier's hands, you're destined for something more troublesome than farmwork.
After Mary's beloved mother dies she's sent to Bodmin Moor to live with her Aunt Patience at Jamaica Inn, but when she arrives she discovers that the bubbly, lovely woman she remembers has transformed into a woman who is constantly terrified, thanks to her brutish husband Joss Merlyn. Mary works at her uncle and aunt's inn, where no one ever stays, and soon discovers Jamaica Inn's dangerous secret, all while battling the strange attraction she feels to Joss's younger brother, Jem.
Considering Jamaica Inn was written before Rebecca, I've always thought it unfair that readers who read Rebecca first mark Jamaica Inn down because it isn't Rebecca, but now that I've read Jamaica Inn myself, having read Rebecca, I can understand their point of view a whole lot more. I didn't compare Jamaica Inn with Rebecca, they're two very different stories, but they do have similar themes; they're both fairly Gothic, with heroines in isolated places that feel like characters in their own right, and questionable love interests. In my edition of Jamaica Inn there's an introduction from historical fiction author Sarah Dunant, who claims that in Jamaica Inn it's easy to see that du Maurier was 'on her way' to Rebecca, and I'd agree with that, there's just that extra something missing from Jamaica Inn that makes Rebecca so special.
The more I think about it, the more I think the main problem I had with Jamaica Inn is that it's trying to be two different novels at once. Set in Cornwall, at the height of Cornish smuggling, there's not quite enough action to make this an adventurous, historical romp - Mary spends most of her time cooped up in Jamaica Inn or wandering alone on Bodmin Moor - but at the same time it's not quite slow-moving and atmospheric enough to be the kind of Gothic novel that Rebecca is. It never fully satisfies either type of story, so I couldn't fall in love with it the same way I fell in love with du Maurier's other work.
While this may be my least favourite du Maurier so far, though I still really enjoyed it, I do think Jamaica Inn has a fascinating villain. I won't say too much, I don't want to spoil it for anyone (though I have a feeling the villain is fairly obvious once you get into the book) but he was both unsettling and yet strangely enticing. In fact the villain may have been my favourite character in the book, because while Mary is written very well, as are Jem, Joss and Patience, she just didn't capture me quite as much as the villain did.
As I said above Mary is very different from the other du Maurier heroines I've met, and that I did really appreciate; both Dona and The Second Mrs. de Winter are romantic people, in very different ways, and while Mary does experience a romance of her own it's very different to the other du Maurier books I've read. Mary thinks about romance in the same way she thinks about animals on the farm - at some point it's natural for them to gravitate towards a member of the opposite sex, even produce offspring, but it's not something they think passionately about, if they think about it at all. I found it really refreshing to meet a heroine who was written in the '30s who has such a casual, practical opinion of relationships.
Ultimately Jamaica Inn is well-written, easy to read and a lot of fun, as well as being sinister in places, and I did enjoy it. If you ever find yourself stranded on Bodmin Moor, this would be the perfect book to have with you!
For some reason or other, Daphne Du Maurier has the reputation of being a romance novelist, yet sentiment or even flirtation is largely absent from her fiction. Her most famous work is of course Rebecca, a common teenage read but one which left me utterly cold. Jamaica Inn was recently serialised on television and despite initial misgivings, I enjoyed it (once I had switched the subtitles on, obviously). It was with great curiousity that I approached the novel and it is a very strange story. At times dream-like and at others a nightmare, Du Maurier's heroine Mary Yellan descends with the reader ever deeper into a dark world of corruption and Gothic horror. From the outset, we are in a world of gusting winds and heavy storms. Jamaica Inn gives Wuthering Heights a serious run for its money in terms of the atmospherics and the parallels do not end there.
Like Wuthering Heights, Du Maurier's writing is notable for its excess. Mary Yellan has travelled to the Inn to live with her aunt Patience, now married to the barbaric Joss Merlyn. As a grumpy teenager who loathed romance, I was attracted to Wuthering Heights because even the characters who were supposedly in love seemed to hate each other. Still, while Emily Bronte conjures up Heathcliff as a tortured soul whose scorned love twists to something far more complex, Du Maurier's Joss Merlyn is far more brutal. Standing at seven feet tall, his violence and lust stop just short of rendering him a caricature and there is no romance in this man's heart. Mary Yellan herself takes a suspicious view of human relationships; she sees how her once vivacious Aunt Patience has become a pathetic and pitiful figure under Joss Merlyn's dominance and knowing that too many of her peers have been reduced to child-making drudges, Mary herself has sworn not marry.
For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/review-jamaica-inn-daphne-du-maurier.html
Like Wuthering Heights, Du Maurier's writing is notable for its excess. Mary Yellan has travelled to the Inn to live with her aunt Patience, now married to the barbaric Joss Merlyn. As a grumpy teenager who loathed romance, I was attracted to Wuthering Heights because even the characters who were supposedly in love seemed to hate each other. Still, while Emily Bronte conjures up Heathcliff as a tortured soul whose scorned love twists to something far more complex, Du Maurier's Joss Merlyn is far more brutal. Standing at seven feet tall, his violence and lust stop just short of rendering him a caricature and there is no romance in this man's heart. Mary Yellan herself takes a suspicious view of human relationships; she sees how her once vivacious Aunt Patience has become a pathetic and pitiful figure under Joss Merlyn's dominance and knowing that too many of her peers have been reduced to child-making drudges, Mary herself has sworn not marry.
For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/review-jamaica-inn-daphne-du-maurier.html
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
I read this over eight years ago, but for some reason never rated it?!
My favourite do Maurier by far. I need to re-read it sometime soon
My favourite do Maurier by far. I need to re-read it sometime soon
This book wasn't as good as Rebecca but it still employs duMaurier's masterful use of setting. It's pretty creepy and has a fun plot line but the main character's decisions were baffling to me. Additionally she was a weird feminist but not feminist character. She is brave, proactive and determined but her determinations about her gender in general are offensive. I got a same kind of dichotomy from Ayn Rand's work, which is about the same era, so that's interesting.
Also interesting, Daphne DuMaurier wrote Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and The Birds, all of which were made into movies by Alfred Hitchcock. I'm interested to watch his rendition of this book.
Also interesting, Daphne DuMaurier wrote Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and The Birds, all of which were made into movies by Alfred Hitchcock. I'm interested to watch his rendition of this book.
I may be reconsidering my disdain of bad boys. Jem Merlyn can steal me a horse any day.
I really wanted to like this book, but the whole way through, I just kept thinking that it's not bad for a second attempt and she has potential, but she's not quite there yet as an author.
It's surprising that I loved [b:Rebecca|17899948|Rebecca|Daphne du Maurier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386605169s/17899948.jpg|46663] so much and found this book pretty excruciating to finish. If you love bleak descriptions of English moorland, HEAVY misogyny and abuse, a girl with good intentions who still manages to be pretty helpless, and the societal restraints of 19th-century England, this is for you! There are some roguish elements, but they just don't fit the Han Solo, lovable rogue trope that I have come to love. Even the love interest is NOT particularly charming. The whole thing is depressing.