Jamaica Inn

by Daphne du Maurier

Book Overview

From the author of Rebecca and The Birds: a classic thriller of shipwreck and murder, "rich in suspense and surprise" (New York Times Book Review). On a bitter November evening, young Mary Yellan... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B001BJERDU
• Release Date: January 1936
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Not what I expected

I picked this up for free and I thought it was going to be about an inn keeper in Jamaica. Boy was I wrong. And if I wasn’t wrong, I wouldn’t have uncovered a wonderfully written gothic novel. It kept me in the edge of my seat constantly, and the way the author told this story was just perfect. Romance, death, mystery, sorrow, joy… a great read through and through. Highly recommend it!

Another great read by daphne du maurier

This is a wonderful book about gothic romance, deceit, and guilt. Rebecca is still my favorite however! Highly recommend reading both….or all of her books!

Enjoyed It

I definitely enjoyed this book, but not nearly as much as Rebecca.

Fantastic Book

I've read this book several times. First as a 14 year old, again in my twenties and again recently. It is a gripping tale set on the windswept moors in the south of England. I've actually been to the moors and visited Jamaica Inn itself and it is a lonely, wild and windswept place. It is a gothic tale seen through the eyes of a young woman sent to live at Jamaica Inn. It involves wreckers (people who draw ships to the rocks in order to get their cargo when they sink) and it is full of intrigue and surprises. If you like this one read Frenchman's Creek (Virago Modern Classics)(my favorite DdM book), My Cousin Rachel and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I'd also really recommend Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, a darkly comic parody written in the 1930s where poor Flora encounters all sorts of eccentric relatives. It is a slim volume but extremely good; humorous rather than scary and absolutely worth reading. Not all the ends are tied up, and what the dotty aunt experienced in the woodshed is left to your own imagination.

Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier

My friend suggested that I read this book. I wasn't counting on it being anything special but wanted to read it to please my friend. I read the book...........WOW! I was so transfixed, my mind was constantly buzzing with anxcity for Mary, fear of Joss and wonder for the next page. These are just a few of words that describe Jamaica Inn: thrilling, unpredictable, fantastic, drastic, fast, flowing, tense, obscene, moving, amazing, open, striking, descriptive, startling, action, exciting, horriffic, pursuing, dramatic, different, changing and enticing. In Jamaca Inn you can live with the characters, you are part of the book, and you feel for the characters. The book changes mood so easily. A must read.

Gothic Suspense at its Best

In "Myself When Young", author Daphne DuMaurier tells of a riding expedition on Bodmin Moors where lost and tired, she put up at a local hostelry called Jamaica Inn. "It was my first sight of the place that would later grip my imagination . . . a temperance house in 1920, it had been a coaching stop in the old days, and I thought of the travelers in the past who must have sought shelter there on the wild November nights, watched by the local moorland folk. No temperance house then, but a bar where the little parlor was, the drinking deep and long, fights breaking out, the sounds of oaths, of men falling." And grip her imagination it did!Du Maurier brings to life all the sounds and sights she imagined she saw on that day at a wayside inn with so much history. The lonely local, the brooding weather, the harsh tors looming over the moors and the bog, all make for what is now the almost trite accoutrements to any Gothic melodrama. But in Du Maurier's expert hands and imagination, the story that evolves could never be thought hackneyed. Mary Yellen, a staunch working class young lady must leave her beloved farm on southern coast of Cornwall for the bleaker northern side. Here she will live at lonely Jamaica Inn with her mother's sister Patience and her innkeeper husband, Joss Merlyn. When she arrives, Mary, who prides herself on her good sense, intrinsic goodness and her willingness to work, finds her situation at the inn in dire opposition to anything in which she believes. Her heart breaks when she discovers her aunt has become a shadow of her once frivilous self, broken by the drunken Josh and his rude occupation. Mary's dream of travelers stopping at the inn and taking the usual friendly custom aburptly dissipates when she realizes the inn is no longer in use, but like her aunt, is just a shell of what it once was. Most distressing of all, she concludes that Joss's business is a treacherous and nefarious one which instead of commanding the respect of the local villagers and townspeople, causes them to turn away in helpless fear and disgust. Her guilt by association follows quite naturally and Mary vacillates between what she knows is right and her love of her childlike aunt. In her mind, her future spins out before her, likely to trail in the wake of her aunt's disastrous path. The light of hope shines in the appearance of the landlord's brother, Jem. A much younger man than Joss, but similar in looks, Mary can well imagine what had enticed her aunt so many years ago. In spite of herself, she finds she has feelings for Jem that she must put aside as she comes to terms with what she must do for her aunt and her community. Like Du Maurier's other female heroines, Mary eventually succumbs to the world of men; she is dependent, knows it and comes to terms with her lot only by accepting her fate.The story is told in the third person; we eventually discover the secret of Jamaica Inn as Mary does. On all levels, the story and its telling are superior to

WOW -- fabulous story, great suspense!

As this story opens, Mary Yellan's mother dies leaving this young adult on her own in a dangerous time. On her deathbed her mother tells her to go live with her Aunt Patience at an inn called Jamaica Inn near the Cornish coast (Corwall, England). Immediately upon arrival at Jamaica Inn she knows something is wrong since her once colorful Aunt Patience has turned into a simpering wimp and her Uncle Joss Merlyn is a towering cruel character with dubious past and present. Soon Mary learns about criminal activities surrounding Jamaica Inn and it's inhabitants. She is drawn into a mystery so intense and frightening that she'll brave the trecherous moors to escape.This is one Daphne Du Maurier's best books. Don't miss this tale of twisted greed and terrible peril -- this is an EXCELLENT book that'll keep you up past your bedtime as you won't be able to put this book down! Buy it! This book earned itself a permanent place on my shelf!