I've lost track of how many times I've read this book, and all I know is that Daphne du Maurier has been a favourite of mine since I was a teenager. So when Jamaica Inn was chosen as our January read for the classics chat I'm in, I couldn't wait to disappear again onto the wild Cornish moors!
This is such a good story, and I'd forgotten a lot of what happened. I remembered the gist, the Inn in the middle of Bodmin Moor, the smuggling and the wrecks at sea, but I'd forgotten many of the characters and how influential they are to the story.
Daphne du Maurier has an incredible imagination, her vivid descriptions of the dank and dreary Jamaica Inn and the wilderness and inhospitable Bodmin Moor are something which will stay with the reader, long after the last page has been turned.
Jamaica Inn is a gothic, dark, gruesome and twisted novel, and so much more than many people perceive it. There is nothing fun and fanciful about Du Maurier's writing, so if that's your thing, you'll not like this one. If it is, delve in and immerse yourself in the mists of Bodmin Moor.
About the Book
The coachman tried to warn her away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But young Mary Yellan chose instead to honor her mother's dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. From her first glimpse on that raw November eve, she could sense the inn's dark power. But never did Mary dream that she would become hopelessly ensnared in the vile, villainous schemes being hatched within its crumbling walls -- or that a handsome, mysterious stranger would so incite her passions ... tempting her to love a man whom she dares not trust.
About Daphne
Daphne du Maurier (13th May 1907 - 19th April 1989) was first and foremost a really excellent storyteller but she was also part of the remarkable du Maurier dynasty - a granddaughter, daughter, sister, military wife, mother and grandmother. Daphne is often thought of as reclusive; she was perhaps solitary, comfortable with her own company and the make-believe world that she lived in and which enabled her to bring us her wonderful novels and short stories. Her social media accounts are approved by her estate.
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