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| Jamaica Inn | 
| Author: Daphne Du Maurier
Publisher: Avon
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $7.98 (100%)
New (25) Collectible (5) from $3.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 73741
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 4.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0380725398
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780380725397
ASIN: 0380725398
Publication Date: June 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Jamaica Inn is a true classic. After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan travels to Jamaica Inn on the wild British moors to live with her Aunt Patience. The coachman warns her of the strange happenings there, but Mary is committed to remain at Jamaica Inn. Suddenly, her life is in the hands of strangers: her uncle, Joss Merlyn, whose crude ways repel her; Aunt Patience, who seems mentally unstable and perpetually frightened; and the enigmatic Francis Davey. But most importantly, Mary meets Jem Merlyn, Joss's younger brother, whose kisses make her heart race. Caught up in the danger at this inn of evil repute, Mary must survive murder, mystery, storms, and smugglers before she can build a life with Jem.
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 (4.5) A spooky, gothic tale perfect for a stormy October night October 23, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
"Roads? Who spoke of roads? We go by the moor and the hills, and tread granite and heather as the Druids did before us." Why I have waited so many years to read more of Du Maurier's books I'll never know, but there are definitely more of hers in my immediate reading future!
It's early 19C in Southern Cornwall and Mary Yellen's dying mother asks her to sell the family farm and join her Aunt Patience and her husband at Jamaica Inn in Northern Cornwall. Mary arrives and finds that no respectable person will venture near the inn, nor will the carriages stop there for respite. Her once lively and personable aunt is now a terrified shell of a woman married to drunkard inn owner Joss Merlyn. When Joss prepares to entertain "guests" Mary and her aunt are instructed to stay in their rooms and keep their eyes and ears covered -- although our spunky heroine does peek out the window and sees mysterious comings and goings and Mary suspects smuggling.
Mary also becomes friends with her uncle's younger brother Jem, a ne'er do well horse thief (among other things) and the mysterious albino minister Francis Davey. A mischance on the road on the way home from the village on Christmas Eve puts Mary in the middle of her Uncle and his nefarious companions in the midst of a more gruesome crime than smuggling, thus setting in motion a terrifying set of circumstances building up to a nail biting finish on the Bodmin moors.
While this one got off to a bit of a slow start for me, by the last 50 or so pages I was on the edge of my seat as Du Maurier gradually built up the tension and mystery for a rocking good finish, and a big surprise twist at the end. I really enjoyed the way the author used the spookiness of the moors and the surrounding terrain of Cornwall to set her scenes and it greatly enhanced the feel of the book in general. 4.5/5 stars.
The old inn (and out) October 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Daphne du Maurier's 1936 JAMAICA INN reads much like the portions of WUTHERING HEIGHTS told in Isabella's letter, or that concern Cathy Linton's stay at the house later in the novel: like Heathcliff, the menacing antihero Joss Merlyn glowers and threatens, and storms in fury at the young heroine (here his niece, Mary Yellan). But Du Maurier's Heathcliff is mixed with quite a bit of Hindley Earnshaw besides, and shares the latter's weakness and fondness for drink... making him vulnerable to his own wagging tongue, which exposes to his niece his horrible and unforgivable crimes which are all part of his business.
The comparisons to Emily Bronte's only novel may seem invidious, given that Mary Yellan can be no Catherine Earnshaw (nor Joss Merlyn no Heathcliff), and that some of the plot twists in this novel seem telegraphed a bit too readily. Du Maurier, a lifelong Bronte enthusiast, tried to match the famous Haworth sisters again with her next novel, REBECCA, which is in effect a writing of JANE EYRE... and there she came closer to succeeding. But JAMAICA INN is a marvelous Gothic in its own right, and even had Du Maurier never written another novel after it she would still be famous for the achievement of this work. It beautifully showcases her great gift of narrative description, which was probably unmatched among other realist English novelists since Hardy. Mary Yellan's first night among her uncle's sinister cohorts (climaxing in her remarkable vision of a menacing rope end) is a tour de force, as is her encounter with her husband's work on a stormy Christmas eve. This is a book hard to put down, and it remains one of Du Maurier's most memorable.
Jamaica Inn book October 18, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book came very quickly and is brand new. I look forward to reading it on my November vacation.
I am satisfied. Thank you, Ingrid
The Queen of Gothic Strikes Again! August 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o'clock in the afternoon, the pallour of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist."
How's that for setting the mood right off the bat??
When Mary Yellan's mother was on her death bed, she begged Mary to make her a promise. Mary's mother said that when she died, she wanted Mary to leave their little farm and go live with her aunt Patience. Trying to look out for her daughter, Mary's mom was afraid that life would be too hard for a young girl on a farm by herself and wanted her to have an easier life. Little did she know the fate of things to come.
With all her belongs packed into a small trunk, Mary set out for Jamaica Inn, which was owned by her Aunt Patience and her Uncle Joss. Mary had only met Patience once, but remembered her mother's sister as a vivacious and carefree woman. But when she told the coach driver where she was going, he tried to talk her out of it. He said no one went to Jamaica Inn, especially a young woman. It was an evil place. However, Mary had promised her dying mother, and good or bad she had to keep that promise.
When Mary arrived on that cold, rainy night, however, she found that Aunt Patience was no longer the young vivacious woman she used to be. She was older, thinner, and perpetually frightened. She was a shell of the woman she used to be. And the man she married, Joss Meryln was a huge, hulking man with a mean streak a mile long and an evil glint in his eye. Joss told Mary she was to help out around the Inn and as long as she minded her own business, everything would be fine.
But Jamaica Inn was no travelers Inn. It was old, crumbling and falling apart. No one every stayed there. Mary couldn't figure out how the Merlyn's made any living off of it.....until the night when she was woken from her sleep by all the wagons. As she peered out the window (when she wasn't supposed to do), she saw a bunch of men unloading boxes into the storage rooms in the Inn. As she snuck downstairs to get a better look, she overheard her uncle threaten a man who wanted "out".
But just when Mary was trying to figure out a way to get her Aunt Patience away from this place, a strange man stopped at the Inn. He was dark, rugged and handsome.....and was Joss Merlyn's younger brother, Jem. He seemed like he wanted to help Mary, but could she really trust someone with the last name of Merlyn??
I read the story Rebecca a couple of years ago, and while I really enjoyed it, I wasn't "wowed" by it. I finally realized I just had too many high expectations for such a famous book. Not so with Jamaica Inn. I knew nothing about this one. In fact, I hadn't even heard of it before I started looking for books to fit into the challenge. From page one, du Maurier ran with the "eerie, dark" Gothic setting and told a brilliant story. Mary was a smart, strong, independent young woman in a time when those qualities were not usually used to describe a woman. Jem was the proverbial "bad boy". A handsome horse thief that was fun and likable, du Maurier created a great anti-hero in Jem. Will he do the right thing in the end.....or will he be just another Merlyn?? I guess you will have to read the book to find out!!
For a book that was written over 70 years ago, Jamaica Inn was incredibly readable and highly entertaining. I enjoyed it immensely. A great Gothic tale of thieves, murder, and even a little romance. Definitely worth reading and highly recommended.
Cool, A Gothic Novel! (Shiver, Shiver, Shiver) August 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I saw the dreadful movie based on this book when I was MUCH younger & found it confusing and dull (one of those in which flipping of long hair is supposed to translate as good acting). After reading Rebecca about five hundred times, I decided to give this book a try. After all, how many movies are better than the book (ummmmmm, thinking hard, none!). This book turned out to be a fun, gothic novel. Problems: too fast paced, heroine does some pretty stupid things, ending is kind of unbelievable, bad guy is a little easy to spot. Good points: story keeps moving along & doesn't bog down, scenes and descriptions are wonderfully done, characters are three-dimensional, ending of the story is what you'd hope would happen, hero sounds like a major hottie. It made for a good read, especially when I made allowance for the period in which it was written. I especially liked how the author gave you a glimpse into the brains of the bad guys and you got a slight taste of what they might have been like if they hadn't been trapped in their situation. It would be especially good to read on a stormy night when you're alone in the house!
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