Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Book Review

Avil Beckford // October 21

Introduction: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Book Review

Jamaica InnJamaica Inn

Published in 1936, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier is a romance novel steeped in suspense and murder, with a theme that deals with identity. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, Thomas C. Foster describes the importance of story starters, the weather, the names of characters and so on, and the role they play in the story.

In Jamaica Inn, the setting, which is Gothic, is integral to the story, keeps the readers in suspense. If you have been reading The Invisible Mentor blog for a while, you have been introduced to the author, Daphne du Maurier, in my review of her book, Rebecca.

 

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn, Daphne du Maurier, amaica Inn summary

Have you read?


Book Review – Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Book Review – How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, Review #theclassics


 

“It was a cold and 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 pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in the mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach.”

The way the novel, Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier begins, the reader has a sense of foreboding. Mary Yellan’s mother is dying and her heart is about to give out. Mary’s mother makes her promise that when she dies, she wants her daughter to go to Bodmin to live with her free-spirited, sister, Aunt Patience and her husband. But Mary Yellan does not want to leave her hometown, Helford, because she thinks she is quite capable of taking care of herself and can make a success of farming. Set in 1835 in Cornwall, that is not the role of women in society, however, Mary Yellan feels that society with its archaic laws and expectations concerning the role of women is cheating her out of the life that she deems best for herself at the age of 23. She also believes that conventional marriage will constrain her.

Knowing her daughter very well, Mary Yellan’s mother makes her promise that she will go to her aunt. After her mother dies, Mary makes the journey to her Aunt Patience and uncle Joss Merlyn. While on the journey, Mary learns that people do not think very highly of her Uncle Joss, and in fact, he is despised by his neighbors. When Mary arrives, she is shocked to see her Aunt Patience, who is a shell of her former self. Instead of a fun-loving woman, she is a timid, dispirited woman, broken by the abuse of her husband.

Uncle Joss warns Mary not to look outside at nights when she hears sounds, but she does anyway, and discovers a smuggling ring. Her uncle is a smuggler and possibly a murderer. She also discovers, that there is another person, who is secretly working with Joss that the others in the smuggling ring do not know about. While Joss is away, one day, Mr Bassat, a magistrate raids Jamaica Inn, but finds no evidence of smuggling or other wrongdoing because the evidence had been removed the night before. He asks Mary a lot of questions, but to protect her aunt, who behaves like a child, she tells Mr Bassat lies. When Joss returns home, he is furious to learn what Mr Bassat has done, but Mary can also see the fear in his eyes. Joss leaves on foot, and Mary decides to follow him through the moors.

She loses her way, and Francis Davey, the Vicar of Altarnum, who happens to be an albino rescues her. Many people are uncomfortable around albinos, and people may even hate and discriminate against them because of the way they look. Du Maurier uses the way the vicar looks as a focus for what we do not like, in Jamaica Inn. The vicar takes her to the vicarage, feeds her, and allows her to rest before he gives her a ride home. Because Francis Davey is a man of God, Mary’s lips are loose, and she tells him all that has been going on at the inn since she has been living there. When she arrives home, she is nervous, and not quite sure how she will get inside without her uncle knowing that she has been away. The vicar says he will take a look, and discovers that Joss Merlyn has been drinking heavily. Mary is able to enter without her uncle being aware of her.

Mary Yellan feels very isolated, and the isolation is also a part of the location of Jamaica Inn, which is isolated in the bleak moorlands of Cornwall, so the setting is critical to the story line because the Inn is the center of the operation of the smuggling ring. It is difficult for Mary to make friends with any of the closest neighbors, who shun the Merlyns, and she is guilty by association. She is attracted to Jem Merlyn, Joss' brother and a horse thief. Because of what she has seen of her Uncle Joss, she doesn’t trust Jem because she thinks that he has to be like his brother. The author is using Joss and Jem to express different aspects of the same personality.

Joss is an alcoholic, and during his binges, he has very loose lips and talks about all the bad things he has done. During one of those times, he tells Mary of some of the horrific crimes he has committed, and the innocent people he has killed. Mary learns about wreckers, criminals who force ships to become shipwrecked so that they can steal the goods, kill and rob the passengers.

After she hears the tales from Joss, the light leaves her eyes and she starts to become a shell of her former self. Mary now understands exactly what has happened to her Aunt Patience. Mary travels with Jem to Launceston on Christmas Eve, so that he can sell the horses that he steals. She doesn’t agree with what Jem is doing, but it is a way for her to get away, even if it’s only for a short time. Before they return home in the evening, Jem leaves to get the horses and doesn’t return to get Mary, so she has to walk the many miles to get home. Once again, the vicar rescues her.

Francis Davey leaves Mary in the coach at a certain spot, and when she arrives at Jamaica Inn, the coach is held up by the smugglers and the coachman is shot and killed. Joss discovers that it’s Mary in the coach, and he physically abuses her. That night she gets front seat to see the smugglers wrecking a ship, killing innocent people and taking their possessions. The gang of wreckers, which includes her Uncle Joss, cause the ship to founder on the rocks on the coast of Cornwall by setting false lights during the storm. In this instance, the crime is not very well planned and before they can take away all the goods, dawn is breaking. There is mayhem and the criminals start to kill each other. There are times when Mary tries to assist the innocent, and she is once again physically abused. Mary often acts impulsively, her actions are not very well thought out, so she is ineffective.

In the end, her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss are murdered while she is out trying to get help for herself and her aunt. Nearly all the smugglers are killed. Even after the death of Joss Merlyn, when the people are more accepting of Mary Yellan, she still feels isolated and like she doesn’t belong. She doesn’t love the people because they are not her people. She patches up things with Jem and heads off with him. Jamaica Inn is a love story, but it is filled with a lot of suspense and intrigue. If readers are paying attention, they will be able to figure out who is the real mastermind behind the smuggling ring, and the person who kills Joss and Aunt Patience.

Final Thoughts: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier will give you another opportunity to test your problem solving skills. Although the story is romance and murder mystery, the author uses a Gothic setting to unfold the story.

 Rebecca Rebecca [Blu-ray] My Cousin Rachel Jamaica Inn Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne du Maurier (New York Review Books Classics) Frenchman's Creek The House on the Strand Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier The Scapegoat The Birds And Other Stories (Virago Modern Classics) Daphne Du Maurier: Three Complete Novels & Five Short Stories (The King's General, The House on the Strand, The Glass Blowers, Don't Look Now and other Short Stories) Daphne Du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller The King's General The Doll: The Lost Short Stories Mary Anne Four Great Cornish Novels: Jamaica Inn / Rebecca / Frenchman's Creek / My Cousin Rachel The Birds: and Other Stories Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne du Maurier (New York Review Books Classics)

About the Author Avil Beckford

Hello there!

I am Avil Beckford, the founder of The Invisible Mentor. I am also a published author, writer, expert interviewer host of The One Problem Podcast and MoreReads Success Blueprint, a movement to help participants learn in-demand skills for future jobs. Sign-up for MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World today!

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