He abuses his cowed wife and attempts to intimidate Mary on their first meeting. Patience’s husband Joss Merlyn, on the other hand, is a huge man, almost immediately recognizable as a drunk and a bully. Her aunt Patience is unrecognizable – a faded, debased, nervous wreck. When she arrives she finds the inn dilapidated and not appearing to attract much, if any, custom. Mary is determined to get to her aunt, though. The coachman who drops her off tries to warn her off the place, saying it’s no place for a young lady and hinting at dark rumors about the goings-on there.

Patience is married to Joss Merlyn, and they reside at Jamaica Inn, an isolated coaching inn in Cornwall.Ĭornwall is very different from what Mary’s used to, and her introduction, in foul weather, to Jamaica Inn is not an auspicious one. Mary’s home is sold and she’s sent to live with her aunt Patience, a woman she vaguely remembers from a childhood meeting as lively and vain.

Mary Yellan leaves her childhood home in Helford in sorrow – her mother has recently died, some years after Mary’s father passed away. I’m slightly wary of gothics as a rule but “gothic” can mean different things and I wasn’t too worried about what it might mean in Du Maurier’s hands. I vaguely recalled there was a romance for Jane (well, of course there was!) but I was more enthralled with Jane’s hair than (…checks IMDB)….Trevor Eve?Īnyway, I wanted to read Du Maurier again, and though I had My Cousin Rachel in the back of my mind as my next foray, Jamaica Inn fell into my lap and I was happy to give it a try. I remember Jane Seymour, Jane Seymour’s great hair, a British inn and a lot of peril. I don’t remember *much* about the series, actually, since it has been 30+ years since I saw it. One of them was a 1983 adaption of this novel, originally made for British television, and starring my childhood girlcrush, one Jane Seymour. Though the breadth and quality of television offerings available to us these days is unsurpassed, I still look back fondly on all of the (mostly cheesy) miniseries I consumed growing up. I grew up in the golden heyday of television miniseries. But I did have an acquaintance with this story.

Jennie B+ Reviews / Book Reviews classic / Cornwall / Smugglers / strong heroine 12 Commentsīefore I started Jamaica Inn, I had only read one book by Daphne Du Maurier – Rebecca. SeptemREVIEW: Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier

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