VIRAGO Jamaica Inn

The atmosphere and the descriptions of the scenery were really good.The idea was original. It was well plotted overall.Generally, the characterisation is cleverly done.I also liked the heroine, who shows herself as generally brave and having integrity.I also liked the fact that the story was about ordinary people - well, they're often larger than life, but with the exception of the squire, they are not rich, well born or well connected. I appreciated the lack of sentimentality in the writing, and the fact that life for working men and women in early nineteenth century Cornwall was in no way glamourised.Unluckily, I disagree with Sarah Dunant, who wrote the introduction of the edition I read, when she asserts that 'Once you've got past the second chapter, it's almost impossible to read Jamaica Inn slowly.' I obviously am capable of the impossible, as I could, and I largely lost interest from the point at which Mary Yellan allows herself to fall in love with Jem Merlin.In common with several reviewers on here, I didn't find the relationship believable, and I didn't like him. I was repelled by his complete lack of tenderness for his late mother. Obviously, he has been badly affected by his brutal father, and in fact, has only been born because of marital rape, but even so...Mary's giving in to her feelings for him might make more sense if she was a very young girl of sixteen or seveenteen, but at twenty-three you would expect her to have a little more common sense. It isn't even love at first sight. It happens in inexplicably during their third meeting, when they go to the Christmas fair together.I found the scene where he ordered her to cook his lunch and she performed some piece of domestic wizardry and had his filthy flloor 'sparkling clean' with only water and a broom downright annoying. Yes, men of the time thought of the domestic sphere as being the women's domain, but that was really presumptious and seemed to be some sort of display of dominance (off topic: the author's not needing to do housework herself shows here; of course, Mary would have needed some cleaning material of the time to achieve that).Generally, then, Jem Merlin spoilt the story for me.Another aspect I found unpleasant was the depiction of the vicar's being 'a freak of nature' as an albino, with the impliciation that if his outside is not normal, then it automatically reflects some defect of his character. Given that sort of intolerance was a feature of the times in which the author was writing, and people and authors should only be judged by the standards of their times, I tried to avoid letting that affect my assessment of the story.

Whether I would have loved this book quite so much had I not been on holiday in the area it was set in, I don't know. But love it, I did.Mary Yellan is a strong female protagonist, her uncle a string male protagonist but for me the landscape was the most powerful aspect of the story.I'd been to Jamaica Inn a couple of days before I started it and although it stands just off the main highway through Cornwall now it's easy to picture how it looked back then.Excellent story.

Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is one of my favourite books and I absolutely love her writing. Despite this book being nearly 90 years old, I found it so easy to get into, which I often struggle with when reading more “classic” books.But I had no trouble with Jamaica Inn and was immediately drawn into the Cornish setting. I live close to Jamaica Inn and have visited it before, so I loved recognising place names and landmarks, and my own town of Bodmin getting a mention or two! Maurier describes her scenic landscapes and the cold and misty weather so well, and I could really get a feel for the treacherous Bodmin Moors.However, I found the story itself quite lacklustre. Although there were some big events, they didn’t feel very impacting. I did really like the characters, though, and I even thought that the romance worked well which nicely took me by surprise.While I didn’t love this story, I’m always keen to read more Daphne du Maurier and would definitely consider re-reading it at some point to give it another shot. The characters and the setting are described brilliantly, but I just didn’t find the action exciting enough.

This book got me thinking about the depiction of landscape in novels. Many authors are capable of describing the natural world in intricate detail, but in many cases I suspect the reader superimposes images culled from their own experience to imagine something rather different to what the writer had in their own mind. This synthesis may well have been taking place as I read Jamaica Inn but Daphne du Maurier's astonishing and evocative depiction of the Cornish landscape she clearly loved created images in my head that I felt confident were pretty close to those the author intended to convey.The subject matter of du Maurier's story was darker than I expected and undeniably gripping; the characters she presents believable and complex (although her attempts to explain motivation seemed rather trite). For a novel published in 1936 the violence is quite graphically portrayed. I would have given this 5 stars save for the fact that I'd guessed a key reveal that occurs towards the end of the book a long time before it actually happened.

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to try a book by this author! I loved it and can’t wait to read Rebecca. This one is a page turner, filled with haunted characters and a bleak, isolated setting. The characters are incredibly well-developed, from the evil, yet utterly broken Joss, to the hilarious and witty Jem. Mary herself is wonderful, I loved how the book explored the difference between right and wrong and how this can be interpreted to have grey areas, where Mary finds herself stuck. A brilliant read.