From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

Jamaica Inn

Daphne du Maurier

Start date: August 1, 2013

Finish date: August 31, 2013

Discussion leader: Trisha

Why we're reading this: Contemporary Classic Group Read, August 2013
[close] Contemporary Classic Group Read, August 2013

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Mar 26, 2008 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, bookmooch, fiction-20th-century, gothic-romance, read-2009, cornwall, virago-modern-classics, book-and-movie

Another great book by Du Maurier. Next one to be read: The King's General. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2017 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites, gothic-lit

Daphne du Maurier enthralls me. I have inhaled 8 of her books in the last few weeks, and this one ranks among my favorites. I love her ability to write eerie, foreboding and brooding stories without any gore or sensationalism. I love that she writes stories about obsession and intrigue, and builds tension deftly and simply through her magical prose. I love that the locations in her stories are vividly described allowing me to see the places with accuracy and ease. All in all, I love everything a ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 26, 2019 Julie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 1930s-fiction, fin-2019

Rebecca is such an amazing book that I keep thinking all of du Maurier's other novels must be just as great. Sadly, they don't seem to be. My Cousin Rachel was good. Frenchman's Creek was a huge embarrassment - simply awful. Jamaica Inn is just meh.

It's billed as a suspenseful romance. I figured out the real bad guy of the suspense plot as soon as he was introduced. So yeah, not so suspenseful.

As for the romance - cue retching sound. Just terrible! I guess because the book was written in 1936, ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 09, 2022 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, classic, suspense-thriller, fiction, romance, audio, women-on-the-edge, romantic-suspense, era-early-mid-1800s

4.5 stars

This book is so over-the-top that I have to wonder if du Maurier wrote it as a parody of the sensation novel? Because everything is to the extreme. The landscape is extreme, the people are extreme, the action is extreme - nothing is just a little bit or a moderate amount, it's all pegged at MAX. The men are all buffoons, her Aunt Patience is a flibbertigibbet, Mary is supposed to be clever and brave but ... no, she's often an idiot too. It's not all bad, for what it is. But I was e 4.5 stars

This book is so over-the-top that I have to wonder if du Maurier wrote it as a parody of the sensation novel? Because everything is to the extreme. The landscape is extreme, the people are extreme, the action is extreme - nothing is just a little bit or a moderate amount, it's all pegged at MAX. The men are all buffoons, her Aunt Patience is a flibbertigibbet, Mary is supposed to be clever and brave but ... no, she's often an idiot too. It's not all bad, for what it is. But I was expecting a serious gothic novel, and I got something ridiculous instead. Once I recalibrated my expectations, I learned to love this book.

Sometimes the writing is wonderful, but other times it's a fail. Every time Mary's aunt appears, she is "working her mouth." Anyone who describes Mary ends up referring to monkeys (although I think they mean it as a compliment?). The rain is always a "mizzle." It's hard to believe that just two years later, the same author published Rebecca.

THAT SAID ... by the time I was about 3/4 of the way through this book, I could not put it down and I HAD to find out what happened. I canceled all my plans until I finished, with my heart in my throat. I was completely won over. If Catherine and Heathcliff had not been complete assholes, this might have been their story instead of the one they got.

I was surprised to find that Jamaica Inn is a real place!! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica... The inn really was a center for smugglers, and today it contains a small "Museum of Smugglers." This book was inspired by du Maurier's stay at the inn in 1930.

I listened to the audiobook read by Tony Britton, who was not a good choice for this book, because his version of women's voices is pretty darned similar to Monty Python's women's voices. You can't help but laugh when you hear that. Why didn't they choose a woman to read this? It's from Mary's POV, after all. Britton's reading really killed this book for me. It is a testament to the power of du Maurier's story-telling that I ended up loving this. It is possible that I would have loved this book from the start if I had not listened to the audiobook with Britton's ridiculously high-pitched women's voices. ...more

1 like · Like · see review