Rating:  Summary: A great classical, and mysterious adventure Review: Mary Yellan's sense of adventure and spirit not easily tamed really captured me. I thoroughly enjoyed her excursions on the moors. Daphne Dumaurier did an excellent job of transporting you there. Mary Yellan's loyalty to her Aunt Patience is to be commended (staying on at the Jamaica Inn throughout all of the strange occurrences when all she had to do was leave). Jamaica Inn is a good piece of classical work. If your daughter likes Nancy Drew mysteries she should try this classic.
Rating:  Summary: If you have not read Rebecca you may appreciate this book Review: more. Even though I like some of the others who reviewed this book prefered Rebecca. I do not however think these are two books that should be compaired. Yes, I agree that they were both about young girls but that is about where the similarities end. Jamacia inn does share the same writting style that Daphne Du Maurier is famous for but I do not believe she wanted this book to be another Rebecca. When reading this book forget the others by Du Maurier and I believe that it will be more appreciated, because you will not expect another Rebecca which this particular book is definatly not.
Rating:  Summary: Dark romance Review: Set sometime in early nineteenth century Cornwall, this is a novel about Mary Yellan, a young woman who is left alone in the world when her mother dies. She must go and live with her mother's sister, Aunt Patience and her dark and dangerous husband, Joss Merlyn. They keep the Jamaica Inn on a lonely forbidding spot on the Moors - but no casual passer-by's stop there, nor any coaches. Mary soon learns there is something grim going on. Her uncle is involved in some violent and illicit trade, and there is a sinister person who is directing her uncle's secret business. It would be difficult for Mary to leave, but she won't leave without her Aunt Patience. Despite the violence from Joss, Aunt Patience has turned into a scared, fluttering, fey creature who seems unable to leave. Then there Jem Merlyn, her uncle's much younger brother and for whom Mary begins to feel a conflict of emotion. Can she trust Jem? He is her hated uncle's brother after all. Yet despite this and him being a horse-thief and a care-for-nothing she finds herself falling in love with him.I really enjoyed this book - the first du Maurier I had read, and it has certainly made me keen to read more.
Rating:  Summary: Fun period piece reading Review: Some reviewers were more critical than I. If a book causes me to be anxious to get home to read it, than I give it 4 stars. Now I will describe what specifically I liked about Jamaica Inn: 1. The characters were fairly 3-dimensional. 2. DuMaurier's descriptions made me smell and visualize the Inn, the moors and the characters. 3. I couldn't predict what each character would state next, nor what what actually transpire next.
Rating:  Summary: Weak attempt to invoke mystery and romance in the novel Review: There were little mystery and romance that DuMaurier is famous for. Failed to stir up reader's interest as the plot is weak and characters are not well developed.
Rating:  Summary: marvellous thriller! Review: This book tells the story of Mary Yellan, who comes to live at Jamaica Inn, a place with a very bad name. She meets different persons, good or bad, and what I like so much about the story is that in the end the people she trusted, appear to be bad and de bad people are the good ones. Take Jem Merlyn, the man she falls in love with, but who also is the man that she thinks is the murderer of her aunt Patience. But it seems to be that it was the vicar of Altarnun who mudered her uncle and aunt. And in a very small place of her mind she must have known it from the beginning, for he always made her nervous. He was a strange looking man, but very, very clever. And he had twisted Mary just around his finger. But it seemed that the vicar loved her too. He told her:"If you had been there, I would have killed you too, no not you Mary Yellan". Yes, he was so very nice and kind to her that he must have loved her. Anyway he still would kill her if she'd do anything that'd delay their journey. Eventually there are men coming after them, they have dogs along them and the vicar first releases Mary of the belt that he'd put around her and than he kills himself. Then I consider the book as ended. The exitement is over. But still I love the book, and I wish I'd never read it before, for then there would still be a first time. Well if you may have problems with my bad English, I'm a 17-year old girl and live in Holland. That should explain the problem. Thanks for reading this.
Rating:  Summary: Great captivating novel of suspense and emotion Review: This exciting novel is very deep psychologically. Young and ignorant Mary Yellan is suddenly faced with the terrors and dangers of the world, when her loving mother tragically passes away and she travels to live with her dark and immoral uncle, Joss Merlyn. Not even the wise advice of the coach driver could prevent Mary from disobeying her dying mother's plead that Mary would join her Aunt Patience at Jamaica Inn. And so Mary Yellan's courageous journey begins in the coach heading for Jamaica Inn in the pouring rain. As Mary arrived at Jamaica Inn she already had a sense of the building's dark power, but never did she dream that she would become helplessly entrapped in the inn's vile and crumbling walls. As days turn to weeks, Mary's curiosity for her uncle's mysterious trade grows. Customers are not accepted at Jamaica Inn, instead, during the night, covered wagons arrive at Jamaica Inn carrying strangers and illegal goods. Mary discovers the evilness of the inn and desires to leave it immediately, but she knows that she can't abandon her aunt with her heinous uncle. To add to her troubles, Mary meets the landlord's brother and falls disastrously in love with him. However, this love is tormented by doubts as Jem's behavior changes and clues lead to his guilt of a murder. Mary found him to be so charming, however he is a horse-thief. Can Mary survive this dangerous situation?
Rating:  Summary: It may be becasue I am an inexperienced reader, or I do not Review: This is a well written book with vivid descriptions of places and people. Maybe I was expecting too much. It was a little more dark and depressing than I would have liked for a vacation read, and it held nowhere near the suspense and intrigue as Rebecca (one of my favorites). It never really made me care for the lead character (Mary) - I just kept feeling that everything she did was stupid and for no reason. It was also very predictable since you know who is going to turn out to be the bad guy as he is the only other character you've been introduced to. Not duMaurier's best.
Rating:  Summary: Not what I expected Review: This is a well written book with vivid descriptions of places and people. Maybe I was expecting too much. It was a little more dark and depressing than I would have liked for a vacation read, and it held nowhere near the suspense and intrigue as Rebecca (one of my favorites). It never really made me care for the lead character (Mary) - I just kept feeling that everything she did was stupid and for no reason. It was also very predictable since you know who is going to turn out to be the bad guy as he is the only other character you've been introduced to. Not duMaurier's best.
Rating:  Summary: An enjoyable read Review: This is only the second Daphne du Maurier book I've read (the first was 'The Scapegoat'), and I enjoyed it. The story line is good, as are the descriptions of the Cornish countryside. Indeed, the author seems to have a real feel for Cornwall, even though she was born and brought up in London. Not for her the sugary rustic platitudes of other English "country" writers. And bear in mind, too, that she was only in her twenties when she wrote this: quite an achievement. Inevitably the book is somewhat old-fashioned in its style. The prose is inclined to be a bit wordy. But the characters of the Merlyn brothers and the Vicar are well drawn. A slight disappointment, however, is Mary Yellan herself. I found it a little difficult to engage with her, and a rather characterless, even priggish young woman comes across.
|