Jamaica Inn door Daphne du Maurier

The title of the book I read is Jamaica Inn. The writer of the book is Daphne du Maurier. There are 267 pages and the book is first publicised in 1935.

It’s an adventure (and regional ) novel and the theme is crime, courage and justice.

It’s supposed to take place about two hundred years ago, about 1800 in Cornwall, mainly in the rougher part of this country.

Characters:

* Mary Yellan: she’s a young girl with courage. She helps the authorities to see justice on a gang of criminals. She takes the risk of marrying the man she loves.

* Joss Merlyn: he’s a criminal and a drunkard. He pretends to have a lot of courage, but he’s afraid of his superior. He continues his wild life until he dies.

* Aunt Patience: she’s Joss Merlyns wife, despite Joss’ criminal behaviour she loves him. Joss has made her from a gay and pretty young woman to a weak and frightened drudge.

* The Vicar of Altarnun: he’s an albino. He’s the ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. He pretends everyone to be a very kind, helpful man, but he hides a cold, mocking nature. He’s also a murderer.

Other persons are among other things: Jem Merlyn, Squire Bassat, Harry the medlar.

The climax is when Mary decides not to go with her uncle and aunt when they’re going to flight. She decides to run away and go to the Vicar and betray her uncle. She does this, although she’s very sorry for her aunt.

The relation between the title of the book and the book itself: the hole story starts when Mary is going to live in Jamaica Inn, the inn of her uncle and aunt. So it’s ‘the place of happening’.

There aren’t a lot of flash-backs, but a very important one, is the one early in the book. When Mary is sitting in the carriage and she thinking about the passed years, about her youth and especially about her mother.

Summary:

Mary Yellan goes to Jamaica Inn to live with her uncle Joss and her aunt Patience. She’s doing this because it was her mother’s last wish.

On her journey to Jamaica Inn she finds out what a kind of man her uncle is.
She’s told her uncle is a very rude and criminal man and her aunt is a drudge. When she arrives at Jamaica Inn she soon finds out that that’s the truth.

The first night, when she’s just arrived, her uncle Joss is already warning her for being curious. He says: "When you hear wheels on the road and footsteps and voices in the yard, at night, you have to stay in your bed and put your pillow over your head."

In the next few days Mary comes to know something of he story of her aunt’s life, the house and the surrounding country.

Then, when she has to work in the bar at night, she finds out what kind of people her uncle is dealing with: rough, rude and criminal men. That night, when she’s on her bed, she hears wagons coming and she sees how they’re loaded with goods from a room with barred windows and a bolted door. Now she understands her uncle’s business: smuggling on a grand scale.

She overhears a conversation between one of the men who wants to break with the gang, and her uncle. They’re wrangling. When Mary, after some time, enters the room she sees only a rope, dangling from one of the beams. The men, who wanted to change his life was killed!!

Mary meets Jem, her uncle’s brother, and Squire Bassat who interrogates Mary about her uncle’s business.

When Mary tries to spy on her uncle she loses her way and meets the Vicar of Alternun, Francis Davey. She trusts him, and tells him about her uncle’s business. He lends his ear to her and tries to reassure her.

When she meets Jem Merlyn again, she learns more about the Merlyn family.
She has a very strange feeling about Jem. She distrusts him and yet in a way she is attracted to him.

Then in one of his drunken fits, uncle Joss tells Mary he is the leader of a gang of wreckers.

Mary goes to Launceston fair with Jem Merlyn on Christmas Eve. She wants to find out the connection between her uncle’s business and Jem. But she isn’t much the wiser when Jem leaves her at Launceston. Fortunately the Vicar of Alternun comes and rescue her and takes her home in his carriage. Mary trusts him, so she tells him about Jem Merlyn and her feeling for him and
she tells all the news she knew about her uncle. The Vicar leaves the carriage at the turning to Alternun. The carriage rattles on along the Bodmin road to Jamaica Inn. Mary has daydreams, but they’re roughly shattered by she sound of a shot and wild cries. Mary is pulled out of the carriage by her uncle. She sees that the driver of the carriage is shot…..

Mary is taken away by drunken men, to watch them at their work. When they get to the beach she is locked in the carriage bus succeeds in escaping. She tries to warn the crew of the ship that is misdirected by the false light of the wreckers. But it’s vainly and she’s caught and bound. She has to watch a fight, wherein a few men are killed.

In early dawn of that Christmas day Joss Merlyn and Harry the pedlar return to Jamaica Inn with Mary thrown in the cart.

When they’re back, Mary thinks her uncle is afraid of one person, but she doesn’t know who it is. Harry the pedlar is visiting Joss a few times. Harry sees only one solution: run for the trouble. When Harry doubts whether Joss is really the leader of the gang, he is knocked down and locked up in the store room with the barred windows.

Joss decides they will leave Jamaica Inn on Sunday. But then Mary makes up her mind. She decides not to go with her uncle and her aunt, but to run away to try to prevent Joss Merlyn’s escape and see justice done.

That night she meets Jem Merlyn. He apologises for leaving her in Launceton without any reason for his behaviour.

On the night before Sunday she leaves Jamaica Inn at four o’clock, intending to return within three hours, so that no suspicion will be aroused in her uncle.

When she arrives in Alternun she hears that the Vicar isn’t at home and she leaves a note for him and goes on to Squire Bassat. Mrs. Bassat tells her that Squire is already on his way to Jamaica Inn with a group of soldiers to seize the inhabitants.

Mary can’t wait for a long time, and she’s driven back to Jamaica Inn by the Squire’s servant.

When Mary enters the house, she finds the body of her uncle. The body of her aunt Patience is found by the Squire and his men.

The Vicar of Alternun appears on the scene and takes Mary home with him.
When Mary wakes after a long, refreshing sleep the finds that the Vicar isn’t at home. Before he returns she explore his paintings and drawing and sees among them some terrible pictures.

The Vicar returns and he confesses that he is the real leader of Joss Merlyn’s gang and that he has killed both Mary’s uncle and aunt. Though this is a shock to Mary, she is at the same time relieved because it clears Jem Merlyn of all suspicion.

Francis Davey, the Vicar, pictures a future for Mary as his companion, going with him to strange, far off countries and forgetting everything that has happened to her of late. Mary has no choice, so she has to follow him. But when they envelope in a thick fog, so that they cannot continue their way, they have to spend the night on Roughtor.

When dawn breaks they discover that they have been followed by Jem Merlyn and the Squire and his men. The Vicar is killed and Mary is rescued.

Mary stays with the Squire and his wife for some time. Just when she wants to return to Helson to build up a new future there, she meets Jem Merlyn once more. When he puts before her the choice between the routine, quiet life at Helston and following him on his wanderings, she decides to take the risk and follow the one she really loves: Jem Merlyn!!

My own opinion about the book:

I think it’s a very thrilling story. I like this book very much, especially because the outcome is very suprising. I’d never expected the book would end in the way like it does.

I would other persons advise to read this book. Not especially for school, but also for your own pleasure.