Pub Jamaica

The beast rules the marshes. But she controls herself even better... Like a bird in a cage, she toils here for a place to live and food to eat. Mary Yellan came here because, as an orphaned woman of twenty-three, she should not have been in England during the reign of Regent George IV. where to turn. But there's a strange family situation at the Jamaica Inn, halfway between Launceston and Bodmin: Uncle Joss is rude, and Aunt Patience really seems to be just his deaf and dumb shadow. People shun the establishment with its lousy reputation and the surrounding countryside is also terrified of it - the hills have become petrified, the heather has stunted and the remaining objections of nature have been swallowed by the moors. And what's going on in the heavily guarded chamber where only your uncle's cronies are allowed? A girl as hard as flint is made for fear, and on Christmas Day 1815, she tracks down the murderers prowling around peeling off ships driven between the cliffs of North Cornwall. Everything suggests that the smuggling gang is led by a much more cunning beast than the perpetually drunken innkeeper, but what to do with that knowledge in the remote wilderness? The heart should be Mary's clearest guide when hesitating whether to confide in a justice of the peace or rather in a kindly vicar of peculiar appearance. Or perhaps to a cheeky horse thief, the brother of a disgraced innkeeper? Many a pearl of world literature has been born out of the joy of the beauty a writer sees from his study window. The author's first gothic romance, dedicated to her beloved Cornwall, soon cast a spell on director Alfred Hitchcock, who in 1939 cast Maureen O'Hara in the lead role of the film of the same name. Since then, the story of a fearless heroine facing the swamps and the passions has seen many other adaptations. Tourists, look out! The site of Mary's service is now a top Cornish hotel. "There is something hidden in those calm coves, which are bordered only by unbridled wind and jagged rocks. It's called the afflicted human soul. Thanks to the author's mastery, she sheds her distorted points of view and goes through the purgatory of loneliness, betrayal, hatred and unrequited love." - The Independent "In a den of crime where there is seemingly no room for a decent girl, her presence will eventually prove absolutely crucial. At fourteen, when I first devoured this parable of girl power, there couldn't have been a better boost for me." - Julie Myerson, The Guardian "The romantic elements are at play here: are perhaps melodramatic at times, yet emotionally real. For the art of the time, it was at times endlessly harsh, yet chillingly funny. Thanks to the author, a new type of heroine has emerged from the clichés of the time, which since 1936 will be found in thousands of incarnations in modern literature." - Kirkus Reviews "Daphne du Maurier is a unique literary sorceress. It is unrivalled in the field of bewitchment and deception." - The New York Times Book Review