Jamaica Inn

By: Daphne du Maurier

Narrated by: Tony Britton

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

On a bitter November evening, young Mary Yellan journeys across the rainswept moors to Jamaica Inn in honor of her mother's dying request. When she arrives, the warning of the coachman begins to echo in her memory, for her aunt Patience cowers before hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn. Terrified of the inn's brooding power, Mary gradually finds herself ensnared in the dark schemes being enacted behind its crumbling walls - and tempted to love a man she dares not trust.

©1936 Daphne du Maurier (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A fine romantic tale... rich in suspense and surprise." ( New York Times Book Review)

NEVER GROWS OLD

I had just been to Cornwall and visited all the places mentioned in the book, so I listened on the plane ride home. It is a timeless story and suspenseful, riveting and full of twists. I did find the female voice a little too falsetto, but otherwise the performance was excellent.

If this had been read by a really good female narrator it would have been much better.

The narrator disgraces the female characters that Daphne du Maurier created in Jamaica Inn with his ridiculous voice, and does a huge dishonor to the author. Why would one choose such an absurd narrator to read this book written by a women about a strong woman dealing with abuse? It’s hard not to feel like he was purposely making a mockery of the women. Very poorly done.

Not quite there

Maybe it was the narrator that kept me from believing the female character. The voice didn’t match Mary at all. And I didn’t care for the description of her lover Jim. It was a decent story but not one of my favorites.

Du Maurier never disappoints

Mary is a fantastic heroine, and her unlikely love story is a wonderful romantic gem in spite of the grim situation where she finds herself.

For more than 25 years, du Maurier's book Rebecca has been my favorite novel. It's got serious competition with Jamaica Inn.

I found the narration delightful and enjoyed the characters.

Simply Sublime

I'm new to Audible and this happened to be the very first audiobook i listened to. I'd seen Hitchcock's film version and decided to hear the original source material. It's no wonder he adapted several of Du Maurier's novels into films as she is an excellent writer. Her prose is clear, witty, and very dark at times, but wonderful. The book starts off slow for the first few hours, and I might have put it down if I had read it in print, but the narrator kept me listening. I cannot praise Tony Britton's performance enough. His character voices are excellent, especially since the protagonist is a young woman; his pitch and resonance is different with each character and he captures the Cornwall dialect well. I loved listening to every minute of this.

The voice of Mary needs to be a woman

I liked it but the guy who does the voices can’t do women. Made it very difficult to listen to the end.

The narrator ruined it

What made the narrator think that it’s a good idea to make Mary Yellan sound like a dumb prig? This really ruined an otherwise good audiobook.

Great story

I agree about the female characters. I hate the weird falsetto voice used by the male narrator. Otherwise the narrator was great. I still enjoyed this version.

Fantastic voices!!

The narrator did a fantastic job of capturing the character's voices. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and this one stands as one of the best I've ever heard as far as narration is concerned. Oh, and the story isn't bad either!

Great Story!

I highly recommend Jamaica Inn. Interesting characters and the story moved along easily. It was evocative of the early 1800's in the Devon/Cornwall area. It brought to mind Poldark and the Pirates along the English coast.