Earlier this summer, my friend Joan, at Planet Joan, and I were having a chat about Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier, which we’d both just read. We’ve edited our chat a bit, leaving out the parts about what we were each making for dinner that evening, Katrina’s new summerhouse, the demolition happening around my house, the weather, gardening, and a raft of other things. We humbly submit our erudite discussion:
Joan Kyler:
I thought the moors and the weather on the moors were major characters.
Katrina Stephen:
Yes I know that du Maurier was a big fan of the Brontes and I suppose this is her version of Wuthering Heights, Bodmin Moor being used as a substitute for the Yorkshire Moors.
Joan:
I didn’t know that. I thought the characters and the outcome were predictable. I knew who the good guys and who the bad guys were from the start. And who Mary’d fall for and what she’d do about it. Not much suspense there. But it was a fun read. I read it back in the 1960s and have my index card from then. I said I didn’t think it was one of her best books.
Katrina:
I would agree with that although I did enjoy it, it is predictable. I first read it around 1970 I think and again in the mid 80s probably, sadly I didn’t take any notes but thinking back I thought it was darker and scarier than it actually is. There was more sexual threat in it than I remembered, but maybe I just didn’t pick up on that as a 12 year old. Uncle Joss saying – I could have had you anytime if I wanted you a few times in the book.
Joan:
I don’t remember if any of that got past me or not. I was into reading modern Gothics then, they’re usually fairly sexually charged. I just checked my file. Although they don’t have dates either, I have cards on Rebecca and Frenchman’s Creek that, from the handwriting, look like I read them about the same time. I know I’ve read My Cousin Rachel, but I don’t have a card on it. Mary annoyed me for seeing things so black and white, but she was young, so maybe she could be excused.
Katrina:
On the other hand she is a stronger female character than her aunt who is I suppose worn down by years of domestic abuse. Also compared with the second Mrs de Winter in Rebecca Mary seems like a really strong young woman.
Joan:
That’s true. I don’t think Mary understood how hard it sometimes is to leave that sort of relationship, as we often wonder why women stay in them. She does seem strong and independent. I understand why she found Jem so attractive. I wasn’t sure she’d leave with him at the end, but I wasn’t surprised when she did.
Katrina:
Yes but maybe it would have been more sensible for her not to go with Jem. It’s that dark and dangerous male – I read years ago that it was books like this and Wuthering Heights which were bad for young women, making them think that men who were going to turn out to be bad for them were exciting and so worth the risk. I think it was a 1970s burn your bras feminist who came up with that one.
Joan:
But I can understand. I wonder what happened to them in the next ten years. He didn’t seem to be the type who would stay and she seemed like she might decide to go back to that farm by herself. In the meantime, they probably had some fun.
Katrina:
Yes I don’t see it lasting that long but in those days she would probably have had a few kids in tow by the time it all fell apart, she would have been forced to put the kids first.
Joan:
I think I’d like to read Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel sometime before the end of the year. I’ve seen the movie Rebecca so often, I think I get it confused with reading the book!
Katrina:
Rebecca is one of my comfort books so I’ll definitely join you in that. Obviously that’s her version of Jane Eyre, I love both of the books. As you say though it’s du Maurier’s writing of the place which is such a large part of the book and after reading this one I always wanted to go to Cornwall and loved books with a Cornish setting. It’s quite unusual for an English writer to have the setting basically as important as any of the actual characters. It’s a Scottish/Celtic trait in writing I think.
Joan:
Is it? I have to get on board with more Scottish books. I loved the wildness of the weather and the moors. I don’t think we made it quite that far when we were travelling in England. I looked at a map to see if I recognized any towns. We were in Swindon (sp?) and Cheltenham, but don’t think they’re considered Cornwall, especially Cheltenham. I was such a little Anglofile in the 1960s, all that British invasion stuff, but I used to go out in storms and thought I was very oddly British doing it!
Katrina:
You probably were, we often have no option and have to go out in hellish weather otherwise we would be housebound, in the winter anyway. You would have to have travelled quite a bit further south west to get to Cornwall. Strangely Cornwall feels and looks very much like parts of Scotland, even the old buildings look similar, I suppose it’s the stone but also the design of the houses. It must be a Celtic thing, the Cornish don’t regard themselves as English.
Joan:
That’s interesting. England’s such a small country to have divides like that.
Katrina:
I think it is because when the Romans invaded the Celts were pushed out to the fringes of the island. The Romans didn’t like Celts, I think they were afraid of them.
Katrina:
How about Rebecca what’s your opinion of Max de Winter – from memory . Do you see him as ‘that murderer’ or ‘sex on legs’ or what?
Joan:
You know, I don’t really remember. I don’t think I liked him very much, but I don’t remember much more than that.
Katrina:
Well that’ll be interesting then, I’ve always been on the ‘sex on legs’ side but it is a while since I re-read it, you never know, I might have changed my mind in my old age.
Joan:
I don’t think I’ve read it since the 60s, at least I don’t have a card on it. I started to get fairly compulsive about recording my reading after the late 1970s.
Katrina:
I so wish that I had thought of taking notes on all the books which I’ve read over the years. Shall we plan to do a Rebecca readalong sometime before the end of the year then?