As the activities taking place in the shadow of the ale-house become alarmingly clear, Mary is first horrified and then offers grudging acceptance. Her Uncle turns out to be a huge, brute of a man who runs a disreputable ale-house known as the ‘Jamaica Inn’ and her aunt is a cringing, hollow shadow of a woman. Unwillingly, Mary sets off to her aunt’s house only to find a very uncomfortable and rude welcome awaiting her. Mary is reluctant to leave her farm but it was not easy for a young, unmarried, orphan girl to live a solitary life even in the relative safety of a tiny village those days. Her aunt, whom she remembers as a happy, ‘butterfly’ sort of person married late in life and settled down in Cornwall with her husband and never visited or wrote afterwards. Mary is a country girl and therefore practical and level-headed which is the reason she is able to survive the ordeal before her. This is the story of Mary Yellan who is orphaned and must go and live with her aunt and uncle in Cornwall. As I browsed through the entire collection, lined like soldiers on the shelves of Bookworm, I was in an agony of indecision – buy one or buy the entire lot? Ultimately, after being brought to Earth by the amount of cash in my pocket I went for only two of them. Turns out she was quite a prolific writer. Before I stumbled across these beautiful new editions of the novels by Daphne Du Maurier published by ‘Virago Modern Classics’, I believed ‘Rebecca’ was her only contribution to literature.
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