Title: The Moonstone
Author: Wilkie Collins
Pages: 559
Finished: April 22, 2018
First Sentence: I address these lines - written in India - to my relatives in England.
Summary: A large diamond, stolen from India in the late 18th Century, makes its way to a country estate in Yorkshire. Of course, upon waking on the morrow, everyone discovers the diamond is missing and an investigation must take place.
Thoughts: The Moonstone is widely regarded as the first detective novel written. As such, it doesn't fully follow what one would expect from a detective novel. After following along with some excellent red herrings, one gets blindsided by the truth halfway through the novel.
The strengths of The Moonstone, however, lie in its characters. With the exception of Miss Clack (a wonderful caricature of ultra religious people), most of the characters are more fully realized than one sees in a detective novel. We get narration from servants. We see ex-convicts treated well rather than with complete suspicion. The novel itself has the typical Victorian racism and sexism, but I think the women rise above it as best they can. Better than I typically see in many novels.
The book itself starts off VERY slow. I will admit, I almost returned it to the library, and the diamond wasn't yet stolen. Betteridge does tend to ramble a bit. But once the diamond turns up missing and the investigation starts, I was very compelled. It took me a week and a break book to get through the first 94 pages. It took me another week to read 495 pages.
Read for my Classics Club Spin.
The strengths of The Moonstone, however, lie in its characters. With the exception of Miss Clack (a wonderful caricature of ultra religious people), most of the characters are more fully realized than one sees in a detective novel. We get narration from servants. We see ex-convicts treated well rather than with complete suspicion. The novel itself has the typical Victorian racism and sexism, but I think the women rise above it as best they can. Better than I typically see in many novels.
The book itself starts off VERY slow. I will admit, I almost returned it to the library, and the diamond wasn't yet stolen. Betteridge does tend to ramble a bit. But once the diamond turns up missing and the investigation starts, I was very compelled. It took me a week and a break book to get through the first 94 pages. It took me another week to read 495 pages.
Read for my Classics Club Spin.
I read this many moons ago, but you’ve summed up what I remember about it perfectly! I’d like to reread it one day - reading Collins in chronological order might be something I’d like to do.
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