The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics)
by William Wilkie Collins
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of The Moonstone.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1421)
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Keely by:
Ama
Perhaps it is not surprising that I managed to guess the 'whom', if not the how of this prototype mystery. What may be somewhat of a surprise is that this did not make the book seem tedious, nor did it become a plodding step-by-step towards inevitability like many mysteries are.
Like The Virginian, this predecessor of a genre never seems to fall into the same traps as its innumerable followers. Indeed, with both these books, the focus its...more
Like The Virginian, this predecessor of a genre never seems to fall into the same traps as its innumerable followers. Indeed, with both these books, the focus its...more
Like this review?
yes
(3 people liked it)
2 comments
Read in September, 2007
The Moonstone, published in 1868, occupies an important place in the history of the crime novel. Wilkie Collins certainly didn’t the invent the detective story, but he was one of its earliest exponents and the huge success of his “sensation novels” such as The Woman in White and The Moonstone helped to create the market for this genre, and thus contributed to the detective fiction boom of the late 19th century. The Moonstone is more than just a crime story. C...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
Lauren's review and Anna's comment let me know I'd probably like this book. I have to say I found it far better than I expected even with those recommendations.
The Moonstone is a detective novel with somewhere around eleven detectives--each piecing together their own small part and only in their sharing, contrasting, and comparing does the whole picture become available to the reader. The book moves from tense to funny with great ease, and for a while it feels like it might be a drawing room...more
The Moonstone is a detective novel with somewhere around eleven detectives--each piecing together their own small part and only in their sharing, contrasting, and comparing does the whole picture become available to the reader. The book moves from tense to funny with great ease, and for a while it feels like it might be a drawing room...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
Okay, I'm going to go out there with that five star rating just to motivate everyone who might possibly want to read a mid 19th century novel to GO READ THIS NOVEL, like, now, rather than sort of, y'know, someday, which is when I myself usually read mid-19th century novels that aren't actually in my dissertation.
This book: it's super good. It's witty and the characters are great and the plot is super satisfying. There are couple of dodgy not-fully-narratively-developed things towa...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this one. It was chosen for book club (something I have yet to attend but really hope to one day) and it is a classic. I tend to have unfair biases against classics but almost always end up liking them (you would think this would lead me to let go of that bias, but not so much). So basically I just thought it was a really fun detective novel. Collins has various narrators throughout who tell different parts of the story, which keeps it interesting and the story...more
Like this review?
yes
3 comments
Read in October, 2004
The best book I ever read for a literature class. I know that Collins had Woman in White put on his epitaph, but I happen to think this story surpasses it. But then, I've always been a softie for a good detective story. Collins can somehow manage to fill a book with a variety of narrators and maintain the individuality and captivation of each one. I suppose if I had to find fault with the book, is that at times the aspect of the three Hindu priests feels contrived; their reappearance...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
Loved the ending. Not your classical good guys win, bad guys die, but a little bit more sophisticated.
I never knew (before now) that Wilkie Collins was one of Arthur Canon Doyle's inspirations.
The book is a bit slow, but that's one of the pleasures in reading victorian books - taking the time to enjoy them properly. After all, they were written at a time when they were *supposed* to be time consuming.
I also didn't like the general attitude towards servants, showing them as lowly all of t...more
I never knew (before now) that Wilkie Collins was one of Arthur Canon Doyle's inspirations.
The book is a bit slow, but that's one of the pleasures in reading victorian books - taking the time to enjoy them properly. After all, they were written at a time when they were *supposed* to be time consuming.
I also didn't like the general attitude towards servants, showing them as lowly all of t...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Hmmmmm. I chose this book for my book group and wanted to like it. But in the end, I thought it was rather...meh.
I liked the parts told by Franklin Blake and Ezra Jennings and (surprisingly) enjoyed the part narrated by Miss Clack (although I kept wanting to whap her one upside the head). There was too much told by Betteredge (although I was amused by his devotion to Robinson Crusoe). The section he narrated often seemed like an unending monotone speech. I think what bothered me was tha...more
I liked the parts told by Franklin Blake and Ezra Jennings and (surprisingly) enjoyed the part narrated by Miss Clack (although I kept wanting to whap her one upside the head). There was too much told by Betteredge (although I was amused by his devotion to Robinson Crusoe). The section he narrated often seemed like an unending monotone speech. I think what bothered me was tha...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
What a strange book...
I started with an open mind... read a little and thought of ending my relationship with it... I carried on and actually started to enjoy it ... quite a bit actually... and then - all of a sudden - I started to dislike it again.... yet I finished it and have to say that it really was no more than simply OK.
I'm struggling to give it a decent review... it was simply too full of stuff and nonesense... yet at the same time was a little intriguing... but still not quite e...more
I started with an open mind... read a little and thought of ending my relationship with it... I carried on and actually started to enjoy it ... quite a bit actually... and then - all of a sudden - I started to dislike it again.... yet I finished it and have to say that it really was no more than simply OK.
I'm struggling to give it a decent review... it was simply too full of stuff and nonesense... yet at the same time was a little intriguing... but still not quite e...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in February, 2008
The Moonstone seemed to have an interesting plot, and I do enjoy mystery stories; however, I think the limited time constraints I had to read this contributed to my inability to read and absorb all of the details. This is a story with multiple narrators, and therefore, multiple voices. My favorite voice was that of Gabriel Betteredge, especially his critique of his relationship with his deceased wife. One of the interesting pieces of the plot was Wilkie Collins' ability to tie in the British col...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
jilted lovers and bizzzitches
Now that I've interested you with my token "rap" term, The Moonstone is a lovely novel: very placed in its own time, a sort of historic record, and a true classic all the same. I had a problem in high school when I finally got around to reading Jane Eyre and that was my, "FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU" reaction to it. Normally a peaceful person, I really enjoy that the female characters have such a dichotomy and the imagery in this novel is luscious...it's like sexual chocolate!...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2007
This was a very enjoyable book... The characters were all well-developed and quite entertaining in unique ways... And the mystery of the disappearance of the Moonstone kept me interested all the way through... I also enjoyed the way the story was told, using narratives, letters, and diaries from several of the different characters involved in the progression of the story... Each had her or his own storytelling style and kept the reading fresh... I must admit to a bit of a crush on old Betteredge...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1990
recommends it for:
mystery readers
Supposedly the first ever mystery novel. Told from the viewpoint of multiple characters, this is the story of a cursed gem brought to England from India, and given as a birthday gift, only to disappear.
Sleepwalking, a trio of mysterious turban-wearing Indians, forbidding sea cliffs, shifting sands, and a butler who loves Robinson Crusoe. What could be better! An excellent alternative to Dickens. The Woman in White is really good, too.
Sleepwalking, a trio of mysterious turban-wearing Indians, forbidding sea cliffs, shifting sands, and a butler who loves Robinson Crusoe. What could be better! An excellent alternative to Dickens. The Woman in White is really good, too.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
people interested in the history of the "mystery" genre, people who enjoy british literature
I was delighted to find this and when I read it I devoured it. It is a well-written mystery with fleshed-out characters and an unconventional narrative structure. What more can a girl ask for? Collins' other novel, "The Woman in White", is just as good. For a 19th-Century Brit Lit enthusiast, these are perfect vacation books, especially if that vacation happens to include being curled up by the fireplace reading well into the night.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in June, 2007
I really enjoyed this book. The only mark against it is that it is long (almost 500 pages) which made it hard to wade through given the 19th century English writing - it definitely drug in parts. That said, it provides a great cast of humorous characters (I read the parts narrated by the servant and the poor cousin Miss Clack with a smile on my face almost the entire time) and an intriguing plot complete with mystery, romance and drug addiction. Definitely recommend for anyone who likes this ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
The author of Moonstone, Wilkie Collins, was a friend of Charles Dickens and reads like Dickens...
TS Eliot hailed Moonstone as "the first, the longest, and the best of Modern English detective novels"
It is a mystery and a Victorian area, early example of the detective genre.. Collins uses multiple narrators to tell the story. the role of opium in the novel and in Wilkie Collins life are also of note
I enjoyed this book.. If you want something to read and not in a hurry this is a n
TS Eliot hailed Moonstone as "the first, the longest, and the best of Modern English detective novels"
It is a mystery and a Victorian area, early example of the detective genre.. Collins uses multiple narrators to tell the story. the role of opium in the novel and in Wilkie Collins life are also of note
I enjoyed this book.. If you want something to read and not in a hurry this is a n
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2007
I've always enjoyed mysteries and the Moonstone is one of those books which doesn't give away the mystery at the start of the tale. It's the story of a cursed diamond stolen from the statue of a hindu shrine which is left to a young english woman. The diamond is subsequently stolen, and as a result there's suicide, love lost, love found and a series of accounts given from various characters of the events which occured before, during and after the theft, and no I won't tell you who it was!
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
This book was enjoyable. However, the section by Miss Clack was catastrophic, and her horrid display of Christianity was really entirely unnecessary to the story. If i read it again, it's just skip that chapeter entirely. Collins' other work "The Woman in White" was more enjoyable without the negative tone toward Christianity.
Voted #7 of 100 best mysteries of all time by Mystery Writers of America (www.mysterywriters.org) and see also World Magazine January 12/19, 2008, pg. 27).
Voted #7 of 100 best mysteries of all time by Mystery Writers of America (www.mysterywriters.org) and see also World Magazine January 12/19, 2008, pg. 27).
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2006
This book is a detective story about a precious stone that was stolen at a birthday party. The theft happens right under our noses, but ends up being completely different from what we expected. It took me a while to read this book, partially because it is pretty long, and partially because I was required to keep a double-entry journal of every chapter. I really enjoyed this book a lot. I don't often read mystery stories, but I would like to think this one is up there with the best.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
detective novel lovers
My girlfriend told me that she once neeeds to read this book in her form one secondary school, and I couldn't believe that. As I'm studying law now, I wonder if the leading man in the novel can raise the defence as lacking the mens rea (sane automatism? involuntary intoxication leads to automatism?). Also, I don't think you can demostrate the sleep-walking episode like the one described in the book after so long a period of time of the accomplished thievery.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.94 (1193 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.95 (914 ratings) number of reviews: 166popular shelves
other editions
quote
"At the age when we are all of us most apt to take our colouring, in the form of a reflection from the colouring of other people, he had been sent abroad, and had been passed on from one nation to another, before there was time for any one colouring more than another to settle itself on him firmly. As a consequence of this, he had come back with so many different sides to his character, all more or less jarring with each other, that he seemed to pass his life in a state of perpetual contradiction with himself. He could be a busy man, and a lazy man; cloudy in the head, and clear in the head; a model of determination, and a spectacle of helplessness, all together. He had his French side, and his German side, and his Italian side--the original English foundation showing through, every now and then, as much as to say, "Here I am, sorely transmogrified, as you see, but there's something of me left at the bottom of him still." "
more quotes »