The Moonstone (Wordsworth Classics) (Wordsworth Classics)
by William "Wilkie" Collins
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2316)
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
(4 people liked it)
1 comments
Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Corinne, Valeriane
Je suis raide d’admiration pour Wilkie Collins, la chose est définitive. Déjà émerveillée par La dame en blanc, je suis ici subjuguée par tant de virtuosité. Moi qui ne raffole pas du genre désuet des “whodunnit“, mais qui suis plutôt attirée par les thrillers/polars et autres intrigues glauques et noires, me voici conquise. L’histoire est simple, un diamant hors norme est légué à une jeune fille pour son anniversaire. La nuit même, il disparait. L’histoire sera racontée...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in December, 2005
One of the earliest examples of Detective or Sensation Fiction, The Moonstone does not disappoint for strong narrative or intriguing characters. The novel is essentially epistolary, with four or five main characters all recording their knowledge of the famous eponymous, stolen from India by a British soldier and rumored to be cursed. Although Collins does not use the multiple narrators to establish multiple viewpoints of a similar scene, he does establish a certain amount of cynical dista...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in August, 2008
Though the story doesn't really get moving until page 100, I enjoyed "The Moonstone." It's a bit reminiscent of "Rashomon," Akira Kurosawa's tale of rape and murder told from a variety of viewpoints. Not that we see a crime committed from different views but the novel is a series of "narratives" composed by both principals and a couple of peripheral characters, all of whom interpret the crime and what follows in a variety of ways.
Like many a 19th century novel, ...more
Like many a 19th century novel, ...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
(1 person liked it)
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
This novel is mainly around an ancient Indian diamond which seems to bring disaster to a person who owns it. Rachel Verinder’s uncle, John Herncastle, with the purpose of bringing disaster to the Lady Verinder. Franklin Blake is a person who delivers the diamond to Rachel, and also her lover. On the night of Rachel’s birthday, Godfrey Ablewhite wants to propose for marriage with Rachel but she refused because she loves Franklin. After that, Rachel wore the diamond during the dinner, and...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2008
I read this book for the first time over 5 years ago. I loved it, but several years later couldn't remember much more about it other than that. Decided to reread it after putting down what I thought was a poor example of a Victorian thriller/suspense novel (The Dark Lantern), and I'm glad I did. It was a commitment though- this book is loooooong! Totally worth it though, and interesting to think about what it must have been like to have something like this to read before TV came along. It was or...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
This is my first attempt at reading a book via DailyLit.com. It's a service that sends you a book in daily/weekly/bi-weekly installments in your email so you get regular 5 to 10 minute excerpts. The stated audience is people who don't read books regularly but read their email all the time, which is pretty much my exact opposite. Still, it seems like an interesting idea worth giving a try. I figure it might work well for certain authors I don't do well with in large doses; I've never loved Di...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
This was amazing. I believe it is the ur-country-house-British-mystery. I loved the different narrators, I loved the plotting, the settings, the characters --- tremendous all around.
I had listened to and enjoyed The Woman in White, but this was even better. For one thing it is very funny in spots. I adored Betteredge who dips into his beloved Robinson Crusoe whenever he feels low. And also Drusilla Clack who goes about leaving tracts wherever she can. (Loved the response of a cab driver...more
I had listened to and enjoyed The Woman in White, but this was even better. For one thing it is very funny in spots. I adored Betteredge who dips into his beloved Robinson Crusoe whenever he feels low. And also Drusilla Clack who goes about leaving tracts wherever she can. (Loved the response of a cab driver...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in April, 2008
Novel #4 for my 19th Century British Novel class. It's considered the first detective novel, so I guess that's why it was on the syllabus, but I wasn't that impressed. The characters are totally flat, and I didn't find the mystery itself that thrilling. The thing that bothered me the most about the plot was how the novel begins with a detective investigating the scene of the crime. This drags on forever, and while it does give you background information, it does not unravel it in the most suspen...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Romantics
My pleasant surprise turned into less than pleasant feelings as I finished this book. The ending was somewhat unexpected but I felt it was underdeveloped and abrupt. I wouldn't call this a mystery, I would consider it a romance with a slight bit of mystery thrown in.
As of Halfway Through:
Still reading this book and I am pleasantly surprised so far. The length of the book led me to wonder how effective the mystery was going to be across all the different sections. The book is not ...more
As of Halfway Through:
Still reading this book and I am pleasantly surprised so far. The length of the book led me to wonder how effective the mystery was going to be across all the different sections. The book is not ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Have been listening to the Moonstone via LibriVox, which uses volunteers to record public domain books. I have enjoyed the book as well as the quality of the recordings. I may just not be that picky, but the large number of voices who recorded separate chapters, as well as the often foreign accents, have added to the pleasure of this earliest of mystery novels. The mystery is not too mysterious (though it involves an ominous Indian diamond), but the use of separate narrators makes the story c...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
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 June, 2008
Very pleasant read. Engaging and entertaining characters of all sorts. Everyone's a suspect and everyone's a detective, just as they should be.
It wouldn't be fair to say say I solved it in advance, as that would ignore all the people I falsely convicted along the way. Collins leads you to suspect just about every major character at different times. And, either by force of habit or good detecting, you have to suspect everyone, even those not explictly implicated by Collins at one point or...more
It wouldn't be fair to say say I solved it in advance, as that would ignore all the people I falsely convicted along the way. Collins leads you to suspect just about every major character at different times. And, either by force of habit or good detecting, you have to suspect everyone, even those not explictly implicated by Collins at one point or...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
My dad has given me a book for Christmas every year. He gave me this over 10 years ago. He was very enthusiastic about it and I wanted to please him so I tried to read it. I couldn't get past the first page. Then about 5 years later I picked this book up again and I couldn't put it down. This is *the* quintessential Victorian mystery novel with olorful characters, intricate language, elaborate plots, and bizarre coincidences. Amazing insight into Victorian attitudes about race, gender, and ...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
