Keely's review
The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics)
by William Wilkie Collins
Keely, I have a copy of this "fine novel that happens to be a mystery" but have not read it yet (although I HAVE read "The Woman in White" and enjoyed it). I am looking forward to "The Moonstone" even more now after reading your review. Well done.
P.S. As a purely aesthetic aside, the cover of the copy I own is not NEARLY as nice as this one.
Mine's a used copy in blue with no dust jacket from a college bookstore. I'm just glad nothing was underlined. Not so lucky with my copy of 'The Sadean Woman'.
Keely's review
The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics) by William Wilkie Collins
Keely's review
rating:
bookshelves:
mystery,
novel
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 itself becomes something entirely different than the obsession it inculcates in others.
Though this book certainly contains a mystery, a set of clues and twists, and a brilliant detective, the focus is not on these but on the characters themselves. Firstly, there is the fact that the book is narrated in sections by different observers and participants. Secondly, there is the fact that the chief mover of the entire series of events is never the mystery itself, but the maddening effect that the un...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 itself becomes something entirely different than the obsession it inculcates in others.
Though this book certainly contains a mystery, a set of clues and twists, and a brilliant detective, the focus is not on these but on the characters themselves. Firstly, there is the fact that the book is narrated in sections by different observers and participants. Secondly, there is the fact that the chief mover of the entire series of events is never the mystery itself, but the maddening effect that the un...more
Keely, I have a copy of this "fine novel that happens to be a mystery" but have not read it yet (although I HAVE read "The Woman in White" and enjoyed it). I am looking forward to "The Moonstone" even more now after reading your review. Well done.
P.S. As a purely aesthetic aside, the cover of the copy I own is not NEARLY as nice as this one.
Mine's a used copy in blue with no dust jacket from a college bookstore. I'm just glad nothing was underlined. Not so lucky with my copy of 'The Sadean Woman'.