The Moonstone in Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)

Jun 24, 2011 Franky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, mystery, 2019-reading-challenge, crime, victorian, favorites, reread

Coming back to and re-reading Wilkie Collin’s The Moonstone is like coming back to an old friend. I was introduced to this author and novel years ago, and I have been pretty hooked on reading Collins ever since. Although Collins has many other brilliant longer novels (No Name, Armadale, The Woman in White), The Moonstone is probably the best known of the bunch. At the root of The Moonstone is a mysterious and highly sought after diamond.

Although classified as sensationalist fiction and certainl Coming back to and re-reading Wilkie Collin’s The Moonstone is like coming back to an old friend. I was introduced to this author and novel years ago, and I have been pretty hooked on reading Collins ever since. Although Collins has many other brilliant longer novels (No Name, Armadale, The Woman in White), The Moonstone is probably the best known of the bunch. At the root of The Moonstone is a mysterious and highly sought after diamond.

Although classified as sensationalist fiction and certainly guilty pleasure (with are both accurate), I think The Moonstone is much more than that. T.S. Eliot quoted The Moonstone as being “the best of modern English detective novels”, and, one could read this book and see ties to how the popular detective novels took shape from this book. Lofty words indeed from Eliot, but I think in many ways The Moonstone lives up to those words.

One of the finer aspects of Collins’ novel is his creation of mood and suspense from the opening pages. When the aforementioned diamond is mysteriously and inexplicable stolen, it sets forth quite a mystery at hand. Collins manages to keep the momentum of the intrigue going largely through a brilliant manner of having multiple narrators and points of view. Each of these characters sheds light on the events and happenings and their perspective of the mystery. From Gabriel Betteridge to Miss Clack to Mathew Bruff to Franklin Blake to Sergeant Cuff and others, we get a sense of what is taking place and each character adds something new to the previous one. I think this heightens the suspense and level of intrigue as we get closer and closer to unmasking of the puzzle and mystery—and culprit.

The Moonstone has a bit of everything—romance, mystery, curses, murders, experiments, clues, detectives, unexplainable events, humor, wit, and very engaging characters.

Reading this again was almost like reading it for the first time. The Moonstone is definitely one of my favorites. There’s a good deal of cleverness and originality in how Collins sets up and constructs the mystery and then puts everything together.

If you read this novel and love it as much as I did you might try some of Collins’ other longer works, the aforementioned No Name, Armadale or The Woman in White.

Highly entertaining read and I dare use the old cliché “a page turner.”
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Oct 11, 2013 Katy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, classics

What a fun mystery. I loved the characters and the different POVs in the story. Great writing & a delightful read for early summer.

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Apr 19, 2013 Melanti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, classics, mystery, audiobook, 2013

I'm not a huge cozy mystery fan, but I really enjoyed this novel.

I loved Betteridge and Miss Clack. The Robinson Crusoe references were hilarious (even though I personally didn't care for the book) as was Miss Clack's constant proselytizing. ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Niki rated it it was amazing

Although I did find this to be a page-turner once I get into it, I did struggle at first to find it as such. I am so glad I was able to persevere though. Many times since i have found myself chuckling at what I realize is a "Moonstone" reference. I admire Mr.Collins creativity in starting a genre which then became a long-standing favorite. ...more

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