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The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins


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How would you rate this book? (Please remember to tell us why in the thread!)  

2 members have voted

  1. 1. How would you rate this book? (Please remember to tell us why in the thread!)

    • 5/5 - Top-notch!
      0
    • 4/5 - Excellent.
      2
    • 3/5 - Pretty good, actually.
      2
    • 2/5 - Okay, but nothing too amazing.
      0
    • 1/5 - Dull, dull and dull.
      0
    • 0/5 - Total waste of time!
      0


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Sorry this is a bit late!

 

So, for September's Classic Circle read we had The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

 

Blurb: The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. T. S. Eliot famously described THE MOONSTONE as 'the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels'.

 

IT IS ASSUMED YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK BEFORE READING THIS THREAD, THEREFORE SPOILER TAGS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN USED IN ORDER TO FASCILITATE EASIER AND MORE OPEN DISCUSSION

 

 

Some questions to get the discussion going. Do not that you are not required to answer all or even any of these if there's another point you wish to discuss. These are just to get you started.

 

1) How do you think this differed from more contemporary detective novels? How was it similar?

2) Was there any points you struggled with, and why were they difficult for you?

3) Have you read any other books in this genre (classic crime) or by this author? Did this book make you want to read more, and if so, why?

4) What were your expectations when you started this book and were you proven right or wrong?

5) Was there something, a character, a stylistic trick by the author, an event in the book that made an impression on you? If so, what was is and why did it impress you? If not, where did it go wrong?

 

Let the discussion begin!

 

*disclaimer* The questions may be way off, as I have not read the book.

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Synopsis from Amazon:

The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been brought to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, on Rachel's cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and on Rachel herself. The phlegmatic Sergeant Cuff is called in, and with the help ofBetteredge, the Robinson Crusoe-reading loquacious steward, the mystery of the missing stone is ingeniously solved.

This was a very good crime novel. The Moonstone is an expensive diamond that is left to Rachel Verrinder. After receiving it she puts it into a cabinet in her bedroom. During the night the Moonstone is stolen. Everyone is suspected. The story is narrated by different people who all give accounts of events that unfolded since the robbery. Suspects frequently change and there are some very clever detective tricks used to solve the crime.

I enjoyed this book but I did think it was a bit long at times. I found it interesting how Collins viewed women - as lesser than men and how he uses religion - as a lifestyle that dominates some and irritates others. I really enjoyed the narrators changing - I found it influenced who I thought did it, and as it turns out, I was wrong. I found this style of writing threw me off the scent.

I was not particularly fond of any of the characters. All of them had flaws which I found a little annoying, such as Betteredge and his obsession with Robinson Crusoe. However I still enjoyed this book because I was eager to find out who did it, and how they pulled it off. This book had me gripped.

I thought this was a great crime novel. I think it is just as sophisticated as modern crime novels, even though the police did not have modern technologies to help them. There was still the element of who-done-it and there was all the aspects of a crime book, with death, mystery and suspicion.

This is well worth reading.

8/10

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I have no recollection if I voted for this or not but it's very likely considering I have it on my shelf. I wasn't able to get it read before the beginning of the month, but I do intend starting it in the next week or so. :irked:

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I didn't vote because I didn't know if I would get a chance to read it, but I am really glad I did. I found it a gripping read because my suspicions kept changing, I was never completely sure who did it

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have made a start on this, but I've only read about 50 pages, and with other commitments, I don't think I'll be finishing it this month. However, I have enjoyed what I've read, and as a classic, I'm finding it accessible so far. I'm intrigued by the characters I've been introduced to, and even though I'm still clearly in the scene-setting opening, there's already clues and snippets of information being laid down, and I definitely want to find out how the story progresses.

 

I think I read somewhere that this was the first ever detective novel written in English, and it's amazing to think that so many books have been written subsequently in this style.

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Just finished this. Although it took me quite a while to read, I am glad I did get to do so. The plot is really strange - and very complicated :motz: It is quite different to a plot which would be written now, and the actions of the characters involved are all very different to what they would be in this day and age.

What I found difficult to accept is the long roundabout way any course of action seems to take. In this day and age, we take a decision, and we carry it out. Here it seems as if any decisions have to be examined, pulled apart and re - built before anything is done at all.

While reading this book, I suspected two people, one of which was the culprit. :smile2: However I could not imagine how the person pulled it off, and when I read the account of how it was done, I would never have thought it in a hundred years :D

Over all, it was a pretty good read, actually.

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  • 3 years later...

Sorry, I'm waking up this long-ago thread!

 

I completed The Moonstone a couple of days a ago - and thought I'd like to see a discussion thread - and this came up in the search.

 

I really liked the book (and I were rating on 5 it will be a 4) - and I enjoyed both the suspense and the Victorian characters - Betteredge and Rachel Verinder being favourites.

I have read The Woman in White and now look forward to reading his other books.

 

I'm still only up to page 90, but I'm still enjoying it. Hoping to have time for a reading session tomorrow.

chesil, Did you eventually complete it? :)

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:blush: No, I didn't. I did get about half way through, but just didn't pick it up again for ages and ended up giving it away to the charity shop. It is, however, a Kindle free ebook, so maybe I'll download it at some point and try again. :dunno:

Aww chesil - didn't mean to pressurise you!

You pick it up whenever you're in the mood for a classic - else it'll probably be a chore!

:)

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