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Title: The Moonstone (Modern Library Classsics) by Wilkie Collins, Carolyn G. Heilbrun ISBN: 0-375-75785-6 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 11 September, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (46 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: No CATEGORIZATION for this unique novel.
Comment: Whatever I say would not be enough to make you understand how I loose myself when reading this detective story.Actually this was my first try at a book written in that manner. But more or less I know Holmes' way of presenting crime and mysterious events. Moonstone goes far beyond the limit of these cliche detective scope and reaches to your hearts with its seven different characters;all narrating their own side of the story centering on an oriental myth of a sacred gem. There is the historical background, the emotional diologues, and finally the inevitable conciseness in language while dictating the action, just like in all detective stories. Wilkie Collins' touch can be seized when you go deep into characters such as Ezra Jennings. There is lot of things to be explored and make fun of! Don't be afraid of the length and page number:). When you follow the moonstone in its journey to home, you WILL DISCOVER OTHER THINGS SUCH AS LOVE, HUMAN SUFFERING other than the war given for the priceless Indian DiamOnd.
Best Wishes On Your Journey Whoever You Are Wherever You ARE!
Rating: 5
Summary: What a Gem!
Comment: Just finished The Moonstone not five minuets ago. I am still reeling from the effect of its greatness! Really, how can anybody consider this novel tedious is beyond me, this is riveting stuff! What raises this novel above the level of all the other detective novels I have read, is the characterization. Wilkie Collins created a fascinating class of characters here. Usually in a detective novel the most interesting character is The Great Detective himself, in this role Mr. Collins gave us Sergeant Cuff, who reminds me a little of Inspector Poirot, but the novel does not revolve around him, it revolves around the Moonstone, and the events as seen from the point of view of several characters. Gabriel Betteredge, the sweet, quixotic house-steward being a particular favorite. The plot is complex and mystifying, the pacing is just right, the language is elegant and not at all difficult to read. If you have never read a classic before and would like to be able to boast of at least one title I'd say this is the one. You will have a ripping good time reading it too!
Rating: 5
Summary: An immersive, unforgettable mystery classic
Comment: THE MOONSTONE was the first mystery story, and it in many ways remains one of the most remarkable. Working in the shadow of the Gothic and Romantic literary traditions, Wilkie Collins managed to create something new and unique. Instead of the endless evocation of atmosphere and focusing on sinister villains, Collins focuses instead on a simple mystery and its solution: who stole the diamond known as the Moonstone, and where did it go? But any reader of the novel knows that the mystery is secondary to the exposition and the marvelous parade of characters. It isn't the getting to the resolution of the mystery that is the main thing, but the process of getting there.
One of the great attractions of the novel is the extraordinary style of the writing. Although the first English mystery story, it had not yet devolved into a genre, and Collins was not aware that a mystery story could not also be great literature. As a result, he imbued his characters with enormous charm and give them each a vivid manner in expressing themselves. The multiple narratives by this remarkable characters was a strategy to deal with the problem of authorial point of view. On the one hand, Collins wanted to avoid the omniscient narrator who would know the truth both about each character and about the myster of the fate of the diamond. Collins therefore cast the novel in the form of a succession of narratives by the various participants in the novel. He thereby limits the knowledge of each narrator, but he also is able thereby to provide considerable variation in the style of each narrative. The two most remarkable segments are those by Gabriel Betteridge, House-Steward in the service of Lady Verinder and her cousin Miss Clack, a prim and fervid evangelical Christian whose missionary zeal and prudish moralizing provide many of the funniest moments of the novel. The style of these two could not be more distinct, both from the rest of the narratives and from each other. Miss Clack has constantly to fight a tendency to sermonize. She is apt to turn out passages such as: "A thundering knock at the street door startled us all. I looked through the window, and saw the World the Flesh, and the Devil waiting before the house--as typified in a carriage and horses, a powdered footman, and three of the most audaciously dressed women I ever beheld in my life." Betteridge, on the other hand, is solid, practical, a tad parochial, but ferociously loyal to his employer. For him the good life consists of a good pipe and a copy of ROBINSON CRUSOE at hand. If one laughs a bit at Miss Clack, the reader comes to thoroughly like Betteredge. Between the two of them, their narrative occupy more than half the novel. The others are also quite enjoyable, but not to the degree that these two are.
THE MOONSTONE is a page turner, which is to say that it is a delight to read. One wants to read quickly both because each page is such a joy and because one wants to discover what happens next. The characters are mainly enjoyable, but like so many authors his eccentric characters are far more memorable and enjoyable than his central characters. Betteredge, Miss Clack, and Sgt. Cuff far outstrip the "hero" of the book, who while a good citizen, is from a literary point of view a tad boring.
I can agree with those readers who consider THE WOMAN IN WHITE a better book, but this is another of those comparisons that are odious. The book is so enjoyable, fun, and memorable that I can't imagine any reader lamenting during the course of its pages that they weren't reading the other book instead.
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Title: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins ISBN: 055321263X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1985 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: No Name (Oxford World's Classics) by Wilkie Collins, Virginia Blain ISBN: 019283388X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Armadale (Penguin Classics) by Wilkie Collins, John Sutherland ISBN: 0140434119 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins ISBN: 0486243338 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1982 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins ISBN: 0486237753 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 February, 1979 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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