A review by karaklos
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
4.0
When I started The Moonstone I immediately thought I was going to hate it. The opening of the story with the Indian legend of the moonstone was not piquing my interest. Fortunately the servant Gabriel Betteredge took over and things improved greatly.
The moonstone is a diamond stolen by a Brit and given to his niece Rachel on her birthday to cause trouble. The diamond is worth 20,000£ in the mid 1850’s which seems like an extraordinary sum for the time. Rachel pins the diamond like a brooch to her dress (someone needs to explain to me how this was possible with such a large diamond). The moonstone is subsequently stolen and her cousin Franklin asks everyone present at the time to give their full accounting of the day to track down the thief.
The book is divided into individual character narratives which provides unreliable pieces of the puzzle, drawing out the story. The character development was done really well with many funny lines and thoughts; however, the individuals had so much nonsense in their narratives that it became boring at times.
The mystery is quite good and I especially enjoyed the Sergeant Cuff character. I couldn’t figure out why he was retired from the story halfway through.
The story was unnecessarily long with uneven pacing. There were parts that were slow and mundane and others I zipped through.
Despite the many lines of men giving their opinion of women being senseless creatures, Collins portrayed the women in the story as smart, observant, and more knowledgeable than the men. Anyone with dark skin in the story was immediately not trustworthy to the characters; however, Collins made them sympathetic characters and showed their worth.
Now I have to read Robinson Crusoe.
The moonstone is a diamond stolen by a Brit and given to his niece Rachel on her birthday to cause trouble. The diamond is worth 20,000£ in the mid 1850’s which seems like an extraordinary sum for the time. Rachel pins the diamond like a brooch to her dress (someone needs to explain to me how this was possible with such a large diamond). The moonstone is subsequently stolen and her cousin Franklin asks everyone present at the time to give their full accounting of the day to track down the thief.
The book is divided into individual character narratives which provides unreliable pieces of the puzzle, drawing out the story. The character development was done really well with many funny lines and thoughts; however, the individuals had so much nonsense in their narratives that it became boring at times.
The mystery is quite good and I especially enjoyed the Sergeant Cuff character. I couldn’t figure out why he was retired from the story halfway through.
The story was unnecessarily long with uneven pacing. There were parts that were slow and mundane and others I zipped through.
Despite the many lines of men giving their opinion of women being senseless creatures, Collins portrayed the women in the story as smart, observant, and more knowledgeable than the men. Anyone with dark skin in the story was immediately not trustworthy to the characters; however, Collins made them sympathetic characters and showed their worth.
Now I have to read Robinson Crusoe.