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The Moonstone
Wilkie Collins’s spellbinding tale of romance, theft, and murder inspired a hugely popular genre–the detective mystery. Hinging on the theft of an enormous diamond originally stolen from an Indian shrine, this riveting novel features the innovative Sergeant Cuff, the hilarious house steward Gabriel Betteridge, a lovesick housemaid, and a mysterious band of Indian jugglers.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871 edition.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive 1871 edition.
528 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1868
About the author
Wilkie Collins
1,806 books2,524 followersA close friend of Charles Dickens from their meeting in March 1851 until Dickens' death in June 1870, William Wilkie Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and, for a time, best paid of Victorian fiction writers. But after his death, his reputation declined as Dickens' bloomed.
Now, Collins is being given more critical and popular attention than he has received for 50 years. Most of his books are in print, and all are now in e-text. He is studied widely; new film, television, and radio versions of some of his books have been made; and all of his letters have been published. However, there is still much to be discovered about this superstar of Victorian fiction.
Born in Marylebone, London in 1824, Collins' family enrolled him at the Maida Hill Academy in 1835, but then took him to France and Italy with them between 1836 and 1838. Returning to England, Collins attended Cole's boarding school, and completed his education in 1841, after which he was apprenticed to the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. in the Strand.
In 1846, Collins became a law student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1851, although he never practised. It was in 1848, a year after the death of his father, that he published his first book, 'The Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A'., to good reviews.
The 1860s saw Collins' creative high-point, and it was during this decade that he achieved fame and critical acclaim, with his four major novels, 'The Woman in White' (1860), 'No Name' (1862), 'Armadale' (1866) and 'The Moonstone' (1868). 'The Moonstone', is seen by many as the first true detective novel T. S. Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels ..." in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe.
Now, Collins is being given more critical and popular attention than he has received for 50 years. Most of his books are in print, and all are now in e-text. He is studied widely; new film, television, and radio versions of some of his books have been made; and all of his letters have been published. However, there is still much to be discovered about this superstar of Victorian fiction.
Born in Marylebone, London in 1824, Collins' family enrolled him at the Maida Hill Academy in 1835, but then took him to France and Italy with them between 1836 and 1838. Returning to England, Collins attended Cole's boarding school, and completed his education in 1841, after which he was apprenticed to the tea merchants Antrobus & Co. in the Strand.
In 1846, Collins became a law student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1851, although he never practised. It was in 1848, a year after the death of his father, that he published his first book, 'The Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A'., to good reviews.
The 1860s saw Collins' creative high-point, and it was during this decade that he achieved fame and critical acclaim, with his four major novels, 'The Woman in White' (1860), 'No Name' (1862), 'Armadale' (1866) and 'The Moonstone' (1868). 'The Moonstone', is seen by many as the first true detective novel T. S. Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels ..." in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe.
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September 13, 2020
The Moonstone, generally recognized as the first detective novel (despite the appearance of The Notting Hill Mystery a few years before), is not only a work of historical importance but also a work that transcends the genre it created, in the artfulness of its plotting, in its compassionate depiction of servants, and in its enlightened resolution of the theme of the British Empire, its crimes and their consequences.
Not that I wish to minimize its historical importance. The Moonstone is the first—certainly the first fully-formed—detective novel, and it contains within that great “first” a number of little “firsts”: the first English country house mystery featuring a large guest list of suspects, the first crew of bumbling local policemen mucking about in the evidence, the first detective genius distinguished by an unlikely hobby, the first small, suggestive physical clue (a smear on the bottom of a newly-painted door), the first effective “red herrings” (I counted at least two), the first attempt at a precise reenactment of the crime at its original scene, and the first pursuit of a disguised criminal through the streets of a major city.
But it is the plot, which uses all these “firsts” to great advantage, that both astonishes and pleases the reader. The Moonstone is at least three times the length of the average detective novel, and yet it sustains interest and maintains credibility throughout its many twists. turns, and asides. Its plot reminds me of the melody line of Bellini's “Casta Diva,” which strikes the ear as a thing of incomparable elegance, but never calls to mind—except upon later reflection—either its own extraordinary length or the expert craftsmanship such seamless length requires.
Also impressive is Collins' sympathetic depiction of the English servant class. Steward and Butler Gabriel Betteredge is a marvelous comic character, memorable for his daily readings of Robinson Crusoe, which he reveres as a source of divination and practical guidance. But Betteredge is also the essentially reliable narrator of half the novel, and, as we learn of the events on the Verinder estate through his eyes and ears, we grow to love and trust him as a good man and an intelligent observer. Also noteworthy is Collins' presentation of Roseanna, the servant girl with a deformed shoulder and a criminal past. Collins treats her with dignity, neither as a comic grotesque nor as an object of simple pity, but as fully human person with a unique, blighted destiny.
But perhaps my favorite thing about the book is Collins' use of “The Moonstone” itself, that great diamond snatched from a Hindu shrine by the villainous Colonel Herncastle during the Siege of Seringapatam—the 1799 climax to the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War which served to institutionalize English theft under the banner of the British East India Company. It is the second theft of this gem from the Verinder estate that precipitates the events of the novel, but memory of the original crime—and its curse—is never far from the reader, for the Brahmins who wish to return “The Moonstone” to the shrine of Chandra are never far away. At first these shadowy figures appear to be exotic villians, but Collins eventually shows us that the real criminals—both past and present—are the “respectable” English, and he grants his Hindu priests a moving coda. Sure, the ending of the novel is romantic, and exotic. But it is dignified and respectful of other cultures too.
The real reason, however, that you should read The Moonstone is that it endures, after all these years, as a diverting and absorbing entertainment. The first detective novel is still as readable as if it were published today.
February 9, 2019
The Moonstone was published in 1868 and is considered by most people to be the first detective novel. Given the novels place in the history of the genre, that alone should put this book on most people's reading lists. To sweeten the pot, the plot is compelling, the last hundred pages I couldn't have put the book down for anything. I was caught up in the case and wanted to find out the why and the who in the mysterious circumstances surrounding the MOONSTONE.
The novel is narrated by several different people. My favorite was Gabriel Betteredge, the head servant at the Verinder house, who becomes a reluctant Watson for Detective Cuff during the investigation. He is a man convinced in the spiritual guidance of Robinson Crusoe and believes that any disruption in his life can be explained by reading and interpreting passages from his dogeared copy of Defoe's classic.
"In this anxious frame of mind, other men might have ended by working themselves up into a fever; I ended in a different way. I lit my pipe, and took a turn at Robinson Crusoe."
Betteredge is a man of his age and his views on women I found so ridiculous as to actually laugh out loud.
"It is a maxim of mine that men (being superior creatures) are bound to improve women-if they can. When a woman wants me to do anything I always insist on knowing why. The oftener you make them rummage their own minds for a reason, the more manageable you will find them in all the relations of life. It isn't their fault (poor wretches!) that they act first, and think afterwards; it's the fault of the fools who humour them."
Despite his archaic views, Betteredge proves to be a good assistant to the enigmatic Sergeant Cuff. Cuff's eyes had such intensity, "looking as if they expected something more from you than you were aware of yourself." Wilkie Collins based his character Sergeant Cuff on a real celebrated Victorian Detective Inspector Jack Whicher.
Sergeant Cuff is summoned from London to investigate the disappearance of the Moonstone, and despite the reluctance of the household to help him in his investigations, he does come up with a theory (kept from us) that proves in the final pages of the book that he is worthy of his reputation. Cuff is as equally interested in the rose gardens (he has strong opinions) as he is in the crime he is investigating. "grass walkways never gravel" Collins does a great job putting flesh on the bones of the characters. We learn more about every major character than is necessary for the advancement of the plot. By the end of the novel I had the feeling that I was not only closing the cover on a great book, but also leaving behind some dear friends.
Another narrator, that I was not fond of, in fact, she made my skin crawl is Drusilla Clack. A cousin of the family, Drusilla, with her tendency to eavesdrop and make herself in all ways intrusive on her family and "friends" is a born again christian. The novel is set in 1848 and the term born again was not in use until much later, but she fits the profile. She was determined to save everyone and carried about her person tracts of her hero Miss Jane Ann Stamper. Once she has invaded a house she would leave tracts scattered about in places where people would eventually find them, and hopefully receive the edification that Drusilla felt they needed.
She seemed like this on first appearances.
But like Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer she would pounce on people, not for blood, but for a chance to save their immortal souls.
As I have mentioned, all the characters are well developed and Drusilla is no exception. She is a person, that after a previous encounter, you would go to great lengths to keep her from buttonholing you again.
This book delivers. You will not be disappointed. If I read it again I will put on a kettle of good English tea, light some candles, and tuck myself into an armchair, suspending myself as well as I can back into a Victorian age. I had such a great time I will certainly be reading more Wilkie Collins.
"You are welcome to be as merry as you please over everything else I have written. But when I write of Robinson Crusoe, by the Lord it's serious-and I request you to take it accordingly!"
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June 17, 2020
4.5 stars, rounding up, for this 1868 Victorian-era mystery, often considered the first English-language detective novel. Wilkie Collins spins a literary web that starts out slowly but then inexorably pulls you in; I finished the last half of the book in one extended readathon. He has a gift for writing as vastly different characters, who each take a turn telling or writing their part of the story, and a droll, sometimes very sarcastic sense of humor.
In 1799 a British soldier steals a large yellow diamond from a Hindu statute in India, ruthlessly killing three Indian men protecting the statue, and earning himself a curse from one of them in the process. He gets a bad reputation as a result and is shunned by his extended family in England. So when he dies, he leaves the Moonstone to his niece Rachel (whose mother refused to receive him as a guest in her home), knowing he's leaving her not only a 30,000 pound fortune in the jewel, but also a load of potential trouble: there's not just the amorphous curse, but three Indian men who have been following the owners of the Moonstone for years and are determined to steal it back, one way or another.
Rachel's relative Franklin Blake is entrusted with bringing her the diamond for her 18th birthday, and falls in love with her as he gets to know her over several days. The Indians are lurking, looking for their chance to grab their gem. Rachel wears the Moonstone at a dinner party the night of her birthday, puts the jewel in a drawer in her bedroom ... and the next morning it's gone. The odd thing is, it looks like an inside job. The bumbling local police are of little help, and even the renowned outside detective, the estimable Sergeant Cuff, is unable to bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion, though part of the problem is that several people aren't cooperating with him.
Wilkie Collins doesn't try all that hard to hide the villain in the tale, but the "how" is fascinatingly revealed over the last half of the book. I don't think Wilkie was particularly interested in giving readers all of the clues; this isn't really a mystery that is supposed to be solved by readers before the big reveal, in my opinion (the final reveal of exactly what went down that fateful night pretty much comes out of left field, though there are a few clues in the story). He's more interested in telling an exciting story, and he pulls just about everything into the mix: a massive jewel, star-crossed love, people hiding things for their own reasons, a servant with a highly suspicious past, dangerous quicksand, and a loyal servant with an amusing and rather touching devotion to Robinson Crusoe, which he treats as a sort of Bible. Better him than Rachel's cousin Drusilla Clack, an annoying Christian evangelist given to preaching and leaving tracts with titles like "Satan in the Hair Brush" around people's homes!
This proto-detective novel does get a little slow at times - Victorian authors typically weren't in a hurry to tell their stories, especially when they were serialized in magazines, like this one was. But once the storyline really started moving along in the second half I thought it was a great read. Bonus points for handling the Indian subplot in a manner that's unusually sensitive for books written in the Victorian age.
In 1799 a British soldier steals a large yellow diamond from a Hindu statute in India, ruthlessly killing three Indian men protecting the statue, and earning himself a curse from one of them in the process. He gets a bad reputation as a result and is shunned by his extended family in England. So when he dies, he leaves the Moonstone to his niece Rachel (whose mother refused to receive him as a guest in her home), knowing he's leaving her not only a 30,000 pound fortune in the jewel, but also a load of potential trouble: there's not just the amorphous curse, but three Indian men who have been following the owners of the Moonstone for years and are determined to steal it back, one way or another.
Rachel's relative Franklin Blake is entrusted with bringing her the diamond for her 18th birthday, and falls in love with her as he gets to know her over several days. The Indians are lurking, looking for their chance to grab their gem. Rachel wears the Moonstone at a dinner party the night of her birthday, puts the jewel in a drawer in her bedroom ... and the next morning it's gone. The odd thing is, it looks like an inside job. The bumbling local police are of little help, and even the renowned outside detective, the estimable Sergeant Cuff, is unable to bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion, though part of the problem is that several people aren't cooperating with him.
Wilkie Collins doesn't try all that hard to hide the villain in the tale, but the "how" is fascinatingly revealed over the last half of the book. I don't think Wilkie was particularly interested in giving readers all of the clues; this isn't really a mystery that is supposed to be solved by readers before the big reveal, in my opinion (the final reveal of exactly what went down that fateful night pretty much comes out of left field, though there are a few clues in the story). He's more interested in telling an exciting story, and he pulls just about everything into the mix: a massive jewel, star-crossed love, people hiding things for their own reasons, a servant with a highly suspicious past, dangerous quicksand, and a loyal servant with an amusing and rather touching devotion to Robinson Crusoe, which he treats as a sort of Bible. Better him than Rachel's cousin Drusilla Clack, an annoying Christian evangelist given to preaching and leaving tracts with titles like "Satan in the Hair Brush" around people's homes!
This proto-detective novel does get a little slow at times - Victorian authors typically weren't in a hurry to tell their stories, especially when they were serialized in magazines, like this one was. But once the storyline really started moving along in the second half I thought it was a great read. Bonus points for handling the Indian subplot in a manner that's unusually sensitive for books written in the Victorian age.
March 19, 2023
Holy shit! This was actually funny and I was not expecting that at all.
It was a serialized story, so it tends to ramble in places and not wrap up as quickly as it probably would have otherwise. However, it didn't feel tedious or drawn out like some of those stories do. This was truly entertaining. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves locked-door mysteries because this one definitely stands the test of time.
The book is told by four different narrators who have been asked by Franklin Blake to write what they were witnesses to in regard to the crime. Franklin himself had inadvertently become deeply embroiled in the mysterious disappearance of the Moonstone and was looking to record the hijinks for posterity.
My favorite voice is that of Gabriel Betteredge. He's an elderly and much-beloved servant who has been in service to this family all of his life. He's loyal to a fault, and a truly humorous narrator in that grumpy but loveable old man way. The descriptions of his marriage made me laugh out loud, and his certainty that his favorite book, Robinson Crusoe, held the answers to all of life's problems was endearing.
And also made me realize that I need to read Robinson Crusoe.
Drusilla Clack is our second narrator. She's a hilariously accurate busybody who lives her life for the church. She spends her days handing out unwanted Bible tracts, giving unwanted advice, and drooling over Rachel's cousin (and rebuffed suitor), Godfrey Ablewhite. Godfrey is that guy. You know, the one who champions all the women's charities and basks in the worship of all the local spinsters.
Oh god. He's awful but in the absolute best way possible for a story like this.
Collins added in so many funny little extras that I wasn't expecting and they caught me off guard because so many of these older classics tend to be so dry.
For example, Miss Clack annoys one man so much that he starts cursing, then she proceeds to hand him a tract on swearing called Hush for Heaven's Sake. I loved that! Mostly because it makes you realize that people aren't really all that different now than they were back then. It's nice to know that the Drucilla Clacks of the world have always been universally...avoided.
Mr. Bruff is the family's solicitor, loyal champion during some hard times, and the third narrator of the tale. He's not as funny to listen to as the first two narrators, but he's a very likable guy.
You feel like you are getting the real story from him.
Ezra Jennings is the 4th narrator. He's Doctor Candy's foreign assistant with the dark and mysterious past and a heart of gold. This is the guy who's got the clue no one else has and his information may just crack the case wide open.
Each of these people tells what they know through their firsthand experiences with the events surrounding the theft of the Moonstone.
Now, underneath all of this mystery is a love story between a guy, Franklin, who is on the cusp of getting his shit together (but still has a few debts to pay off), and a girl, Rachel, who is so up her own ass with her version of morals that I kind of wanted to smack her. But they love each other and you're rooting for those two silly kids to get together and balance each other out.
Ok, so the gist is that Colonel Herncastle murdered some holy men in India and stole their sacred Moonstone while a battle was raging. Nobody could prove what he did, but everyone knew. And the end result was that his family turned their backs on him. So while he had the jewel, he lost all credibility and had to slink off into a dirty corner somewhere.
Fast forward toward the end of his life, and because he's a complete fucktard, he wills it to his niece in the hopes that it ruins her life as it did his, therefore taking his final revenge on his sister. <--who had had enough of his shit by the time he killed the holy men.
When this dude finally keels over, it kicks off an entire circus of crazy events that somehow interconnect in random ways to make for one of the best classic mysteries that I've ever read.
As I was listening to it there were so many things that seemed like one thing, but by the end of the book that part of the story was revealed to be something else entirely.
This? This is one of those books that I'll be recommending to my friends. A lot.
It was a serialized story, so it tends to ramble in places and not wrap up as quickly as it probably would have otherwise. However, it didn't feel tedious or drawn out like some of those stories do. This was truly entertaining. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves locked-door mysteries because this one definitely stands the test of time.
The book is told by four different narrators who have been asked by Franklin Blake to write what they were witnesses to in regard to the crime. Franklin himself had inadvertently become deeply embroiled in the mysterious disappearance of the Moonstone and was looking to record the hijinks for posterity.
My favorite voice is that of Gabriel Betteredge. He's an elderly and much-beloved servant who has been in service to this family all of his life. He's loyal to a fault, and a truly humorous narrator in that grumpy but loveable old man way. The descriptions of his marriage made me laugh out loud, and his certainty that his favorite book, Robinson Crusoe, held the answers to all of life's problems was endearing.
And also made me realize that I need to read Robinson Crusoe.
Drusilla Clack is our second narrator. She's a hilariously accurate busybody who lives her life for the church. She spends her days handing out unwanted Bible tracts, giving unwanted advice, and drooling over Rachel's cousin (and rebuffed suitor), Godfrey Ablewhite. Godfrey is that guy. You know, the one who champions all the women's charities and basks in the worship of all the local spinsters.
Oh god. He's awful but in the absolute best way possible for a story like this.
Collins added in so many funny little extras that I wasn't expecting and they caught me off guard because so many of these older classics tend to be so dry.
For example, Miss Clack annoys one man so much that he starts cursing, then she proceeds to hand him a tract on swearing called Hush for Heaven's Sake. I loved that! Mostly because it makes you realize that people aren't really all that different now than they were back then. It's nice to know that the Drucilla Clacks of the world have always been universally...avoided.
Mr. Bruff is the family's solicitor, loyal champion during some hard times, and the third narrator of the tale. He's not as funny to listen to as the first two narrators, but he's a very likable guy.
You feel like you are getting the real story from him.
Ezra Jennings is the 4th narrator. He's Doctor Candy's foreign assistant with the dark and mysterious past and a heart of gold. This is the guy who's got the clue no one else has and his information may just crack the case wide open.
Each of these people tells what they know through their firsthand experiences with the events surrounding the theft of the Moonstone.
Now, underneath all of this mystery is a love story between a guy, Franklin, who is on the cusp of getting his shit together (but still has a few debts to pay off), and a girl, Rachel, who is so up her own ass with her version of morals that I kind of wanted to smack her. But they love each other and you're rooting for those two silly kids to get together and balance each other out.
Ok, so the gist is that Colonel Herncastle murdered some holy men in India and stole their sacred Moonstone while a battle was raging. Nobody could prove what he did, but everyone knew. And the end result was that his family turned their backs on him. So while he had the jewel, he lost all credibility and had to slink off into a dirty corner somewhere.
Fast forward toward the end of his life, and because he's a complete fucktard, he wills it to his niece in the hopes that it ruins her life as it did his, therefore taking his final revenge on his sister. <--who had had enough of his shit by the time he killed the holy men.
When this dude finally keels over, it kicks off an entire circus of crazy events that somehow interconnect in random ways to make for one of the best classic mysteries that I've ever read.
As I was listening to it there were so many things that seemed like one thing, but by the end of the book that part of the story was revealed to be something else entirely.
This? This is one of those books that I'll be recommending to my friends. A lot.
October 28, 2011
The following is a recently found letter written by the English author Charles Dickens to his friend Wilkie Collins concerning the latter’s newly released 1868 novel The Moonstone:
Charles Dickens
11 Gad’s Hill Place
Hingham, Kent
England
November 13, 1868
Dear Wilkie,
I am now pressing my pen against this paper to congratulate you on the success of your excellent new novel, The Moonstone. I have just completed reading it and I would like to present you with my opinion that this was, as they say, a true “page turner” in every sense of the word. I am also taking the liberty to take this compliment a step further by stating that this is one of the finest mystery novels of all time.
I must confess that I have never actually read a book such as this that captures the sensation of a mysterious theft and a thorough investigation that follows it. It was a fascinating read throughout as the solution to the mystery was also entirely above my suspicion. I also thoroughly enjoyed the use of multi-narration where the reader obtains various different viewpoints during the inquiry concerning the loss of the Indian diamond.
I believe that this novel, The Moonstone, has successfully maintained the same exceptional level of quality as your masterpiece, The Woman in White, and it ranks among the top tiers of the written pages from our fellow countrymen. I have not the shadow of a doubt that this book will continue to enthrall readers for centuries to come. The Moonstone is a best-seller at the local bookseller here in Kent and my excitement for your continued success is immense. Well done, my dear friend Wilkie. We shall celebrate this achievement over a glass of Cognac. Best wishes and I look forward to reading your future works.
Your friend always,
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
11 Gad’s Hill Place
Hingham, Kent
England
November 13, 1868
Dear Wilkie,
I am now pressing my pen against this paper to congratulate you on the success of your excellent new novel, The Moonstone. I have just completed reading it and I would like to present you with my opinion that this was, as they say, a true “page turner” in every sense of the word. I am also taking the liberty to take this compliment a step further by stating that this is one of the finest mystery novels of all time.
I must confess that I have never actually read a book such as this that captures the sensation of a mysterious theft and a thorough investigation that follows it. It was a fascinating read throughout as the solution to the mystery was also entirely above my suspicion. I also thoroughly enjoyed the use of multi-narration where the reader obtains various different viewpoints during the inquiry concerning the loss of the Indian diamond.
I believe that this novel, The Moonstone, has successfully maintained the same exceptional level of quality as your masterpiece, The Woman in White, and it ranks among the top tiers of the written pages from our fellow countrymen. I have not the shadow of a doubt that this book will continue to enthrall readers for centuries to come. The Moonstone is a best-seller at the local bookseller here in Kent and my excitement for your continued success is immense. Well done, my dear friend Wilkie. We shall celebrate this achievement over a glass of Cognac. Best wishes and I look forward to reading your future works.
Your friend always,
Charles Dickens
September 3, 2014
The problem with mysteries – for me, anyway, is that I don't care who did it. Which is a drawback. I just think well, it's one of those characters the author has given a name to, it won't be the fourth man back on the upper deck of the omnibus mentioned briefly on page 211. It will be someone with a name. And further, it will be someone who you don't think it will be, because that's the whole point. You don't think it's going to be that person so it's a surprise. So, if it turns out to be the not-obvious person (how could the little spinster with the gammy foot batter the ten foot Guardsman to death and scale the west wall on the fateful night? Well, she was on Victorian crack is how) I say – wow, how obvious. She was really not obviously the murderer, so she was obviously the murderer.
However, I really liked Wilkie's novels The Woman in White and No Name, so I read this.
In a modern detective tale, you have your detective, and there is a detective in this one, but he only occupies a short part of the story, he quickly retires to grow roses, literally, that's not a euphemism for some kind of rent boy scandal, so the rest of the story is made up by narratives from five or six main characters.
Now comes the dance of the seven veils.
Because if two narrators had been given their voice, the whole novel would have been over in 50 pages. You get the longwinded thoughts of all the people who DON'T know what actually happened. By page 350, after being mumbled at, prevaricated over, and digressed to for what seemed days, NAY, weeks, by Wilkie Collins' five narrators, all of whom suffer from amusing psychological tics and endearing human flaws, or was it the other way round, and all of whom could have summarised their tales onto two pages of foolscap, I was ready to shrink myself to the size of a capital R (pronounced "aargh") and insert myself into this novel Fantastic Voyage-style and grab a passing amateur sleuth and confess loudly I STOLE YOUR DAMNED MOONSTONE, ARREST ME, AND THERE'S AN END OF IT!
(Memo - write future review of Victorian novel as if invested into it Fantastic Voyage-style. Should be hilarious.)
Actually, there is a point to all this 430 pages of Moonstone. The whole plot, and this, strangely enough, is not a spoiler, hangs on the attempt of one guy to give up smoking. So The Moonstone is a very elaborate warning that going cold turkey is a bad idea,
you must use the patches.
The Moonstone is often cited as the earliest medical warning story – later examples are Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, which concerns self-medication and its dangers, and Henry James' Daisy Miller, which explains to tourists that they must get all their vaccinations. The genre is still thriving - the recent movie Bad Lieutenant – Port of New Orleans is all about inappropriate methods of combating severe back pain.
In the end I thought this was the Monkees instead of The Beatles, Pleasant Valley Sunday instead of Tomorrow Never Knows.
However, I really liked Wilkie's novels The Woman in White and No Name, so I read this.
In a modern detective tale, you have your detective, and there is a detective in this one, but he only occupies a short part of the story, he quickly retires to grow roses, literally, that's not a euphemism for some kind of rent boy scandal, so the rest of the story is made up by narratives from five or six main characters.
Now comes the dance of the seven veils.
Because if two narrators had been given their voice, the whole novel would have been over in 50 pages. You get the longwinded thoughts of all the people who DON'T know what actually happened. By page 350, after being mumbled at, prevaricated over, and digressed to for what seemed days, NAY, weeks, by Wilkie Collins' five narrators, all of whom suffer from amusing psychological tics and endearing human flaws, or was it the other way round, and all of whom could have summarised their tales onto two pages of foolscap, I was ready to shrink myself to the size of a capital R (pronounced "aargh") and insert myself into this novel Fantastic Voyage-style and grab a passing amateur sleuth and confess loudly I STOLE YOUR DAMNED MOONSTONE, ARREST ME, AND THERE'S AN END OF IT!
(Memo - write future review of Victorian novel as if invested into it Fantastic Voyage-style. Should be hilarious.)
Actually, there is a point to all this 430 pages of Moonstone. The whole plot, and this, strangely enough, is not a spoiler, hangs on the attempt of one guy to give up smoking. So The Moonstone is a very elaborate warning that going cold turkey is a bad idea,
you must use the patches.
The Moonstone is often cited as the earliest medical warning story – later examples are Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, which concerns self-medication and its dangers, and Henry James' Daisy Miller, which explains to tourists that they must get all their vaccinations. The genre is still thriving - the recent movie Bad Lieutenant – Port of New Orleans is all about inappropriate methods of combating severe back pain.
In the end I thought this was the Monkees instead of The Beatles, Pleasant Valley Sunday instead of Tomorrow Never Knows.
December 4, 2023
The Moonstone is probably the most popular work of Wilkie Collins in his day. Perhaps it still is or perhaps The Woman in White rivals its rank at present times. But no matter, its popularity in Collin's day is no secret. Named as the first detective fiction of English literature, The Moonstone paved the way and laid the ground rules on modern detective novels. In that sense, The Moonstone is pioneer of the genre.
With his customary use of different narrators, Collins works on his story on a good plotline. The story is very cleverly built. We meet a professional detective and a few amateur detectives working hard at discovering the mysterious disappearance of a valuable Indian diamond named the "moonstone" from an English household. Suspense and intrigue are two vital features of detective fiction. Collins seems quite aware of this, for he slowly unfolds the story behind the moonstone, how it comes to be in English soil from the forehead of an Indian deity. The atmosphere is dramatically built informing the reader of an upcoming possible theft. Collins makes the reader impatient until the contemplated event takes place. The theft of the moonstone is one climax of the story; one can even say it is the first part of the story. The next part is to discover the thief (if it was stolen) and to recover the moonstone. Again Collins goes to the bottom and starts building the tension and suspense on the reader till the second climax, where the mystery is finally cleared up.
I have always enjoyed Collins's use of multiple narrators. Their different styles of narration influenced by their own perspectives provide different tones and colour to the story. There were six narrators and I found each of the narration to be different. The story begins with a pretty humorous narrative of Gabriel Betteredge. This then is followed by the eccentric Miss Clack. Mr. Bruff then proceeds with a matter-of-fact narrative before passing the baton to Mr. Franklin Blake. Blake's narrative is passionate. Of all the narratives, I found his narrative to be the most intense. His narrative is then followed by the sympathetic narrative of Ezra Jennings and the professional narrative of Sergeant Cuff. It is difficult to account for the reliability of these narrators, but these different narratives made the reading more interesting and engaging.
There are many characters involved in the story. However, unlike in other works that I've read of Collins, I found myself a bit detached from the characters. We find a spirited young woman with an independent mind in the guise of Rachel Verinder. But unfortunately, the flow of the story is such that it was difficult to like her till the very end. I didn't dislike any of the characters; rather, I was a little aloof from them. If I came close to liking any, it was Sergeant Cuff, Blake, and Jennings. However, my indifference towards the characters did not impede my enjoyment of the story as a whole. This was one novel where the story was more interesting for its plot than the characters.
The one complaint I have is that the story was very slowly developed. For detective fiction, the pace was not fast enough; at least it was not enough for my impatient self. However, being the first in the genre and that Collins wrote this for serial publication under severe suffering from attacks of 'rheumatic gout', one has to make allowances.
I liked the book, no doubt there. But I expected more from it given the immense popularity. To me personally, the book didn't live up to the standard of The Woman in White and No Name - the two other books of his that I've read and loved.
With his customary use of different narrators, Collins works on his story on a good plotline. The story is very cleverly built. We meet a professional detective and a few amateur detectives working hard at discovering the mysterious disappearance of a valuable Indian diamond named the "moonstone" from an English household. Suspense and intrigue are two vital features of detective fiction. Collins seems quite aware of this, for he slowly unfolds the story behind the moonstone, how it comes to be in English soil from the forehead of an Indian deity. The atmosphere is dramatically built informing the reader of an upcoming possible theft. Collins makes the reader impatient until the contemplated event takes place. The theft of the moonstone is one climax of the story; one can even say it is the first part of the story. The next part is to discover the thief (if it was stolen) and to recover the moonstone. Again Collins goes to the bottom and starts building the tension and suspense on the reader till the second climax, where the mystery is finally cleared up.
I have always enjoyed Collins's use of multiple narrators. Their different styles of narration influenced by their own perspectives provide different tones and colour to the story. There were six narrators and I found each of the narration to be different. The story begins with a pretty humorous narrative of Gabriel Betteredge. This then is followed by the eccentric Miss Clack. Mr. Bruff then proceeds with a matter-of-fact narrative before passing the baton to Mr. Franklin Blake. Blake's narrative is passionate. Of all the narratives, I found his narrative to be the most intense. His narrative is then followed by the sympathetic narrative of Ezra Jennings and the professional narrative of Sergeant Cuff. It is difficult to account for the reliability of these narrators, but these different narratives made the reading more interesting and engaging.
There are many characters involved in the story. However, unlike in other works that I've read of Collins, I found myself a bit detached from the characters. We find a spirited young woman with an independent mind in the guise of Rachel Verinder. But unfortunately, the flow of the story is such that it was difficult to like her till the very end. I didn't dislike any of the characters; rather, I was a little aloof from them. If I came close to liking any, it was Sergeant Cuff, Blake, and Jennings. However, my indifference towards the characters did not impede my enjoyment of the story as a whole. This was one novel where the story was more interesting for its plot than the characters.
The one complaint I have is that the story was very slowly developed. For detective fiction, the pace was not fast enough; at least it was not enough for my impatient self. However, being the first in the genre and that Collins wrote this for serial publication under severe suffering from attacks of 'rheumatic gout', one has to make allowances.
I liked the book, no doubt there. But I expected more from it given the immense popularity. To me personally, the book didn't live up to the standard of The Woman in White and No Name - the two other books of his that I've read and loved.
February 5, 2009
I was torn between giving two stars and three stars to Wilkie Collins's "The Moonstone," a book T. S. Eliot called "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels." "Longest" is perhaps the operative word here, reminding one of Samuel Johnson's comment (speaking, in his case, of Milton's "Paradise Lost") that none ever wished it longer. "The Moonstone"'s length, in the end, is its chief and perhaps only major failing. Large chunks of the novel seem to drag on and on with few advancements being made to the plot in the process. The latter parts of the section narrated by Gabriel Betteredge, chief servant to the Verinder household, and almost all of Drusilla Clack's section really could have used some judicious editing.
I suspect, though, that long after I forget what a slog much of "The Moonstone" was to get through, I'll remember its many charms. Betteredge is a particularly fun narrator, given his obsession with Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" -- a book he treats as a cross between the Holy Bible and Nostradamus's "Prophecies" -- and his jaundiced eye toward male-female relations. Collins also must have had a ball making Drusilla Clack one of the most judgmental, grating Christian evangelists in English literature. Particularly priceless are the passages in which she wanders around the Verinder household and strategically places religious tracts in spots where family members, she hopes, would just happen upon them, instantly putting her relatives on the path to salvation.
Betteredge and Clack are so compelling that almost every other character in "The Moonstone," with the possible exception of opium addict Ezra Jennings, pales in comparison. Rachel Verinder -- despite being at the book's center as the recipient of the Indian diamond known as the Moonstone, the theft of which the plot revolves around -- isn't as fully drawn as the other characters, perhaps because she never takes over narration of the story. This, in a way, actually demonstrates one of Collins's chief skills as a writer: as each narrator takes his or her turn telling the story, that section of the book really becomes more about him or her than about the plot.
And that, ultimately, is what makes "The Moonstone" an interesting book. Despite being such an early and influential mystery novel -- it predated Arthur Conan Doyle's introduction of Sherlock Holmes by almost two decades -- it's really more about the characters themselves, their view of the world, and the decisions they make than it is about solving the mystery of the diamond's disappearance. It's a shame that more of today's mystery novelists haven't learned that lesson from "The Moonstone."
In retrospect, I realize I'm perhaps making "The Moonstone" sound like more of a four-star book, but trust me: the long, drawn-out sections of the book really are incredibly long and drawn out. I cannot overstate just how much this book tests the reader's patience, and for scores of pages at a time.
I suspect, though, that long after I forget what a slog much of "The Moonstone" was to get through, I'll remember its many charms. Betteredge is a particularly fun narrator, given his obsession with Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" -- a book he treats as a cross between the Holy Bible and Nostradamus's "Prophecies" -- and his jaundiced eye toward male-female relations. Collins also must have had a ball making Drusilla Clack one of the most judgmental, grating Christian evangelists in English literature. Particularly priceless are the passages in which she wanders around the Verinder household and strategically places religious tracts in spots where family members, she hopes, would just happen upon them, instantly putting her relatives on the path to salvation.
Betteredge and Clack are so compelling that almost every other character in "The Moonstone," with the possible exception of opium addict Ezra Jennings, pales in comparison. Rachel Verinder -- despite being at the book's center as the recipient of the Indian diamond known as the Moonstone, the theft of which the plot revolves around -- isn't as fully drawn as the other characters, perhaps because she never takes over narration of the story. This, in a way, actually demonstrates one of Collins's chief skills as a writer: as each narrator takes his or her turn telling the story, that section of the book really becomes more about him or her than about the plot.
And that, ultimately, is what makes "The Moonstone" an interesting book. Despite being such an early and influential mystery novel -- it predated Arthur Conan Doyle's introduction of Sherlock Holmes by almost two decades -- it's really more about the characters themselves, their view of the world, and the decisions they make than it is about solving the mystery of the diamond's disappearance. It's a shame that more of today's mystery novelists haven't learned that lesson from "The Moonstone."
In retrospect, I realize I'm perhaps making "The Moonstone" sound like more of a four-star book, but trust me: the long, drawn-out sections of the book really are incredibly long and drawn out. I cannot overstate just how much this book tests the reader's patience, and for scores of pages at a time.
January 28, 2018
The Moonstone is known as the first detective novel*, and it's a cracking one. You can see things invented here that were directly borrowed by future writers: Holmes' overconfidence (and his use of London urchins as agents); Agatha Christie's exploration of narrative reliability.
* as opposed to Poe's Dupin, which was the first detective story - I know, we're splitting hairs.
And if the mystery's not enough for you, how about mysterious Oriental cultures? Romance? Quicksand?* Opium? This is a ludicrously entertaining book, almost on the level of Count of Monte Cristo for sheer kicks.
* Things I Was Super On The Watch For When I Was A Kid And It Turns Out They Are Not Actually Things
- Alligators
- Amnesia
- Chloroform-soaked rags
- Razors in apples
- Steamrollers
- Quicksand
It shares with Collins' other masterpiece, The Woman in White, a preoccupation with narrative - from different sources, in different voices, with varying motives and degrees of reliability. Like Woman in White, it's set up like a court case: a series of witnesses come forward to tell their part of the story in more or less chronological order, while commenting on (and insulting) each other's narratives. Many characters also cite other texts: Betteredge is obsessed with Robinson Crusoe; Miss Clack carts around a variety of religious tracts, all of which are made up, which sucks because how badly do you want to read "Satan in the Hairbrush" and "A Word With You On Your Cap Ribbons"? Pretty bad, man - and finally, Ezra Jennings will cite De Quincey's landmark drug memoir Memoirs of an Opium Eater.
Which, by the way: unlike Woman in White (1860), The Moonstone (1868) was written while Collins was deep in the throes of a laudanum addiction, and the whole thing can be seen as, more or less, about opium.
Also unlike Woman in White, which features one of my all-time favorite female heroines, the diamond-sharp Miss Halcombe, The Moonstone has an awkward relationship to women. Many of its narrators are prone to statements like this:
Woman in White just edges out Moonstone for me as my favorite Collins. Its characters - Miss Halcombe and the mighty Count Fosco - are more indelible than Moonstone's. But The Moonstone includes a thinly disguised Richard Burton, as well as the terrifically bitchy Miss Clack...look, here's my secret: I like Collins better than his buddy Dickens. This book is a gang of fun.
* as opposed to Poe's Dupin, which was the first detective story - I know, we're splitting hairs.
And if the mystery's not enough for you, how about mysterious Oriental cultures? Romance? Quicksand?* Opium? This is a ludicrously entertaining book, almost on the level of Count of Monte Cristo for sheer kicks.
* Things I Was Super On The Watch For When I Was A Kid And It Turns Out They Are Not Actually Things
- Alligators
- Amnesia
- Chloroform-soaked rags
- Razors in apples
- Steamrollers
- Quicksand
It shares with Collins' other masterpiece, The Woman in White, a preoccupation with narrative - from different sources, in different voices, with varying motives and degrees of reliability. Like Woman in White, it's set up like a court case: a series of witnesses come forward to tell their part of the story in more or less chronological order, while commenting on (and insulting) each other's narratives. Many characters also cite other texts: Betteredge is obsessed with Robinson Crusoe; Miss Clack carts around a variety of religious tracts, all of which are made up, which sucks because how badly do you want to read "Satan in the Hairbrush" and "A Word With You On Your Cap Ribbons"? Pretty bad, man - and finally, Ezra Jennings will cite De Quincey's landmark drug memoir Memoirs of an Opium Eater.
Which, by the way: unlike Woman in White (1860), The Moonstone (1868) was written while Collins was deep in the throes of a laudanum addiction, and the whole thing can be seen as, more or less, about opium.
Also unlike Woman in White, which features one of my all-time favorite female heroines, the diamond-sharp Miss Halcombe, The Moonstone has an awkward relationship to women. Many of its narrators are prone to statements like this:
"Men (being superior creatures) are bound to improve women - if they can. When a woman wants me to do anything, I always insist on knowing why. The oftener you make them rummage their own minds for a reason, the more manageable you will find them in all the relations of life.The first couple times you see stuff like this you can figure Collins means for you to laugh at it - but after like ten different people say things along similar lines, you do start to wonder a little.
Woman in White just edges out Moonstone for me as my favorite Collins. Its characters - Miss Halcombe and the mighty Count Fosco - are more indelible than Moonstone's. But The Moonstone includes a thinly disguised Richard Burton, as well as the terrifically bitchy Miss Clack...look, here's my secret: I like Collins better than his buddy Dickens. This book is a gang of fun.
Read
June 10, 2021I finished this book several days ago but couldn't motivate myself to add it to my goodreads shelves or write a review. It's as if the weight of the tons of words in the text has paralysed me. What's more, I knew what I was getting into. I read The Woman in White just before this one and it left me with a similar lethargy. The only thing I was able to do after finishing it was pick up The Moonstone as if my mind had been taken over by a rabid Wilkie Collins fan. Today, I'm beginning to emerge from the stupor, and I feel able to make a guess at why Collins's writing bewitched me enough to make me read two of his books yet numbed me so much at the same time.
The stories in the two books are told in the same long-winded way: each book traces the exact history of a series of mysterious events by making the characters who were most closely connected with each stage of the events, narrate their experience, word for word.
Word for word really means word for word in Wilkie Collins land. The many narrators outdo each other in the care they take to tell every single thing they observed while at the same time not revealing anything that they learned after the period which their part of the narrative covers. It's all very artificial and more than a bit painful. The narrators also specialize in adding extra details according to their particular brand of whimsy, and some of them are very whimsical indeed. The details in many cases have nothing to do with the central mystery of either book. What's more, the mysteries when finally revealed hardly merit all the time and effort spent on recording them so painstakingly...
Two days later.
I didn't finish writing this review the other day because I fell back into a stupor. I think it was the very fact of describing why I'd fallen into a stupor in the first place that caused it to descend on me again. I've read a book by a different author in the meantime—though not before I'd read a page of a third Wilkie Collins book I'd downloaded while my mind was still in the control of the Wilkie Collins fan. Fortunately I saved myself in time and deleted it from my kindle before it got hold of me.
Well, the refreshing book I've finished since has cleared the fog in my brain somewhat (though I'm still prone to moments of utter blankness) and now I'm able to explain why I was bewitched enough to read two Collins books. It's because of a few of the narrators: Frederick Fairlie in The Woman in White is so obnoxious yet so funny that he manages to relieve the ridiculous seriousness of that book, which is no small achievement; Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone is amusing too, as is Miss Clack—when she isn't quoting from her huge fund of religious tracts. And then there's Gabriel Betteridge who really does know how to tell a story—I just wished he had a better story to tell. I wondered if his storytelling ability came from the fact that he'd read Robinson Crusoe so often he knew it by heart? It was impossible not to warm to a character who loved reading as much as Gabriel Betteredge did.
The stories in the two books are told in the same long-winded way: each book traces the exact history of a series of mysterious events by making the characters who were most closely connected with each stage of the events, narrate their experience, word for word.
Word for word really means word for word in Wilkie Collins land. The many narrators outdo each other in the care they take to tell every single thing they observed while at the same time not revealing anything that they learned after the period which their part of the narrative covers. It's all very artificial and more than a bit painful. The narrators also specialize in adding extra details according to their particular brand of whimsy, and some of them are very whimsical indeed. The details in many cases have nothing to do with the central mystery of either book. What's more, the mysteries when finally revealed hardly merit all the time and effort spent on recording them so painstakingly...
Two days later.
I didn't finish writing this review the other day because I fell back into a stupor. I think it was the very fact of describing why I'd fallen into a stupor in the first place that caused it to descend on me again. I've read a book by a different author in the meantime—though not before I'd read a page of a third Wilkie Collins book I'd downloaded while my mind was still in the control of the Wilkie Collins fan. Fortunately I saved myself in time and deleted it from my kindle before it got hold of me.
Well, the refreshing book I've finished since has cleared the fog in my brain somewhat (though I'm still prone to moments of utter blankness) and now I'm able to explain why I was bewitched enough to read two Collins books. It's because of a few of the narrators: Frederick Fairlie in The Woman in White is so obnoxious yet so funny that he manages to relieve the ridiculous seriousness of that book, which is no small achievement; Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone is amusing too, as is Miss Clack—when she isn't quoting from her huge fund of religious tracts. And then there's Gabriel Betteridge who really does know how to tell a story—I just wished he had a better story to tell. I wondered if his storytelling ability came from the fact that he'd read Robinson Crusoe so often he knew it by heart? It was impossible not to warm to a character who loved reading as much as Gabriel Betteredge did.
April 21, 2020
“La mejor receta para la novela policíaca: el detective no debe saber nunca más que el lector.” Agatha Christie
¿De qué manera puede escribirse una obra maestra de seiscientas treinta páginas en la que nunca decae el interés por saber como termina? ¿De qué se compone la genialidad de un escritor para elaborar una historia con tantos giros, ribetes y escenas impensadas sin confundir al lector? ¿Puede un escritor ser tan hábil para mantener el suspense en una novela policial que atravesó todas las épocas desde que fue publicada allá por 1868 y que sigue cautivando aún hoy en 2017? Definitivamente sí y Wilkie Collins lo logra con la perfección de los más grandes.
Esta novela es para muchos, uno de las tres mejores novelas policiales de todos los tiempos y todos esos componentes que yo enumero en mis preguntas iniciales lo confirman.
Collins trabaja la historia en cada una de sus partes atada al evento principal que es el robo de un enorme diamante, llamado "la piedra lunar" durante el cumpleaños número dieciocho de Miss Rachel Verdiner, pero ese diamante posee toda una historia detrás que es la que el autor anticipa en los capítulos iniciales, puesto que de otra manera no entenderíamos cómo se suceden los hechos.
La preciosa gema ha sido traída desde un templo de la India en forma indebida y esto le acarreará a los que la posean un sinnúmero de inconvenientes en los personajes que formaron parte de ese cumpleaños y que son los que se relatan a lo largo del libro.
Para que todo esto tenga cohesión y solidez, Collins dispone la trama a partir de los testimonios, en gran parte del mayordomo de la familia, Gabriel Betteredge, cuya reconstrucción de lo sucedido, ocupa casi un cuarto de la extensión del libro pero que a la postre es clave para que el lector pueda guiarse en los hechos narrados.
Un dato muy pintoresco acerca de este particular personaje es que utiliza como guía para su vida el libro Robinson Crusoe de Daniel Defoe. Para él es su Biblia y siempre sostiene que muchas de las cosas que sucede en ese libro o las frases de Crusoe dice son casi proféticas para él.
Gabriel Betteredge es un personaje muy especial y esta característica logra que el lector sienta una profunda empatía para con este pintoresco anciano.
Ahora bien. Betteredge no es el único de los implicados en esto. No es tan fácil arribar al descubrimiento de quién se robó la gema ni de cuántas personas hay implicadas en ello y cuáles son las verdaderamente sospechosas. Es a partir de los relatos de los otros testigos que comenzamos a desanudar los secretos que la desaparición del diamante esconden.
Jorge Luis Borges, en su brillante prólogo de la edición del libro que yo tengo nos revela que Wilkie Collins tiene el honor de haber aportado en la figura del Sargento Cuff alprimer detective británico de la literatura y es verdad: Sherlock Holmes fue creado por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle recién en 1887 mientras que "La piedra lunar" fue publicada en 1868, o sea 19 años.
Para todo aquel lector desprevenido, comento que estos son detectives británicos en la literatura. Digo esto porque el creador del género policial fue mi querido Edgar Allan Poe a partir de "Los crímenes de la calle Morgue", cuyo detective Auguste C. Dupin fue el pionero, dado que ese cuento fue publicado en 1841.
Pero volviendo a esta maravillosa novela, nos encontramos con una serie de personajes tan disímiles como enigmáticos, sospechosos o carismáticos. Conoceremos a Rosana Spearman, la enamoradiza criada de la mansión en la que se desarrolla la historia, como dijera previamente, al Sargento Cuff, contratado para dilucidar el misterio del robo, a Franklin Blake, uno de los personajes principales, enamorado de Rachel y que tendrá un papel fundamental en todo esto junto al sargento Cuff, Gabriel Betteredge y el abogado Bruff.
También son de vital importancia personajes como Penélope Betteredge, hija del mayordomo, a Míster Godfrey Ablewhite, filántropo y en rivalidad con Francis Blake por el corazón de Rachel, a Miss Clack, la prima pobre de la familia Verinder dominada por un ferviente fanatismo religioso metodista, al abogado de la familia, Matthew Bruff, quien también tiene preponderancia en el asunto del esclarecimiento del robo y Ezra Jennings, un personaje que aportará datos clave hacia el final del libro.
Es destacable la manera en que Collins delinea a sus personajes. Con esto me refiero a que trabaja la psicología, las actitudes y las acciones de los mismo de manera convincente.
El autor puede tanto posicionarse en la piel de una caballero filántropo como en la piel de un inescrutable abogado, en la brillantez de un médico avezado o pasar del metodismo del sargento Richard Cuff hasta los desvaríos de una criada ardorosamente enamorada del apuesto Franklin Blake, como es el caso de Rosana Spearman.
En todos los personajes Collins deja su sello y cada una de las partes que interviene en el caso del robo de la piedra lunar aportan sus testimonios que son vitales para la resolución del caso.
El lector va de un personaje a otro intentado descubrir quién robó efectivamente la gema y las marchas y contramarchas de la trama lo mantienen atento a cada mínimo detalle.
Todas las piezas terminan encajando en un sorprendente final como sólo Wilkie Collins podía hacerlo.
Como establezco al principio, no cualquier escritor puede escribir una novela policial como esta y mantener la curiosidad, el misterio y la atracción del lector a lo largo de una novela tan extensa.
Tanto lectores como escritores expertos en la materia sostienen que esta es una de las tres mejores novelas policiales de la literatura. Casualmente este año también leí “Diez negritos” de Agatha Cristie, novela que posiblemente esté en ese selecto grupo.
Más allá de que no soy un lector habitual de novelas policiales me animo a asegurar que difícilmente pueda leer otra que sobrepase en misterio, riqueza técnica literaria y trama argumental como lo que me ha generado “La piedra luna” y la otra que indico en esta reseña.
Probablemente me recomendarán los que saben que lea más novelas de Agatha Cristie, quien es considerada la mejor escritora de novelas policiales de todos los tiempos (y creo que en eso no hay discusión).
Ha sido un placer llegar al final para descubrir el robo de la asombrosa piedra lunar.
¿Se animan, ustedes lectores, a intentar descubrirlo como yo lo hice?
¿De qué manera puede escribirse una obra maestra de seiscientas treinta páginas en la que nunca decae el interés por saber como termina? ¿De qué se compone la genialidad de un escritor para elaborar una historia con tantos giros, ribetes y escenas impensadas sin confundir al lector? ¿Puede un escritor ser tan hábil para mantener el suspense en una novela policial que atravesó todas las épocas desde que fue publicada allá por 1868 y que sigue cautivando aún hoy en 2017? Definitivamente sí y Wilkie Collins lo logra con la perfección de los más grandes.
Esta novela es para muchos, uno de las tres mejores novelas policiales de todos los tiempos y todos esos componentes que yo enumero en mis preguntas iniciales lo confirman.
Collins trabaja la historia en cada una de sus partes atada al evento principal que es el robo de un enorme diamante, llamado "la piedra lunar" durante el cumpleaños número dieciocho de Miss Rachel Verdiner, pero ese diamante posee toda una historia detrás que es la que el autor anticipa en los capítulos iniciales, puesto que de otra manera no entenderíamos cómo se suceden los hechos.
La preciosa gema ha sido traída desde un templo de la India en forma indebida y esto le acarreará a los que la posean un sinnúmero de inconvenientes en los personajes que formaron parte de ese cumpleaños y que son los que se relatan a lo largo del libro.
Para que todo esto tenga cohesión y solidez, Collins dispone la trama a partir de los testimonios, en gran parte del mayordomo de la familia, Gabriel Betteredge, cuya reconstrucción de lo sucedido, ocupa casi un cuarto de la extensión del libro pero que a la postre es clave para que el lector pueda guiarse en los hechos narrados.
Un dato muy pintoresco acerca de este particular personaje es que utiliza como guía para su vida el libro Robinson Crusoe de Daniel Defoe. Para él es su Biblia y siempre sostiene que muchas de las cosas que sucede en ese libro o las frases de Crusoe dice son casi proféticas para él.
Gabriel Betteredge es un personaje muy especial y esta característica logra que el lector sienta una profunda empatía para con este pintoresco anciano.
Ahora bien. Betteredge no es el único de los implicados en esto. No es tan fácil arribar al descubrimiento de quién se robó la gema ni de cuántas personas hay implicadas en ello y cuáles son las verdaderamente sospechosas. Es a partir de los relatos de los otros testigos que comenzamos a desanudar los secretos que la desaparición del diamante esconden.
Jorge Luis Borges, en su brillante prólogo de la edición del libro que yo tengo nos revela que Wilkie Collins tiene el honor de haber aportado en la figura del Sargento Cuff alprimer detective británico de la literatura y es verdad: Sherlock Holmes fue creado por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle recién en 1887 mientras que "La piedra lunar" fue publicada en 1868, o sea 19 años.
Para todo aquel lector desprevenido, comento que estos son detectives británicos en la literatura. Digo esto porque el creador del género policial fue mi querido Edgar Allan Poe a partir de "Los crímenes de la calle Morgue", cuyo detective Auguste C. Dupin fue el pionero, dado que ese cuento fue publicado en 1841.
Pero volviendo a esta maravillosa novela, nos encontramos con una serie de personajes tan disímiles como enigmáticos, sospechosos o carismáticos. Conoceremos a Rosana Spearman, la enamoradiza criada de la mansión en la que se desarrolla la historia, como dijera previamente, al Sargento Cuff, contratado para dilucidar el misterio del robo, a Franklin Blake, uno de los personajes principales, enamorado de Rachel y que tendrá un papel fundamental en todo esto junto al sargento Cuff, Gabriel Betteredge y el abogado Bruff.
También son de vital importancia personajes como Penélope Betteredge, hija del mayordomo, a Míster Godfrey Ablewhite, filántropo y en rivalidad con Francis Blake por el corazón de Rachel, a Miss Clack, la prima pobre de la familia Verinder dominada por un ferviente fanatismo religioso metodista, al abogado de la familia, Matthew Bruff, quien también tiene preponderancia en el asunto del esclarecimiento del robo y Ezra Jennings, un personaje que aportará datos clave hacia el final del libro.
Es destacable la manera en que Collins delinea a sus personajes. Con esto me refiero a que trabaja la psicología, las actitudes y las acciones de los mismo de manera convincente.
El autor puede tanto posicionarse en la piel de una caballero filántropo como en la piel de un inescrutable abogado, en la brillantez de un médico avezado o pasar del metodismo del sargento Richard Cuff hasta los desvaríos de una criada ardorosamente enamorada del apuesto Franklin Blake, como es el caso de Rosana Spearman.
En todos los personajes Collins deja su sello y cada una de las partes que interviene en el caso del robo de la piedra lunar aportan sus testimonios que son vitales para la resolución del caso.
El lector va de un personaje a otro intentado descubrir quién robó efectivamente la gema y las marchas y contramarchas de la trama lo mantienen atento a cada mínimo detalle.
Todas las piezas terminan encajando en un sorprendente final como sólo Wilkie Collins podía hacerlo.
Como establezco al principio, no cualquier escritor puede escribir una novela policial como esta y mantener la curiosidad, el misterio y la atracción del lector a lo largo de una novela tan extensa.
Tanto lectores como escritores expertos en la materia sostienen que esta es una de las tres mejores novelas policiales de la literatura. Casualmente este año también leí “Diez negritos” de Agatha Cristie, novela que posiblemente esté en ese selecto grupo.
Más allá de que no soy un lector habitual de novelas policiales me animo a asegurar que difícilmente pueda leer otra que sobrepase en misterio, riqueza técnica literaria y trama argumental como lo que me ha generado “La piedra luna” y la otra que indico en esta reseña.
Probablemente me recomendarán los que saben que lea más novelas de Agatha Cristie, quien es considerada la mejor escritora de novelas policiales de todos los tiempos (y creo que en eso no hay discusión).
Ha sido un placer llegar al final para descubrir el robo de la asombrosa piedra lunar.
¿Se animan, ustedes lectores, a intentar descubrirlo como yo lo hice?
March 17, 2024
The only London house Charles Dickens lived in which is still standing, is at 48 Doughty St. It has been converted into a museum, and at the moment is showing an exhibition called “Mutual Friends: The Adventures of Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins”. Yet this is a museum devoted to the life and works of Charles Dickens! Even the name of the exhibition is a clever pun on one of Dickens’s novels.
Wilkie Collins wrote more than twenty novels and around 100 short stories, as well as a dozen plays, numerous essays and pieces of journalism. His books have attracted readers for a more than a century and a half and his unconventional lifestyle has intrigued the literary world for nearly as long. So apart from having a similarly large output, and living in the 19th century, what do these two authors have to do with one another?
The answer is that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins wrote many works together. Their catalyst was Dickens’s close friend, mentor (and ultimately biographer) John Forster. Both men surrounded themselves with a vibrant circle of authors, artists, playwrights and performers, and although Dickens had many friends, his friendship and collaboration with Wilkie Collins was to become one of the most significant partnerships of both their lives.
It was on 12th March 1851, at John Forster’s house, where this life-changing event occurred. Charles Dickens was introduced to a young man who was a law student at Lincoln’s Inn, but also, like himself, was an amateur actor performing in a mutual friend’s play. So began a personal and professional relationship that would last over 15 years.
Charles Dickens quickly became Wilkie Collins’s friend and mentor, and went on to publish Collins’s story “A Terribly Strange Bed” in April 1852 in his magazine: “Household Words”. The story was very popular, and is still often published in modern anthologies of “Terror and the Supernatural”. From then on they became such good friends that Wilkie Collins wrote in a letter: “We saw each other every day, and were as fond of each other as men could be. Nobody (my own dear mother excepted, of course) felt so positively sure of the future before me in literature, as Dickens did.” Wilkie Collins joined the permanent staff of Dickens’s first magazine in November 1856, at a weekly salary of 5 guineas.
Despite the fact that Dickens was 12 years older than Wilkie Collins, the two authors worked together many times, their special annual Christmas numbers becoming a firm favourite with the public. In fact Collins was sometimes unkindly referred to “the Dickensian Ampersand”, because of the sheer number of works they collaborated on—inevitably referred to as works by “Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins” rather than the other way round. Nevertheless, Wilkie Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and for a time, best paid Victorian fiction writers. He outlived his friend by 19 years, albeit in bad health, but still writing.
Wilkie Collins’s first serialised novel for Dickens’s magazine was “The Woman in White” in 1859, and officially he stopped being an “in-house” author for Dickens in April 1861, in the middle of his serial novel “No Name”, which Dickens admired and thought very clever. It continued to be published in his new showcase magazine “All the Year Round” into 1862. The two authors had differences of opinion, but complemented each other well. Afterwards Dickens managed to lure Wilkie Collins back now and then, including for The Moonstone, his final serialised novel in 1868. This was just two years before Dickens’s death. It was Wilkie Collins’s last great success, coming at the end of a very productive period in which four successive novels became bestsellers.
As I write, it is exactly 200 years ago that Wilkie Collins was born. His works are “classics”, with observations still relevant to contemporary life. However The Moonstone is also remembered for another significant reason.
The Moonstone: A Romance by Wilkie Collins was described by T.S. Eliot as “the first and greatest of English detective novels”. It was certainly one of the earliest detective novels in English, as we understand the term today, and established many of our modern ground rules. It influenced Wilkie Collins’s successors from Anthony Trollope and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle onwards, setting the standard by which all other detective novels are judged. This is quite an astonishing accomplishment for someone who was originally considered to be “the Dickensian Ampersand”!
The Moonstone could also lay claim to being the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre, although it is told through letters by the characters. Epistolary novels such as this are rare now, but were very popular with Victorians, and were a favourite technique of Wilkie Collins. In fact during its original serialisation in “All the Year Round”, there were crowds of anxious readers outside the publishers’ offices in Wellington Street waiting for the next installment, just as they did with Dickens own serials, from “The Old Curiosity Shop” onwards. Both The Moonstone and the earlier “The Woman in White” have never been out of print.
Both authors wrote great stories with ingenious plots, and none more so than The Moonstone’s was to prove. However Wilkie Collins’s prose was spare and direct, lacking the poetry and allusions of Dickens’s. He did not have the panoply of characters following their own complex, intertwining or parallel stories that Dickens did. Instead, what the reading public enjoyed about Wilkie Collins was his sensational stories, with subtlety of characterisation, and realistic psychological portrayals.
And that is what we still enjoy about The Moonstone. Collins wrote page-turners, but a re-reading of the novel is as delightful as a first reading, (which is another sign of a true classic). We get to know these characters, believe in them totally through all their trials and tribulations, and are sad when the novel is finished and we have to leave them behind. It is unusual for a detective novel to absorb our attention in quite this way. We may be caught up in its plot, but sometimes the characters in detective novels do not have much depth. Such shallow characters abounded in the 19th century too.
Although The Moonstone is generally considered to be the first detective novel it should perhaps be described as the first “respectable” one. There were earlier detective stories, in particular the 19th-century British publishing phenomenon known as “penny dreadfuls”, first published in the 1830s but going right through to the 1870s. They were printed on cheap paper, in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, and selling for a penny an installment. Popular recurring characters were featured, such as Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin, Varney the Vampire, and Spring-heeled Jack. But the public were predisposed to expect something superior from Wilkie Collins, who was by now an established author. Moreover The Moonstone was not a “penny dreadful” story, but was published in the greatly respected Charles Dickens’s magazine.
Ironically enough though, the plot is not a million miles removed from that of a classic penny dreadful. The precious moonstone of the title is not a softly glowing semi-precious felspar gemstone as we might expect, but a colloquially named magnificent yellow diamond, which is reputed to have mystical powers. It is associated with the Hindu god of the Moon, Chandra, and protected by three hereditary guardians, who believe this is on the orders of Vishnu. The Moonstone is said to vary in brilliance along with the waxing and waning of the Moon … and it has disappeared. These three religious figures, strange and alien to the eyes of the English gentry, may or may not have been involved in its theft.
I did worry about the representation of people from the Indian subcontinent in a Victorian novel. So often the descriptions are offensive to modern perceptions, such as attempts at amusing caricatures—even in my beloved Dickens! Here though, I need not have worried. Wilkie Collins has given an impression of wealthy English people feeling menaced by the unknown and exotic, without specifics. It is all suggestion, and the one character we get to know in depth who does hail from India is a delight; in fact a tragic character, and the most honourable and upright person imaginable. Ezra Jennings’s is a sad tale of ill-health, undeserved prejudice and sheer bad luck.
Modern detective novels often have one officer and their sidekick. Here we have two competing detective figures: the irresistible Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard, with his penchant for growing roses (and insistence that his way is better than the chief steward’s). He keeps his own counsel about his suspicions, and is wise enough to keep notes about this, since nobody believes him at the time. Then there is Franklin Blake, a sort of amateur sleuth, but who appeals to our 21st century point of view as he has—unusually for the time—lived in and been shaped by several different cultures.
Technically of course Superintendent Seegrave is the senior officer, but the Police Commissioner’s word is law. This is bound to cause resentment, in a house where emotions are already running high. But we enjoy the sulky slowness of the superintendent, and the insight and asperity of St. Cuff
Sergeant Cuff owes a lot to Dickens’s own Inspector Bucket fifteen years earlier, in the serial novel “Bleak House” (published in 1853). Wilkie Collins may have written the first English detective novel, but we should look to Inspector Bucket for the first important detective in English literature. This middle-aged, friendly and honest man is by temperament philosophical, and tolerant of human follies. It is his logic and sheer tenacity which is his outstanding quality as a policeman, as he patiently observes people and draws conclusions. The two policemen have this in common, and it is interesting to wonder just how much Dickens and Collins shared their thoughts about their invented characters.
Just like in a Dickens novel, we find the characters in The Moonstone engaging. The main narrator Gabriel Betteredge, the head steward, gets our attention (and our smiles of delight) right from the start as he talks about how much he loves the book “Robinson Crusoe”:
“I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice—Robinson Crusoe. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—Robinson Crusoe.”
Throughout the book Betteredge entertains us with his quirkiness. He has such a wry, droll sense of humour and we are always on his side. Nevertheless, it has to be said that the novel does begin in a roundabout way. First we have 2 prefaces. Then we have a prologue, which establishes the history of the jewel, taken from a factual historical event. Then we have the title “The Story”— but at the end of chapter 1, Gabriel Betteredge decides he has got off the point, and starts again with chapter 2. Would you believe it, but at the end of chapter 2 he does the same thing, and starts again in chapter 3—and again in chapter 4! It was a popular style for Victorian fiction to be prolix and discursive, but Betteredge continues to meander about and apologise—and it is hilarious! Dickens used to find the roundabout way his friend had of starting a novel infuriating, and often complained to Collins about it. But in fact it is a clever way of imparting quite a lot of information to us, whilst fooling us into believing we are merely being entertained.
Dickens could never have written like this, and he also disliked Collins’s habit of writing epistolary tales. It was a bone of contention even at the beginning, when Charles Dickens was Wilkie Collins’s editor. After “The Woman in White”, when they had been discussing a short story which Wilkie Collins was going to contribute to the Christmas edition of “All the Year Round”, Charles Dickens wrote to Georgina Hogarth (his sister-in-law and confidante):
“Wilkie brought his part of the Xmas No. to dinner yesterday. I hope it will be good. But is it not an extraordinary thing that it began: ‘I have undertaken to take pen in hand, to set down in writing etc. etc.’ … like the W in W (Woman in White) narratives? Of course, I at once pointed out the necessity of cancelling that …”
This was very early in their relationship, so clearly Wilkie Collins took not a bit of notice, and carried on in his own sweet way. The two authors are surprisingly different in their styles. Wilkie Collins sticks to just a few characters, and few—if any—cameos. We get to know them very well; the misunderstood second housemaid Rosanna Spearman; Lucy Yolland, her confidential friend; and Penelope, Gabriel Betteredge’s daughter, whom he relies on to tell him information he might not otherwise be privy to. There is Mr Murthwaite, another noted adventurer like Franklin Blake; and Dr Thomas Candy, the family physician. All have their own part to play in this well-plotted story, where even what we suspect to be red herrings are ultimately revealed to be pertinent facts.
There is Matthew Bruff, the family solicitor; and Godfrey Ablewhite, a philanthropist and lay preacher, much admired by Miss Clack—who herself provides us with a complete contrast to Betteredge ...
The sanctimonious Miss Drusilla Clack has a seemingly endless supply of Christian religious tracts. She is someone whom everyone tries to avoid except us. We sit openmouthed, loving to read the appalling descriptions of her steamrolling her way through meetings and drawing rooms alike.
Several of these are narrators in The Moonstone, and this technique is again a clever way to tell a mystery story. Not only do we have exactly the information the author wants us to have at each point, but also we get to know the personalities and biases of each character. For instance we know that Betteredge reads “Robinson Crusoe” for comfort, and guidance on how to act. Similarly his prejudices against women are humorous rather than offensive. His views are paternalistic but kindly. Wilkie Collins himself was a pioneer campaigner for women’s rights, and knew how to paint this picture subtly. Betteredge is simply naïve, and has no malice. He is happy with his place in the household and the world. He is an upright man who is delighted to be the conveyor of information for us.
We have seen Wilkie Collins painting a morally hypocritical female, but he writes a strong woman of a very different sort in Rachel Verinder. Rachel is a modern, thinking woman in the way of becoming very much in love with another character, whom she suspects of thievery.
It is Rachel who is now the owner of the priceless Indian diamond. For an unfathomable reason, she has inherited the jewel for her eighteenth birthday from her uncle, an army officer who served in India, but whom she had never met. As the story proceeds we see that Rachel knows her own mind, and is not afraid to challenge her mother, Lady Julia, and act according to what she herself thinks is right.
The success of The Moonstone was partly due to the growing public interest in stories of detection, as police work became increasing sophisticated. It was one of the first novels to put the emphasis on the growing use of forensic science and how the police used rational deduction to solve crimes. Earlier novels had tended to be written from the point of view of the criminal, or to concentrate on the social conditions which would make a crime more likely. Yet even so, Wilkie Collins’s popularity began to decline after this landmark novel.
The reason for the sudden change, and halt as a literary best-selling author, is rather sad. In his second Preface from 1871 Wilkie Collins tells his readers how two personal calamities hit him at once, when he was only a third of the way through The Moonstone. His mother died, and he was stricken with the gout which was to plague him for the rest of his life. He had to dictate the rest of the book. In consequence, he began to write novels which contained more overt social commentary, and these did not attract the same popularity. Although he was to live for 21 more years, The Moonstone still outshines Collins’s later works.
The Moonstone was a great success with the public, but after his initial excitement about it Dickens’s enthusiam began to wane. This seems odd, because the episodes of this story had increased the circulation of “All the Year Round” more than any other novel so far—including his own popular ones “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859) and even “Great Expectations” (1861).
However, something similar had happened before. The first weekly installment of Wilkie Collins’s “The Woman in White” had appeared in the same edition of “All the Year Round” along with the final installment of “A Tale of Two Cities” (26th November 1859). But by the end of “The Woman in White” in July 1860, sales of the journal were up! The critics may have had a mixed reception, but in the eyes of the public, Collins’s sensation novels were a huge success. Collins even adapted The Moonstone for the stage in 1877.
That success continues today, with many dramatisations of both “The Woman in White” and The Moonstone. People are still caught up in the intrigue and mysteries of these stories. The latest is an excellent BBC miniseries from 2016 and stars David Calder, Sophie Ward, Jeremy Swift, Guy Henry and Jag Sanghera etc. It has 5 episodes of 45 minutes each.
What many people look for in a mystery story is a simple “whodunnit”. Will you guess the culprit in this case? You might, if you are familar with Victorian tropes, just as you might in a modern crime novel, if you pick up the clues. It is quite a complex plot, although with far fewer characters than Dickens novel and a more direct story line. The ending is perhaps not what you expect, but I personally feel is exactly right.
“If half the stories I have heard are true, when it comes to unravelling a mystery, there isn’t the equal in England of Sergeant Cuff!”
I shall no doubt enjoy seeing the current exhibition at the Charles Dickens Museum, and actually being in the room where these two great authors’ collaborations took place.
Wilkie Collins wrote more than twenty novels and around 100 short stories, as well as a dozen plays, numerous essays and pieces of journalism. His books have attracted readers for a more than a century and a half and his unconventional lifestyle has intrigued the literary world for nearly as long. So apart from having a similarly large output, and living in the 19th century, what do these two authors have to do with one another?
The answer is that Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins wrote many works together. Their catalyst was Dickens’s close friend, mentor (and ultimately biographer) John Forster. Both men surrounded themselves with a vibrant circle of authors, artists, playwrights and performers, and although Dickens had many friends, his friendship and collaboration with Wilkie Collins was to become one of the most significant partnerships of both their lives.
It was on 12th March 1851, at John Forster’s house, where this life-changing event occurred. Charles Dickens was introduced to a young man who was a law student at Lincoln’s Inn, but also, like himself, was an amateur actor performing in a mutual friend’s play. So began a personal and professional relationship that would last over 15 years.
Charles Dickens quickly became Wilkie Collins’s friend and mentor, and went on to publish Collins’s story “A Terribly Strange Bed” in April 1852 in his magazine: “Household Words”. The story was very popular, and is still often published in modern anthologies of “Terror and the Supernatural”. From then on they became such good friends that Wilkie Collins wrote in a letter: “We saw each other every day, and were as fond of each other as men could be. Nobody (my own dear mother excepted, of course) felt so positively sure of the future before me in literature, as Dickens did.” Wilkie Collins joined the permanent staff of Dickens’s first magazine in November 1856, at a weekly salary of 5 guineas.
Despite the fact that Dickens was 12 years older than Wilkie Collins, the two authors worked together many times, their special annual Christmas numbers becoming a firm favourite with the public. In fact Collins was sometimes unkindly referred to “the Dickensian Ampersand”, because of the sheer number of works they collaborated on—inevitably referred to as works by “Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins” rather than the other way round. Nevertheless, Wilkie Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and for a time, best paid Victorian fiction writers. He outlived his friend by 19 years, albeit in bad health, but still writing.
Wilkie Collins’s first serialised novel for Dickens’s magazine was “The Woman in White” in 1859, and officially he stopped being an “in-house” author for Dickens in April 1861, in the middle of his serial novel “No Name”, which Dickens admired and thought very clever. It continued to be published in his new showcase magazine “All the Year Round” into 1862. The two authors had differences of opinion, but complemented each other well. Afterwards Dickens managed to lure Wilkie Collins back now and then, including for The Moonstone, his final serialised novel in 1868. This was just two years before Dickens’s death. It was Wilkie Collins’s last great success, coming at the end of a very productive period in which four successive novels became bestsellers.
As I write, it is exactly 200 years ago that Wilkie Collins was born. His works are “classics”, with observations still relevant to contemporary life. However The Moonstone is also remembered for another significant reason.
The Moonstone: A Romance by Wilkie Collins was described by T.S. Eliot as “the first and greatest of English detective novels”. It was certainly one of the earliest detective novels in English, as we understand the term today, and established many of our modern ground rules. It influenced Wilkie Collins’s successors from Anthony Trollope and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle onwards, setting the standard by which all other detective novels are judged. This is quite an astonishing accomplishment for someone who was originally considered to be “the Dickensian Ampersand”!
The Moonstone could also lay claim to being the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre, although it is told through letters by the characters. Epistolary novels such as this are rare now, but were very popular with Victorians, and were a favourite technique of Wilkie Collins. In fact during its original serialisation in “All the Year Round”, there were crowds of anxious readers outside the publishers’ offices in Wellington Street waiting for the next installment, just as they did with Dickens own serials, from “The Old Curiosity Shop” onwards. Both The Moonstone and the earlier “The Woman in White” have never been out of print.
Both authors wrote great stories with ingenious plots, and none more so than The Moonstone’s was to prove. However Wilkie Collins’s prose was spare and direct, lacking the poetry and allusions of Dickens’s. He did not have the panoply of characters following their own complex, intertwining or parallel stories that Dickens did. Instead, what the reading public enjoyed about Wilkie Collins was his sensational stories, with subtlety of characterisation, and realistic psychological portrayals.
And that is what we still enjoy about The Moonstone. Collins wrote page-turners, but a re-reading of the novel is as delightful as a first reading, (which is another sign of a true classic). We get to know these characters, believe in them totally through all their trials and tribulations, and are sad when the novel is finished and we have to leave them behind. It is unusual for a detective novel to absorb our attention in quite this way. We may be caught up in its plot, but sometimes the characters in detective novels do not have much depth. Such shallow characters abounded in the 19th century too.
Although The Moonstone is generally considered to be the first detective novel it should perhaps be described as the first “respectable” one. There were earlier detective stories, in particular the 19th-century British publishing phenomenon known as “penny dreadfuls”, first published in the 1830s but going right through to the 1870s. They were printed on cheap paper, in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, and selling for a penny an installment. Popular recurring characters were featured, such as Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin, Varney the Vampire, and Spring-heeled Jack. But the public were predisposed to expect something superior from Wilkie Collins, who was by now an established author. Moreover The Moonstone was not a “penny dreadful” story, but was published in the greatly respected Charles Dickens’s magazine.
Ironically enough though, the plot is not a million miles removed from that of a classic penny dreadful. The precious moonstone of the title is not a softly glowing semi-precious felspar gemstone as we might expect, but a colloquially named magnificent yellow diamond, which is reputed to have mystical powers. It is associated with the Hindu god of the Moon, Chandra, and protected by three hereditary guardians, who believe this is on the orders of Vishnu. The Moonstone is said to vary in brilliance along with the waxing and waning of the Moon … and it has disappeared. These three religious figures, strange and alien to the eyes of the English gentry, may or may not have been involved in its theft.
I did worry about the representation of people from the Indian subcontinent in a Victorian novel. So often the descriptions are offensive to modern perceptions, such as attempts at amusing caricatures—even in my beloved Dickens! Here though, I need not have worried. Wilkie Collins has given an impression of wealthy English people feeling menaced by the unknown and exotic, without specifics. It is all suggestion, and the one character we get to know in depth who does hail from India is a delight; in fact a tragic character, and the most honourable and upright person imaginable. Ezra Jennings’s is a sad tale of ill-health, undeserved prejudice and sheer bad luck.
Modern detective novels often have one officer and their sidekick. Here we have two competing detective figures: the irresistible Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard, with his penchant for growing roses (and insistence that his way is better than the chief steward’s). He keeps his own counsel about his suspicions, and is wise enough to keep notes about this, since nobody believes him at the time. Then there is Franklin Blake, a sort of amateur sleuth, but who appeals to our 21st century point of view as he has—unusually for the time—lived in and been shaped by several different cultures.
Technically of course Superintendent Seegrave is the senior officer, but the Police Commissioner’s word is law. This is bound to cause resentment, in a house where emotions are already running high. But we enjoy the sulky slowness of the superintendent, and the insight and asperity of St. Cuff
Sergeant Cuff owes a lot to Dickens’s own Inspector Bucket fifteen years earlier, in the serial novel “Bleak House” (published in 1853). Wilkie Collins may have written the first English detective novel, but we should look to Inspector Bucket for the first important detective in English literature. This middle-aged, friendly and honest man is by temperament philosophical, and tolerant of human follies. It is his logic and sheer tenacity which is his outstanding quality as a policeman, as he patiently observes people and draws conclusions. The two policemen have this in common, and it is interesting to wonder just how much Dickens and Collins shared their thoughts about their invented characters.
Just like in a Dickens novel, we find the characters in The Moonstone engaging. The main narrator Gabriel Betteredge, the head steward, gets our attention (and our smiles of delight) right from the start as he talks about how much he loves the book “Robinson Crusoe”:
“I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice—Robinson Crusoe. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much—Robinson Crusoe.”
Throughout the book Betteredge entertains us with his quirkiness. He has such a wry, droll sense of humour and we are always on his side. Nevertheless, it has to be said that the novel does begin in a roundabout way. First we have 2 prefaces. Then we have a prologue, which establishes the history of the jewel, taken from a factual historical event. Then we have the title “The Story”— but at the end of chapter 1, Gabriel Betteredge decides he has got off the point, and starts again with chapter 2. Would you believe it, but at the end of chapter 2 he does the same thing, and starts again in chapter 3—and again in chapter 4! It was a popular style for Victorian fiction to be prolix and discursive, but Betteredge continues to meander about and apologise—and it is hilarious! Dickens used to find the roundabout way his friend had of starting a novel infuriating, and often complained to Collins about it. But in fact it is a clever way of imparting quite a lot of information to us, whilst fooling us into believing we are merely being entertained.
Dickens could never have written like this, and he also disliked Collins’s habit of writing epistolary tales. It was a bone of contention even at the beginning, when Charles Dickens was Wilkie Collins’s editor. After “The Woman in White”, when they had been discussing a short story which Wilkie Collins was going to contribute to the Christmas edition of “All the Year Round”, Charles Dickens wrote to Georgina Hogarth (his sister-in-law and confidante):
“Wilkie brought his part of the Xmas No. to dinner yesterday. I hope it will be good. But is it not an extraordinary thing that it began: ‘I have undertaken to take pen in hand, to set down in writing etc. etc.’ … like the W in W (Woman in White) narratives? Of course, I at once pointed out the necessity of cancelling that …”
This was very early in their relationship, so clearly Wilkie Collins took not a bit of notice, and carried on in his own sweet way. The two authors are surprisingly different in their styles. Wilkie Collins sticks to just a few characters, and few—if any—cameos. We get to know them very well; the misunderstood second housemaid Rosanna Spearman; Lucy Yolland, her confidential friend; and Penelope, Gabriel Betteredge’s daughter, whom he relies on to tell him information he might not otherwise be privy to. There is Mr Murthwaite, another noted adventurer like Franklin Blake; and Dr Thomas Candy, the family physician. All have their own part to play in this well-plotted story, where even what we suspect to be red herrings are ultimately revealed to be pertinent facts.
There is Matthew Bruff, the family solicitor; and Godfrey Ablewhite, a philanthropist and lay preacher, much admired by Miss Clack—who herself provides us with a complete contrast to Betteredge ...
The sanctimonious Miss Drusilla Clack has a seemingly endless supply of Christian religious tracts. She is someone whom everyone tries to avoid except us. We sit openmouthed, loving to read the appalling descriptions of her steamrolling her way through meetings and drawing rooms alike.
Several of these are narrators in The Moonstone, and this technique is again a clever way to tell a mystery story. Not only do we have exactly the information the author wants us to have at each point, but also we get to know the personalities and biases of each character. For instance we know that Betteredge reads “Robinson Crusoe” for comfort, and guidance on how to act. Similarly his prejudices against women are humorous rather than offensive. His views are paternalistic but kindly. Wilkie Collins himself was a pioneer campaigner for women’s rights, and knew how to paint this picture subtly. Betteredge is simply naïve, and has no malice. He is happy with his place in the household and the world. He is an upright man who is delighted to be the conveyor of information for us.
We have seen Wilkie Collins painting a morally hypocritical female, but he writes a strong woman of a very different sort in Rachel Verinder. Rachel is a modern, thinking woman in the way of becoming very much in love with another character, whom she suspects of thievery.
It is Rachel who is now the owner of the priceless Indian diamond. For an unfathomable reason, she has inherited the jewel for her eighteenth birthday from her uncle, an army officer who served in India, but whom she had never met. As the story proceeds we see that Rachel knows her own mind, and is not afraid to challenge her mother, Lady Julia, and act according to what she herself thinks is right.
The success of The Moonstone was partly due to the growing public interest in stories of detection, as police work became increasing sophisticated. It was one of the first novels to put the emphasis on the growing use of forensic science and how the police used rational deduction to solve crimes. Earlier novels had tended to be written from the point of view of the criminal, or to concentrate on the social conditions which would make a crime more likely. Yet even so, Wilkie Collins’s popularity began to decline after this landmark novel.
The reason for the sudden change, and halt as a literary best-selling author, is rather sad. In his second Preface from 1871 Wilkie Collins tells his readers how two personal calamities hit him at once, when he was only a third of the way through The Moonstone. His mother died, and he was stricken with the gout which was to plague him for the rest of his life. He had to dictate the rest of the book. In consequence, he began to write novels which contained more overt social commentary, and these did not attract the same popularity. Although he was to live for 21 more years, The Moonstone still outshines Collins’s later works.
The Moonstone was a great success with the public, but after his initial excitement about it Dickens’s enthusiam began to wane. This seems odd, because the episodes of this story had increased the circulation of “All the Year Round” more than any other novel so far—including his own popular ones “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859) and even “Great Expectations” (1861).
However, something similar had happened before. The first weekly installment of Wilkie Collins’s “The Woman in White” had appeared in the same edition of “All the Year Round” along with the final installment of “A Tale of Two Cities” (26th November 1859). But by the end of “The Woman in White” in July 1860, sales of the journal were up! The critics may have had a mixed reception, but in the eyes of the public, Collins’s sensation novels were a huge success. Collins even adapted The Moonstone for the stage in 1877.
That success continues today, with many dramatisations of both “The Woman in White” and The Moonstone. People are still caught up in the intrigue and mysteries of these stories. The latest is an excellent BBC miniseries from 2016 and stars David Calder, Sophie Ward, Jeremy Swift, Guy Henry and Jag Sanghera etc. It has 5 episodes of 45 minutes each.
What many people look for in a mystery story is a simple “whodunnit”. Will you guess the culprit in this case? You might, if you are familar with Victorian tropes, just as you might in a modern crime novel, if you pick up the clues. It is quite a complex plot, although with far fewer characters than Dickens novel and a more direct story line. The ending is perhaps not what you expect, but I personally feel is exactly right.
“If half the stories I have heard are true, when it comes to unravelling a mystery, there isn’t the equal in England of Sergeant Cuff!”
I shall no doubt enjoy seeing the current exhibition at the Charles Dickens Museum, and actually being in the room where these two great authors’ collaborations took place.
November 1, 2022
Though Wilkie Collins was long-time friends with Charles Dickens, they had drastically different writing styles, and suffered some rough patches in their relationship. In a letter to someone, Dickens talks about his thoughts on The Moonstone: "The construction is wearisome beyond endurance, and there is a vein of obstinate conceit in it that makes enemies of readers."
What the heck? Who's this Dickens guy, anyway? What the heck does he know about writing? Sheesh!
I don't know what book the vaunted Mr. Charles Dickens read, but the book I read was absolutely wonderful. It was hilarious, entertaining, smart, and everything else that makes a good novel. Beyond that, it was especially surprising! Being one of the first detective novels, I expected it to be rather dry. Maybe a little dull, or outdated feeling. Perhaps even a bit shallow and boring.
I'm pleased to say, that it was none of these things. For a book written in the mid-1800's this novel has a remarkably modern feel. Though the main plot is a detective-style mystery, there is a wonderful underlying social commentary aspect, all revealed through the lenses of the unique cast of characters. The story is brilliantly told by using various written narratives of different people, all which not only tease us with knowledge of the mystery at just the right pace, but also provide wildly entertaining character studies of the people writing them. From (my favorite character) the chauvinistic old butler, who wants nothing more than to serve his household faithfully while leaning upon the crutch of Robinson Crusoe and his tobacco pipe, to the absolutely, but painfully, hilarious distant cousin who is on a mission to convert everyone to her particular brand of christian values. Each character's narrative is written in their unique voice, and it makes you love them all even when you're hating them.
I think Collins himself puts it perfectly, when he said that, unlike examining the influence of circumstances upon character (as many other novels), this book examines the influence of character upon circumstance. This isn't some novel where you place an average person in an extraordinary situation, and watch what becomes of them. This is a novel where the extraordinary characters are the movers and shakers of the plot. Yet, even as wonderfully unique as these characters are, they are all at the same time, so wonderfully human. With the narrative style Collins chose, we are allowed insight into the characters' thought processes, and feelings; we are able to see more than what actually happens. In many other novels, this approach might generate superfluous noise, but in The Moonstone it keeps the book churning at a page-burning pace, and allows us to appreciate the smaller aspects of the novel, even when the larger parts might normally be prepared to overshadow them.
This book almost feels like one of those "guilty pleasure books" people always try to judge others for reading, but you can hold your head high on this one. It's fun, fast-paced, and riveting, but nobody can accuse it of being shallow. Each character brings not only a unique perspective on the main plot/mystery of the novel, but also a unique perspective on the world around them. Let's explore what I mean with a couple of my favorite gentlefolk, shall we?:
The old butler:
The self-righteous cousin, whose only want is to share her beloved religious tracts*:
Even though I could go on and on with wonderfully entertaining passages, I realize I've already over done it on the quotations, so this humble reviewer must desist before he loses himself.
Basically, read this book. If you like detective novels, or if you like Victorian novels, or if you like novels in general, read this. It's quite fun! The true mark of a great mystery novel is that even if you know or "solved" the mystery, the book still manages to keep your attention and make you want to see the conclusion unfold for yourself. I can't imagine re-reading most mystery novels I can think of, but I can't imagine not re-reading The Moonstone again in the future. It's simply too much fun.
________________________________
*A small, religious pamphlet.
What the heck? Who's this Dickens guy, anyway? What the heck does he know about writing? Sheesh!
I don't know what book the vaunted Mr. Charles Dickens read, but the book I read was absolutely wonderful. It was hilarious, entertaining, smart, and everything else that makes a good novel. Beyond that, it was especially surprising! Being one of the first detective novels, I expected it to be rather dry. Maybe a little dull, or outdated feeling. Perhaps even a bit shallow and boring.
I'm pleased to say, that it was none of these things. For a book written in the mid-1800's this novel has a remarkably modern feel. Though the main plot is a detective-style mystery, there is a wonderful underlying social commentary aspect, all revealed through the lenses of the unique cast of characters. The story is brilliantly told by using various written narratives of different people, all which not only tease us with knowledge of the mystery at just the right pace, but also provide wildly entertaining character studies of the people writing them. From (my favorite character) the chauvinistic old butler, who wants nothing more than to serve his household faithfully while leaning upon the crutch of Robinson Crusoe and his tobacco pipe, to the absolutely, but painfully, hilarious distant cousin who is on a mission to convert everyone to her particular brand of christian values. Each character's narrative is written in their unique voice, and it makes you love them all even when you're hating them.
I think Collins himself puts it perfectly, when he said that, unlike examining the influence of circumstances upon character (as many other novels), this book examines the influence of character upon circumstance. This isn't some novel where you place an average person in an extraordinary situation, and watch what becomes of them. This is a novel where the extraordinary characters are the movers and shakers of the plot. Yet, even as wonderfully unique as these characters are, they are all at the same time, so wonderfully human. With the narrative style Collins chose, we are allowed insight into the characters' thought processes, and feelings; we are able to see more than what actually happens. In many other novels, this approach might generate superfluous noise, but in The Moonstone it keeps the book churning at a page-burning pace, and allows us to appreciate the smaller aspects of the novel, even when the larger parts might normally be prepared to overshadow them.
This book almost feels like one of those "guilty pleasure books" people always try to judge others for reading, but you can hold your head high on this one. It's fun, fast-paced, and riveting, but nobody can accuse it of being shallow. Each character brings not only a unique perspective on the main plot/mystery of the novel, but also a unique perspective on the world around them. Let's explore what I mean with a couple of my favorite gentlefolk, shall we?:
The old butler:
"People in high life have all the luxuries to themselves-among others, the luxury of indulging their feelings. People in low life have no such privilege. Necessity, which spares our betters, has no pity on us. We learn to put our feelings back into ourselves, and to jog on with our duties as patiently as may be. I don't complain of this--I only notice it."
"There's a bottom of good sense, Mr. Franklin, in our conduct to our mothers, when they first start us on the journey of life. We are all of us more or less unwilling to be brought into this world. And we are all of us right."
The self-righteous cousin, whose only want is to share her beloved religious tracts*:
"I paid the cabman exactly his fare. He received it with an oath; upon which I instantly gave him a tract. If I had presented a pistol at his head, this abandoned wretch could hardly have exhibited greater consternation. He jumped up on his box, and, with profane exclamations of dismay, drove off furiously. Quite useless, I am happy to say! I sowed the good seed, in spite of him, by throwing a second tract in at the window of the cab."
"When I folded up my things that night--when I reflected on the true riches which I had scattered with such a lavish hand, from top to bottom of the house of my wealthy aunt--I declare I felt as free from all anxiety as if I had been a child again. I was so lighthearted that I sang a verse of the Evening Hymm. I was so lighthearted that I fell asleep before I could sing another. Quite like a child again! Quite like a child again!
So I passed the blissful night. On rising the next morning, how young I felt! I might add, how young I looked, if I were capable of dwelling on the concerns of my own perishable body. But I am not capable--and I add nothing."
Even though I could go on and on with wonderfully entertaining passages, I realize I've already over done it on the quotations, so this humble reviewer must desist before he loses himself.
Basically, read this book. If you like detective novels, or if you like Victorian novels, or if you like novels in general, read this. It's quite fun! The true mark of a great mystery novel is that even if you know or "solved" the mystery, the book still manages to keep your attention and make you want to see the conclusion unfold for yourself. I can't imagine re-reading most mystery novels I can think of, but I can't imagine not re-reading The Moonstone again in the future. It's simply too much fun.
________________________________
*A small, religious pamphlet.
May 10, 2019
به نام او
" ماه الماس نخستین و بزرگترین رمانِ پلیسیِ انگلیسی است."
این جمله تی.اس.الیوت شاعر و منتقد معروفِ انگلستانی در موردِ شاهکارِ ویلکی کالینز ابداً اغراق و مداهنه نیست.
ماه الماس یکی از بهترین رمانهای کلاسیکیست که تا به حال خواندهام.
توجه بفرمایید جمله بالا را کسی میگوید که همواره به ادبیات انگلستان با دید تردید نگریسته است (هرچند با تاسف تمام هنوز اثری از چارلز دیکنز نخوانده است) و در بین رمانهایی که از این ادبیات خوانده کمتر اثری او را جذب خود کرده است.
باری حساب ماه الماس جداست.
همانطور که در جمله الیوت آمده ماه الماس رمانی پلیسیست و آن هم اولین رمان پلیسی ادبیات انگلیسی زبان
ولی واقعیتش را بخواهید برای من باورکردنی نیست که ماه الماس اولین باشد چرا که نوع روایت داستان و گره افکنیهایش بسیار قوام یافتهتر و پیشرفتهتر از آن است که اولین باشد. اینگونه به نظر میرسد که کالینز از چندین و چند تجربه جنایینویسی باید بهره برده باشد تا بتواند چنین رمانی بنویسد. یا کارگاه کاف را که اولین کاراگاه آثار ادبی میدانند بسیار پختهتر از هر اولینی رفتار میکند
کتاب در حدود ۶۵۰ صفحه است و جالب این است که داستان لحظهای از ریتم نمیافتد (امری که در داستان پلیسی بسیار حیاتیست) و نویسنده برای هر قسمت ایده منحصر به فردی دارد. داستان به شیوه پلیفونیک یا چندصدایی روایت میشود که این هم در نوع خود با توجه به سال نوشتن رمان (اواسط قرن نوزده) امری بدیع بوده است.
نکته جالب دیگر این کتاب به زعم من شخصیتپردازی رمان است. ماه الماس با اینکه رمانی کلاسیک است ولی در شخصیتپردازیها کمتر دچار رخوت و کسالتی که مشخصه غالب رمانهای آن زمان است میشود. و شخصیتها چنان پیچیده هستند که خواننده بارها در طول خواندن رمان نسبت به آنها احساسات مختلفی اتخاذ میکند. خود کالینز در جایی از رمان از زبان یکی از شخصیتها در مورد رمانهای کلاسیک مینویسد:
《همه از جمله آثار کلاسیک؛ و البته همه بیاندازه برتر از چیزهائی که بعدها منتشر شد؛ و همه (از لحاظ من) این مزیت بزرگ را دارند که دل هیچکس را نمیربایند و مغز هیچکس را داغ نمیکنند.》
آخرین نکته ترجمه بینظیر منوچهر بدیعی است نثر بدیعی خود یک اثر ادبی مجزا است پر از ظرافت و زیبایی. بدیعی علاوه بر آن که زبان مبدا را به خوبی میشناسد (بالاخره مترجم اولیس است). فارسی را در فصاحت و بلاغتی رشک برانگیز به کار میبرد. در ترجمه رمان بارها با ارجاعت نحوی قرآنی یا تلمیحهایی به اشعار سعدی حافظ و مولوی روبرو هستیم که این خود بر ملاحت شاهکار کالینز افزوده است، به جملات زیر توجه بفرمایید:
《شنیدهایم که از "ابلیس آدمرو" سخن میگویند من معتقدم مثالِ "فرشتهسیرتانِ دیوصورت" به مراتب به حقیقت نزدیکتراست》
" ماه الماس نخستین و بزرگترین رمانِ پلیسیِ انگلیسی است."
این جمله تی.اس.الیوت شاعر و منتقد معروفِ انگلستانی در موردِ شاهکارِ ویلکی کالینز ابداً اغراق و مداهنه نیست.
ماه الماس یکی از بهترین رمانهای کلاسیکیست که تا به حال خواندهام.
توجه بفرمایید جمله بالا را کسی میگوید که همواره به ادبیات انگلستان با دید تردید نگریسته است (هرچند با تاسف تمام هنوز اثری از چارلز دیکنز نخوانده است) و در بین رمانهایی که از این ادبیات خوانده کمتر اثری او را جذب خود کرده است.
باری حساب ماه الماس جداست.
همانطور که در جمله الیوت آمده ماه الماس رمانی پلیسیست و آن هم اولین رمان پلیسی ادبیات انگلیسی زبان
ولی واقعیتش را بخواهید برای من باورکردنی نیست که ماه الماس اولین باشد چرا که نوع روایت داستان و گره افکنیهایش بسیار قوام یافتهتر و پیشرفتهتر از آن است که اولین باشد. اینگونه به نظر میرسد که کالینز از چندین و چند تجربه جنایینویسی باید بهره برده باشد تا بتواند چنین رمانی بنویسد. یا کارگاه کاف را که اولین کاراگاه آثار ادبی میدانند بسیار پختهتر از هر اولینی رفتار میکند
کتاب در حدود ۶۵۰ صفحه است و جالب این است که داستان لحظهای از ریتم نمیافتد (امری که در داستان پلیسی بسیار حیاتیست) و نویسنده برای هر قسمت ایده منحصر به فردی دارد. داستان به شیوه پلیفونیک یا چندصدایی روایت میشود که این هم در نوع خود با توجه به سال نوشتن رمان (اواسط قرن نوزده) امری بدیع بوده است.
نکته جالب دیگر این کتاب به زعم من شخصیتپردازی رمان است. ماه الماس با اینکه رمانی کلاسیک است ولی در شخصیتپردازیها کمتر دچار رخوت و کسالتی که مشخصه غالب رمانهای آن زمان است میشود. و شخصیتها چنان پیچیده هستند که خواننده بارها در طول خواندن رمان نسبت به آنها احساسات مختلفی اتخاذ میکند. خود کالینز در جایی از رمان از زبان یکی از شخصیتها در مورد رمانهای کلاسیک مینویسد:
《همه از جمله آثار کلاسیک؛ و البته همه بیاندازه برتر از چیزهائی که بعدها منتشر شد؛ و همه (از لحاظ من) این مزیت بزرگ را دارند که دل هیچکس را نمیربایند و مغز هیچکس را داغ نمیکنند.》
آخرین نکته ترجمه بینظیر منوچهر بدیعی است نثر بدیعی خود یک اثر ادبی مجزا است پر از ظرافت و زیبایی. بدیعی علاوه بر آن که زبان مبدا را به خوبی میشناسد (بالاخره مترجم اولیس است). فارسی را در فصاحت و بلاغتی رشک برانگیز به کار میبرد. در ترجمه رمان بارها با ارجاعت نحوی قرآنی یا تلمیحهایی به اشعار سعدی حافظ و مولوی روبرو هستیم که این خود بر ملاحت شاهکار کالینز افزوده است، به جملات زیر توجه بفرمایید:
《شنیدهایم که از "ابلیس آدمرو" سخن میگویند من معتقدم مثالِ "فرشتهسیرتانِ دیوصورت" به مراتب به حقیقت نزدیکتراست》
March 25, 2017
گذشته از داستان جذاب و پرکشش، ترجمة بدیعی هم در حد شاهکاره، بخصوص در بخشهایی که از زبان خدمتکاری روایت می شه که سعی می کنه ادبی و لفظ قلم حرف بزنه
February 12, 2018
862. The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, generally considered the first full length detective novel in the English language.
The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the 'Scotland Yard bungler' and the skilled, professional detective.
Characters: Franklin Blake, Rachel Verinder, Godfrey Ablewhite, Gabriel Betteredge, Rosanna Spearman, Drusilla Clack, Mathew Bruff, Lady Verinder, Sergeant Cuff, Dr. Candy, Ezra Jennings, Octavius Guy, Penelope Betteredge.
عنوانها: سنگ ماه؛ الماس شوم؛ ماهسنگ؛ ماه الماس؛ نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ انتشاراتیها: (سنبله، مجرد، عطایی، نشر مرکز)؛ ادبیات قرن نوزدهم؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوم ماه دسامبر سال 2006 میلادی
عنوان یک: الماس شوم (سنگ ماه)، نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ مترجم: مهین قهرمان�� نشر: تهران، عطائی، 1384، در 364 ص.، فروست: موسسه انتشارات عطائی، 649، رمان، 48، شابک: 9789643136482
عنوان دو: ماهسنگ، مترجم: حمیدرضا ضرابی، نشر: مشهد، سنبله، 1383، در 107 ص،؛
عنوان سه: سنگ ماه (متن کوتاه شده)، مترجم: مهین دانشور، رمان پلیسی: ادبیات جهان برای جوانان، نشر: تهران، نشر مرکز، کتاب مریم، 1376، در 208 ص، مصور. يادداشت: چاپ قبلی: مجرد، 1363؛
این رمان به صورت پیوسته در مجله ای به سرپرستی چارلز دیکنز منتشر میشد و نخستین بار در سال 1868 میلادی به صورت کتاب در انگلستان به چاپ رسید. رمان ماه الماس در کنار رمان زن سفیدپوش از بهترین رمانهای ویلکی کالینز به حساب میآیند. تی. اس. الیوت شاعر و نمایشنامه نویس آمریکایی، در مقدمه ای بر رمان ماه الماس، آنرا «نخستین، بلندترین و بهترین رمان پلیسی مدرن انگلیسی» خوانده است. این کتاب در ایران در سالهای مختلف توسط ناشرین متفاوت، تحت عنوانهای: «سنگ ماه» و «الماس شوم» و «ماهسنگ» و «ماه الماس» منتشر شده است. رمان ماه الماس را انتشارات نیلوفر در سال 1394 هجری خورشیدی با ترجمه منوچهر بدیعی به فارسی منتشر کرده است. ا. شربیانی
The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, generally considered the first full length detective novel in the English language.
The Moonstone tells of the events surrounding the disappearance of a mysterious (and cursed) yellow diamond. T. S. Eliot called it 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre, including a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the 'Scotland Yard bungler' and the skilled, professional detective.
Characters: Franklin Blake, Rachel Verinder, Godfrey Ablewhite, Gabriel Betteredge, Rosanna Spearman, Drusilla Clack, Mathew Bruff, Lady Verinder, Sergeant Cuff, Dr. Candy, Ezra Jennings, Octavius Guy, Penelope Betteredge.
عنوانها: سنگ ماه؛ الماس شوم؛ ماهسنگ؛ ماه الماس؛ نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ انتشاراتیها: (سنبله، مجرد، عطایی، نشر مرکز)؛ ادبیات قرن نوزدهم؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوم ماه دسامبر سال 2006 میلادی
عنوان یک: الماس شوم (سنگ ماه)، نویسنده: ویلکی کالینز؛ مترجم: مهین قهرمان�� نشر: تهران، عطائی، 1384، در 364 ص.، فروست: موسسه انتشارات عطائی، 649، رمان، 48، شابک: 9789643136482
عنوان دو: ماهسنگ، مترجم: حمیدرضا ضرابی، نشر: مشهد، سنبله، 1383، در 107 ص،؛
عنوان سه: سنگ ماه (متن کوتاه شده)، مترجم: مهین دانشور، رمان پلیسی: ادبیات جهان برای جوانان، نشر: تهران، نشر مرکز، کتاب مریم، 1376، در 208 ص، مصور. يادداشت: چاپ قبلی: مجرد، 1363؛
این رمان به صورت پیوسته در مجله ای به سرپرستی چارلز دیکنز منتشر میشد و نخستین بار در سال 1868 میلادی به صورت کتاب در انگلستان به چاپ رسید. رمان ماه الماس در کنار رمان زن سفیدپوش از بهترین رمانهای ویلکی کالینز به حساب میآیند. تی. اس. الیوت شاعر و نمایشنامه نویس آمریکایی، در مقدمه ای بر رمان ماه الماس، آنرا «نخستین، بلندترین و بهترین رمان پلیسی مدرن انگلیسی» خوانده است. این کتاب در ایران در سالهای مختلف توسط ناشرین متفاوت، تحت عنوانهای: «سنگ ماه» و «الماس شوم» و «ماهسنگ» و «ماه الماس» منتشر شده است. رمان ماه الماس را انتشارات نیلوفر در سال 1394 هجری خورشیدی با ترجمه منوچهر بدیعی به فارسی منتشر کرده است. ا. شربیانی
October 9, 2022
I loved the reading experience on this reread - a really intriguing novel, with some fantastic characters and twists and turns. I'm still deciding how I feel about Wilkie Collins but I do love his writing an awful lot.
March 10, 2023
The narrative structure is similar to that of The Woman in White with Mr Franklin Blake taking a role similar to that of Mr Walter Hartright, and collecting witness accounts from people concerned with the “scandal”.
These witness accounts are from first person point of view and thoroughly interesting to read. I was ensnared by this mystery.
The eponymous diamond, the Moonstone was like a character in its own right. It had its hold on people.
A twist came in the second half of the novel which I was not expecting and was completely enthralled by it.
The characters were unique and colourful. Some of their characteristics and narratives were quite humorous. (I have a new found respect for Robinson Crusoe)
Reading this book was like putting together pieces of a puzzle and it resulted in a similar satisfaction in the end. There were no loose ends. Every action in this suspense was accounted for, and explained. And oh, such fun was the journey we took with these characters!
Strongly recommended!
These witness accounts are from first person point of view and thoroughly interesting to read. I was ensnared by this mystery.
The eponymous diamond, the Moonstone was like a character in its own right. It had its hold on people.
A twist came in the second half of the novel which I was not expecting and was completely enthralled by it.
The characters were unique and colourful. Some of their characteristics and narratives were quite humorous. (I have a new found respect for Robinson Crusoe)
Reading this book was like putting together pieces of a puzzle and it resulted in a similar satisfaction in the end. There were no loose ends. Every action in this suspense was accounted for, and explained. And oh, such fun was the journey we took with these characters!
Strongly recommended!
April 12, 2023
This was a read that was quite unexpected. I am familiar with Wilkie Collins’ work and have enjoyed The Woman in White but I had no idea how much I was going to love The Moonstone!
Wilkie Collins was a law student before he became an author. His friendship with mentor Charles Dickens played an important part in his success having collaborated together on several plays and stories. Dickens published the novel in his magazine, All the Year Round in serial fashion. The Moonstone is often thought to be the first English detective novel introducing Detective Cuff to readers in 1868. Victorian readers would have been utterly captivated by the compelling plot and the intriguing case of the mystery surrounding the Moonstone.
The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!
The story is told by various characters through letters that they write. After the gem has been missing for 2 years, Franklin Blake has entrusted each individual to help in getting to the bottom of the mystery. Each narrative presents its writer as responsible for getting at the truth of the mystery via the epistolary style. The longest narrative is written by Gabriel Betteredge, the overseer of the Verinder house. He catches the “detective fever” brought on by our significant Detective Cuff. Betteredge also seeks out life’s guidance from his well-worn and loved copy of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. It’s as if he gains some type of spiritual direction from the passages he reads and interprets. And this added personality quirk is just a joy to take part in. Betteredge finds joy in his favorite reading material and it translates to readers in the same way. He has some rather archaic views on women but I didn’t find them derogatory (some might) but just a quirk of his personality.
We also get the perspective of Miss Drusilla Clack who is a self-righteous Christian lady who is a cousin to the Verinder’s. Her eavesdropping tendencies and mission to save everyone from their sins with tracts that she disperses about the house for the purpose of edifying those who found and read them provide some humor. Her charity work for the Mother’s-Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society puts a satirical spin on her character. I found her a pitiable character for the way she just doesn’t give up her personal mission of soul saving. I just thought she could have used a bit of grace in her delivery.
Miss Rachel Verinder is the benefactor of the moonstone and a very independent minded young woman. We get to know her character through the narration of the other characters quite well and question some of her behaviors; however, patience in getting to the end of the complex story and plot that Collins has created will shine light on her stubbornness eventually. We never view the story from her perspective though.
As the plot unfolds, readers will wonder whether the moonstone has cursed the Verinder family. But there is a lot going for this story. There is romance, innocent characters wrongfully suspected, sinister Hindoo men lurking about, an English manor house setting and one of the most intriguing characters, the doctor’s assistant, Ezra Jennings who brings an enigmatic atmosphere to the narrative. And finally, the fact that we get to meet the eccentric rose-loving Detective Cuff makes this a perfect reason to pick up this story. And if you think you are a regular armchair detective and will be able to figure this mystery out, beware, Collins’ outdoes himself with keeping readers guessing until the very end!
Wilkie Collins was a law student before he became an author. His friendship with mentor Charles Dickens played an important part in his success having collaborated together on several plays and stories. Dickens published the novel in his magazine, All the Year Round in serial fashion. The Moonstone is often thought to be the first English detective novel introducing Detective Cuff to readers in 1868. Victorian readers would have been utterly captivated by the compelling plot and the intriguing case of the mystery surrounding the Moonstone.
The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!
The story is told by various characters through letters that they write. After the gem has been missing for 2 years, Franklin Blake has entrusted each individual to help in getting to the bottom of the mystery. Each narrative presents its writer as responsible for getting at the truth of the mystery via the epistolary style. The longest narrative is written by Gabriel Betteredge, the overseer of the Verinder house. He catches the “detective fever” brought on by our significant Detective Cuff. Betteredge also seeks out life’s guidance from his well-worn and loved copy of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. It’s as if he gains some type of spiritual direction from the passages he reads and interprets. And this added personality quirk is just a joy to take part in. Betteredge finds joy in his favorite reading material and it translates to readers in the same way. He has some rather archaic views on women but I didn’t find them derogatory (some might) but just a quirk of his personality.
We also get the perspective of Miss Drusilla Clack who is a self-righteous Christian lady who is a cousin to the Verinder’s. Her eavesdropping tendencies and mission to save everyone from their sins with tracts that she disperses about the house for the purpose of edifying those who found and read them provide some humor. Her charity work for the Mother’s-Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society puts a satirical spin on her character. I found her a pitiable character for the way she just doesn’t give up her personal mission of soul saving. I just thought she could have used a bit of grace in her delivery.
Miss Rachel Verinder is the benefactor of the moonstone and a very independent minded young woman. We get to know her character through the narration of the other characters quite well and question some of her behaviors; however, patience in getting to the end of the complex story and plot that Collins has created will shine light on her stubbornness eventually. We never view the story from her perspective though.
As the plot unfolds, readers will wonder whether the moonstone has cursed the Verinder family. But there is a lot going for this story. There is romance, innocent characters wrongfully suspected, sinister Hindoo men lurking about, an English manor house setting and one of the most intriguing characters, the doctor’s assistant, Ezra Jennings who brings an enigmatic atmosphere to the narrative. And finally, the fact that we get to meet the eccentric rose-loving Detective Cuff makes this a perfect reason to pick up this story. And if you think you are a regular armchair detective and will be able to figure this mystery out, beware, Collins’ outdoes himself with keeping readers guessing until the very end!
September 9, 2017
Damn those heathen savages trying to get back their stolen sacred stone from them sahibs!
Mildly spoilerish
To my utmost disappointment The Butler, didn't do it :(
Considering that this book was written wayyy back in the 1840-1850s, one needs to ignore
a) the methods of solving a supposed crime and mystery behind certain unexplained events
b) the "oriental" tenor of describing certain ahem races/nationalities (using the term loosely here)
c) the obscure experiments providing confounding astounding and accurate results! (to solve the aforementioned, unexplained events)
d) the multiple POVs (half of which imho added nothing to the story, except for making almost 60% of the content of the book)
Continuing with d) I wish the author had not made this such a lengthy story. Had been it been just the first 15% and last quarter of the book, it would have been a fast paced thriller.
So weighing the likes/dislikes, frustrations and fun that I had while reading this book.
I'l rate it 2.25 stars
It was not TOO bad.
P.S. I was immensely pleased that the natives got their stolen stuff back ;)
Readers Bias! I have a right to it.
P.P.S: somewhere the book mentions the Indian god Moon with four arms riding an antelope.
My search on the world wide web lead me to this link;
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illus...
Borrowing the images here
Top: The American serial's 4 January 1868 Headnote vignette showing the Brahmins and the idol of the Hindu Moon God. Centre: An expanded version of the same illustration, The Idol of the Moon God in the Peter Fenelon Collier edition (1900). Bottom: An expanded view of the original 1868 vignette, The Diamond and the Ganges (1874, second edition, Chapter 11, p. 90.)
***
I would love to get my hands on those illustrated versions!
Mildly spoilerish
To my utmost disappointment The Butler, didn't do it :(
Considering that this book was written wayyy back in the 1840-1850s, one needs to ignore
a) the methods of solving a supposed crime and mystery behind certain unexplained events
b) the "oriental" tenor of describing certain ahem races/nationalities (using the term loosely here)
c) the obscure experiments providing
d) the multiple POVs (half of which imho added nothing to the story, except for making almost 60% of the content of the book)
Continuing with d) I wish the author had not made this such a lengthy story. Had been it been just the first 15% and last quarter of the book, it would have been a fast paced thriller.
So weighing the likes/dislikes, frustrations and fun that I had while reading this book.
I'l rate it 2.25 stars
It was not TOO bad.
P.S. I was immensely pleased that the natives got their stolen stuff back ;)
Readers Bias! I have a right to it.
P.P.S: somewhere the book mentions the Indian god Moon with four arms riding an antelope.
My search on the world wide web lead me to this link;
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illus...
Borrowing the images here
Top: The American serial's 4 January 1868 Headnote vignette showing the Brahmins and the idol of the Hindu Moon God. Centre: An expanded version of the same illustration, The Idol of the Moon God in the Peter Fenelon Collier edition (1900). Bottom: An expanded view of the original 1868 vignette, The Diamond and the Ganges (1874, second edition, Chapter 11, p. 90.)
***
I would love to get my hands on those illustrated versions!
April 5, 2021
“I am (thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason. [...] Profit, good friends, I beseech you, by my example. It will save you from many troubles of the vexing sort. Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!”
I've wanted to read it since I read The D. Case or The Truth About The Mystery Of Edwin Drood and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I've discovered a new favourite author. Right now, I am perfectly and delightfully happy. And the final essay by T. S. Eliot delighted my literature-student crave for a little literary history.
I've wanted to read it since I read The D. Case or The Truth About The Mystery Of Edwin Drood and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I've discovered a new favourite author. Right now, I am perfectly and delightfully happy. And the final essay by T. S. Eliot delighted my literature-student crave for a little literary history.
March 19, 2023
Free for Audible-UK-Plus members. Do not miss this!
I am utterly amazed that I sat glued to this all the way through. Why? Because it is so very different from the books I usually enjoy. This is a fun and engaging mystery. It is said to be the first English detective novel! Usually, I am captivated by books more down to earth and realistic in style. That I enjoyed this so very much is what makes it amazing for me.
I want to explain the draw of this book.
A mystery is to be solved. Who has taken the “moonstone”, a diamond from India worth £20 000? Who did what and why is unraveled, as well as the specifics of how. Not once did I become confused. My lack of confusion is not typical of me. The explanation is twofold. Every detail and aspect of the story is meticulously and captivatingly laid out, in this, Wilkie Collins’ 1868 novel. You pay attention because the writing grabs you and holds you tight!
The story is told by those who witnessed it. Each of these narrators explain what he or she personally saw and experienced. These characters come alive. Each has a personality you are not soon to forget. Each lives and breathes. Each has a personality different from the others. None are duplicates. Some are amusing. Both Miss Druscilla Clack and the butler Gabriel Betteredge will leave you chuckling. No, they are not funny in the same way. This exemplifies the author’s marvelous ability to imagine, create and perfect unique characters. Miss Druscilla Clack is an ardent evangelist handing out “tracts of wisdom” right and left. The butler’s bible is, on the other hand, Defoe’s Robinson and Crusoe. With every new calamity, he has an applicable quote. It is Collins’ words and his way of telling the story that make the tale special.
Widely varied characters and humorous lines are topped off with words of wisdom about, for example, national traits. The idiosyncrasies of the French, Germans, Italians and English are noted. Those who enjoy a minute of serious thought are thus satisfied too!
Figuring out exactly how all the different steps are tied together becomes and enjoyable lark, despite that all is pure fiction from start to finish. THIS is what I find utterly amazing!
To top this all off, the audiobook narration by Peter Jeffrey is excellent. His intonations enhance the characters’ respective personality traits. He does not overdramatize, but he has a particular voice for each one of the characters. You easily recognize who is speaking, without being told. Jeffrey’s rendition is topnotch. Five stars for the narration.
And this is all free if you are an Audible-UK-Plus member! Grab it. Don’t just grab it, listen to it soon!
*********************
*The Woman in White 3 stars
*The Moonstone 5 stars
*Poor Miss Finch TBR
*No Name TBR
*Armadale TBR
I appreciate suggestions guiding me to Collins' other topnotch choices.
I am utterly amazed that I sat glued to this all the way through. Why? Because it is so very different from the books I usually enjoy. This is a fun and engaging mystery. It is said to be the first English detective novel! Usually, I am captivated by books more down to earth and realistic in style. That I enjoyed this so very much is what makes it amazing for me.
I want to explain the draw of this book.
A mystery is to be solved. Who has taken the “moonstone”, a diamond from India worth £20 000? Who did what and why is unraveled, as well as the specifics of how. Not once did I become confused. My lack of confusion is not typical of me. The explanation is twofold. Every detail and aspect of the story is meticulously and captivatingly laid out, in this, Wilkie Collins’ 1868 novel. You pay attention because the writing grabs you and holds you tight!
The story is told by those who witnessed it. Each of these narrators explain what he or she personally saw and experienced. These characters come alive. Each has a personality you are not soon to forget. Each lives and breathes. Each has a personality different from the others. None are duplicates. Some are amusing. Both Miss Druscilla Clack and the butler Gabriel Betteredge will leave you chuckling. No, they are not funny in the same way. This exemplifies the author’s marvelous ability to imagine, create and perfect unique characters. Miss Druscilla Clack is an ardent evangelist handing out “tracts of wisdom” right and left. The butler’s bible is, on the other hand, Defoe’s Robinson and Crusoe. With every new calamity, he has an applicable quote. It is Collins’ words and his way of telling the story that make the tale special.
Widely varied characters and humorous lines are topped off with words of wisdom about, for example, national traits. The idiosyncrasies of the French, Germans, Italians and English are noted. Those who enjoy a minute of serious thought are thus satisfied too!
Figuring out exactly how all the different steps are tied together becomes and enjoyable lark, despite that all is pure fiction from start to finish. THIS is what I find utterly amazing!
To top this all off, the audiobook narration by Peter Jeffrey is excellent. His intonations enhance the characters’ respective personality traits. He does not overdramatize, but he has a particular voice for each one of the characters. You easily recognize who is speaking, without being told. Jeffrey’s rendition is topnotch. Five stars for the narration.
And this is all free if you are an Audible-UK-Plus member! Grab it. Don’t just grab it, listen to it soon!
*********************
*The Woman in White 3 stars
*The Moonstone 5 stars
*Poor Miss Finch TBR
*No Name TBR
*Armadale TBR
I appreciate suggestions guiding me to Collins' other topnotch choices.
August 1, 2019
T.S. Eliot opinaba que La piedra lunar era “la primera, la más larga y la mejor de las novelas británicas contemporáneas de detectives.” No tengo los conocimientos suficientes para rebatirlo, pero la primera afirmación es un tema bastante discutido y en la actualidad la mayoría opina que “la primera” fue El misterio de Notting Hill, de Charles Warren Adams. Lo que sí es más que probable es que esta de Collins sea la que tuvo una influencia decisiva en lo que vino después.
Con las 784 páginas que tiene mi edición, probablemente calificarla como “la más larga” sea correcto, aunque esto poco tenga que ver con la calidad de la obra y sí con la manera en que fue escrita y publicada, por entregas en All the Year Round, el semanario de Charles Dickens.
Sobre si fue o no “la mejor” habrá millones de opiniones. Me atrevería a decir que en su momento sí lo fue. Lo de menos es la trama, la intriga por saber quién robó la joya no es lo que engancha, ni es nada extraordinaria para el lector, al menos para el actual. Los giros son los típicos, el misterio no deja de enredarse hasta llegar al desenlace, que no creo que sea tampoco demasiado sorprendente.
La principal virtud de la novela es su forma: ocho partes, cada una escrita por un personaje o testigo diferente: un miembro del servicio, Gabriel Betteredge, que tiene una fe ciega en que toda la verdad se encuentra en Robinson Crusoe; la beata e insufrible prima Clack; el sargento Cuff, aficionado al cultivo de rosas… los distintos narradores se hacen referencias cruzadas, se dirigen al lector y buscan su complicidad en un relato que en este sentido resulta sorprendentemente moderno y bien llevado, dándole a cada uno una voz propia e inconfundible, sus narracinoes son interesadas, subjetivas, y por lo tanto poco fiables. Collins dice en el prólogo que la presente historia trata de analizar la influencia que ejerce la personalidad sobre las circunstancias.
Los personajes (los secundarios, la pareja principal es tan sosa y plana que diría que puede que su existencia sea puro sarcasmo) son interesantes, excéntricos y atractivos, aunque me ha faltado aquí un villano comparable al enorme, en todos los sentidos, conde Fosco de La dama de blanco.
Además, toda la novela rezuma ironía y refleja estupendamente la hipocresía de la sociedad victoriana.
Por tanto, las (escasas) tres estrellas se deben solo a mi gusto personal, la novela es entretenida, el misterio está bien llevado, la narración es ágil y aguanta el ritmo razonablemente bien durante sus cientos de páginas, pero en el fondo no deja de ser un folletín algo melodramático, con todo lo malo (y bueno) que eso lleva consigo.
Con las 784 páginas que tiene mi edición, probablemente calificarla como “la más larga” sea correcto, aunque esto poco tenga que ver con la calidad de la obra y sí con la manera en que fue escrita y publicada, por entregas en All the Year Round, el semanario de Charles Dickens.
Sobre si fue o no “la mejor” habrá millones de opiniones. Me atrevería a decir que en su momento sí lo fue. Lo de menos es la trama, la intriga por saber quién robó la joya no es lo que engancha, ni es nada extraordinaria para el lector, al menos para el actual. Los giros son los típicos, el misterio no deja de enredarse hasta llegar al desenlace, que no creo que sea tampoco demasiado sorprendente.
La principal virtud de la novela es su forma: ocho partes, cada una escrita por un personaje o testigo diferente: un miembro del servicio, Gabriel Betteredge, que tiene una fe ciega en que toda la verdad se encuentra en Robinson Crusoe; la beata e insufrible prima Clack; el sargento Cuff, aficionado al cultivo de rosas… los distintos narradores se hacen referencias cruzadas, se dirigen al lector y buscan su complicidad en un relato que en este sentido resulta sorprendentemente moderno y bien llevado, dándole a cada uno una voz propia e inconfundible, sus narracinoes son interesadas, subjetivas, y por lo tanto poco fiables. Collins dice en el prólogo que la presente historia trata de analizar la influencia que ejerce la personalidad sobre las circunstancias.
Los personajes (los secundarios, la pareja principal es tan sosa y plana que diría que puede que su existencia sea puro sarcasmo) son interesantes, excéntricos y atractivos, aunque me ha faltado aquí un villano comparable al enorme, en todos los sentidos, conde Fosco de La dama de blanco.
Además, toda la novela rezuma ironía y refleja estupendamente la hipocresía de la sociedad victoriana.
Por tanto, las (escasas) tres estrellas se deben solo a mi gusto personal, la novela es entretenida, el misterio está bien llevado, la narración es ágil y aguanta el ritmo razonablemente bien durante sus cientos de páginas, pero en el fondo no deja de ser un folletín algo melodramático, con todo lo malo (y bueno) que eso lleva consigo.
January 9, 2018
Με την έναρξη του βιβλίου, εμείς οι αναγνώστες γινόμαστε γνώστες του ότι στο συγκεκριμένο χρονικό σημείο, το έγκλημα έχει γίνει και ήδη έχει εξιχνιαστεί. Η ανάγνωση που θα ακολουθήσει είναι οι διηγήσεις των προσώπων που έγιναν μάρτυρες της πολύπλοκης αυτής ιστορίας, τις οποίες έγραψαν έπειτα από την διαλεύκανση του μυστηρίου την οποία ακολουθούμε βήμα βήμα μέσα απο τις διηγήσεις τους.
Ένα έχω να πω, απολαυστική ιστορία, από απολαυστικούς χαρακτήρες. Το παιχνίδι ανάμεσα στον συγγραφέα και τον αναγνώστη, είχε κερδηθεί ήδη από την πρώτη διήγηση, αυτή του καμαριέρη Μπέτερεζ, αυτού του υπέροχου παππού, με την εμμονή στο μυθιστόρημα «Ροβινσώνας Κρούσος». Και σε αυτή, και στην επόμενη διήγηση, αυτή της εξαδέλφης μις Κλακ –καταπληκτική θρησκόληπτη, εμμονική φιγούρα γεροντοκόρης της εποχής εκείνης- ο Κόλλινς δίνει ρεσιτάλ αφηγηματικού μπρίου!
Υπέροχο βιβλίο!
Ένα έχω να πω, απολαυστική ιστορία, από απολαυστικούς χαρακτήρες. Το παιχνίδι ανάμεσα στον συγγραφέα και τον αναγνώστη, είχε κερδηθεί ήδη από την πρώτη διήγηση, αυτή του καμαριέρη Μπέτερεζ, αυτού του υπέροχου παππού, με την εμμονή στο μυθιστόρημα «Ροβινσώνας Κρούσος». Και σε αυτή, και στην επόμενη διήγηση, αυτή της εξαδέλφης μις Κλακ –καταπληκτική θρησκόληπτη, εμμονική φιγούρα γεροντοκόρης της εποχής εκείνης- ο Κόλλινς δίνει ρεσιτάλ αφηγηματικού μπρίου!
Υπέροχο βιβλίο!
March 17, 2017
I guess a review of this requires me to say that Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone is one of the first mystery novels ever written. Now that I've got that out of the way, let's get on with the review.
This English drama/mystery started out great. It also started out much the same way many English drama/mysteries of the period would start out: in the manor house. It also used the popular-in-its-time epistolary form of storytelling, with about a half dozen characters taking up their pens to relate their portion of this story.
What is the story? Well, it starts off like an adventure with a mysterious diamond discovered in a faraway land. The diamond is passed down as inheritance and then it is stolen. Lovers are torn asunder and the mystery of the missing diamond must be solved if love is to prevail.
In fact, love plays a large roll in this, so large actually that I'm inclined to call it a romance as much as a mystery. If memory serves, it is even referred to as such as a subtitle, as in The Moonstone, a romance.
Regardless, if you've come solely for the mystery you'll be disappointed in much of this. As I say, it started out great. The first quarter or so of the story is related by the butler and much of his portion of the tale involves the facts of the case. He's also a colorful character, who it seems Collins enjoyed writing about. After him, we move on to less charming characters such a fanatic Christian, a lawyer, a physician, detective and one of the principle suspects involved in the disappearance of the diamond.
The faults, for me, in this novel are its overlong explanations, its unnecessary sidebar storylines, occasional repetition, and the time spent dwelling on the mundane. Many scenes could have been easily reduced, some could have been dispensed with all together, and the book would've been all the better for it. All in all, it's not horrible. I'd put it in league with Dickens' middling work. Not worth rushing forth to read, but I wouldn't dismiss it altogether.
This English drama/mystery started out great. It also started out much the same way many English drama/mysteries of the period would start out: in the manor house. It also used the popular-in-its-time epistolary form of storytelling, with about a half dozen characters taking up their pens to relate their portion of this story.
What is the story? Well, it starts off like an adventure with a mysterious diamond discovered in a faraway land. The diamond is passed down as inheritance and then it is stolen. Lovers are torn asunder and the mystery of the missing diamond must be solved if love is to prevail.
In fact, love plays a large roll in this, so large actually that I'm inclined to call it a romance as much as a mystery. If memory serves, it is even referred to as such as a subtitle, as in The Moonstone, a romance.
Regardless, if you've come solely for the mystery you'll be disappointed in much of this. As I say, it started out great. The first quarter or so of the story is related by the butler and much of his portion of the tale involves the facts of the case. He's also a colorful character, who it seems Collins enjoyed writing about. After him, we move on to less charming characters such a fanatic Christian, a lawyer, a physician, detective and one of the principle suspects involved in the disappearance of the diamond.
The faults, for me, in this novel are its overlong explanations, its unnecessary sidebar storylines, occasional repetition, and the time spent dwelling on the mundane. Many scenes could have been easily reduced, some could have been dispensed with all together, and the book would've been all the better for it. All in all, it's not horrible. I'd put it in league with Dickens' middling work. Not worth rushing forth to read, but I wouldn't dismiss it altogether.
April 16, 2023
Although I'd read a couple of Collins' short stories, prior to opening this classic novel (one of two the author is best known for) I'd never encountered any of his long fiction. But I'd long regarded this book as a must-read; so the occasion of a group read of it in one of my Goodreads groups provided a welcome impetus to finally read it. It proved to be a thoroughly satisfying reading experience, and hopefully won't be my last from this author, since I have two more of his novels on my to-read shelf.
I've shelved this both as "general fiction" and as "mystery-crime fiction." In many respects, it's a typical Victorian classic novel of manners, with many stylistic characteristics in common with other 19th-century British authors, especially Dickens (who was a great friend of Collins). The study of human character and human relationships is similar in feel and quality to what the reader would find in other well-written novels of the day. But the central strand of the plot concerns an unusually large, yellow-tinted fictional diamond (the titular "Moonstone"), supposedly sacred to the Asian Indian moon god, and plundered from his temple by medieval Moslem conquerors. In the novel's Prologue, we learn how this jewel was supposedly stolen again, from the treasure vault of a Moslem sultan, by a shady British army officer at the real-life conquest of Seringapatam by the East India Company in 1799. Our main story takes place ca. 50 years later, in England in 1848-49; and we learn on the first page of that part that there the diamond disappeared yet again, under mysterious circumstances. How and why will be the central question of the book, making it, as one reviewer described it, a "proto-mystery," published before the mystery genre was a book-trade thing, but a recognizable influence on the genre novels and stories of the later 1800s and beyond.
Collins was definitely a writer of the Romantic school, like Dickens, and like such writers as Doyle, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and Dostoevsky, all of whom he perhaps influenced. Exotic elements and frank appeals to an array of emotions abound here. But the novel also has a real vein of humor, sometimes satiric humor of the Juvenalian sort. It's written in the epistolary style --that is, as a succession of memoranda, journal entries, and letters written by various characters (the prologue is also a letter); the diction is convoluted, in Victorian and Romantic fashion, with no shortage of big words, and the speaking style of the characters in their dialogue tends to be formal, as it actually was in the upper and middle class speech of that day. Some modern readers find these features off-putting (though I'm not among those that do). But the characterizations (both of characters you like and those you detest!) are masterful and enormously lifelike, and the crafting of the plot is perfect (or, as Dorothy Sayers said of the novel as a whole, "...about as near perfection as anything of its kind can be"). The mystery is a genuine puzzler; I guessed part (but only part!) of the solution fairly early on, and other aspects of the problem eventually had me completely mystified. (And even at times questioning everything I had believed about it up to that point!)
It can fairly be said that this is not a deep novel of ideas, in terms of messaging and thought content. Some reviewers profess to discern an anti-imperialist or anti-colonialist message here. Personally, I don't. Collins certainly finds it morally objectionable, and even criminal, to murder Indian natives and steal their sacred objects; but all of the decent English characters here agree with him, even if they have no apparent problem with forcibly conquering and dominating the same natives' country. There are aspects of the tale that cast Victorian class snobbery in an ugly light; but I think this is a perception that modern readers bring to it, rather than one that Collins is trying to create. An important character, Miss Drusilla Clack, is a mercilessly depicted religious zealot who thinks that she and her own ultra-ascetic, censorious ilk are the only true Christians; but I don't think Collins agreed with her on that, and I honestly don't think he intended to use her to attack Christianity, or religion as such, but rather just to pillory distortions of Christian faith. I do think there is ultimately a positive racial message here; but it's relatively subtle. So this is perhaps not a Great Novel, in the sense that some classic novels with deep moral and spiritual content are. But it's certainly a very, very good one, that I'd recommend unhesitatingly to any readers who enjoy older fiction, or who would like to start exploring it.
Note: The Dodd Mead Great Illustrated Classics edition that I read is enhanced by several black-and-white plates that reproduce paintings or drawings of Collins at various stages of his life, or illustrating scenes from the novel, and also by a number of excellent black-and-white drawings of scenes in the tale done by William Sharp, and copyrighted in 1944 (apparently for an earlier printing by Doubleday). It has a short (a bit over four pages) Introduction by Basil Davenport that mostly just summarizes Collins' life and writing career; it touches on the features of the real-life Saville Kent case that suggest aspects of this novel, but doesn't really present spoilers as such. (Davenport makes one major blooper here, though, where he confuses a "bloodstained nightgown" with a paint-stained one!)
I've shelved this both as "general fiction" and as "mystery-crime fiction." In many respects, it's a typical Victorian classic novel of manners, with many stylistic characteristics in common with other 19th-century British authors, especially Dickens (who was a great friend of Collins). The study of human character and human relationships is similar in feel and quality to what the reader would find in other well-written novels of the day. But the central strand of the plot concerns an unusually large, yellow-tinted fictional diamond (the titular "Moonstone"), supposedly sacred to the Asian Indian moon god, and plundered from his temple by medieval Moslem conquerors. In the novel's Prologue, we learn how this jewel was supposedly stolen again, from the treasure vault of a Moslem sultan, by a shady British army officer at the real-life conquest of Seringapatam by the East India Company in 1799. Our main story takes place ca. 50 years later, in England in 1848-49; and we learn on the first page of that part that there the diamond disappeared yet again, under mysterious circumstances. How and why will be the central question of the book, making it, as one reviewer described it, a "proto-mystery," published before the mystery genre was a book-trade thing, but a recognizable influence on the genre novels and stories of the later 1800s and beyond.
Collins was definitely a writer of the Romantic school, like Dickens, and like such writers as Doyle, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and Dostoevsky, all of whom he perhaps influenced. Exotic elements and frank appeals to an array of emotions abound here. But the novel also has a real vein of humor, sometimes satiric humor of the Juvenalian sort. It's written in the epistolary style --that is, as a succession of memoranda, journal entries, and letters written by various characters (the prologue is also a letter); the diction is convoluted, in Victorian and Romantic fashion, with no shortage of big words, and the speaking style of the characters in their dialogue tends to be formal, as it actually was in the upper and middle class speech of that day. Some modern readers find these features off-putting (though I'm not among those that do). But the characterizations (both of characters you like and those you detest!) are masterful and enormously lifelike, and the crafting of the plot is perfect (or, as Dorothy Sayers said of the novel as a whole, "...about as near perfection as anything of its kind can be"). The mystery is a genuine puzzler; I guessed part (but only part!) of the solution fairly early on, and other aspects of the problem eventually had me completely mystified. (And even at times questioning everything I had believed about it up to that point!)
It can fairly be said that this is not a deep novel of ideas, in terms of messaging and thought content. Some reviewers profess to discern an anti-imperialist or anti-colonialist message here. Personally, I don't. Collins certainly finds it morally objectionable, and even criminal, to murder Indian natives and steal their sacred objects; but all of the decent English characters here agree with him, even if they have no apparent problem with forcibly conquering and dominating the same natives' country. There are aspects of the tale that cast Victorian class snobbery in an ugly light; but I think this is a perception that modern readers bring to it, rather than one that Collins is trying to create. An important character, Miss Drusilla Clack, is a mercilessly depicted religious zealot who thinks that she and her own ultra-ascetic, censorious ilk are the only true Christians; but I don't think Collins agreed with her on that, and I honestly don't think he intended to use her to attack Christianity, or religion as such, but rather just to pillory distortions of Christian faith. I do think there is ultimately a positive racial message here; but it's relatively subtle. So this is perhaps not a Great Novel, in the sense that some classic novels with deep moral and spiritual content are. But it's certainly a very, very good one, that I'd recommend unhesitatingly to any readers who enjoy older fiction, or who would like to start exploring it.
Note: The Dodd Mead Great Illustrated Classics edition that I read is enhanced by several black-and-white plates that reproduce paintings or drawings of Collins at various stages of his life, or illustrating scenes from the novel, and also by a number of excellent black-and-white drawings of scenes in the tale done by William Sharp, and copyrighted in 1944 (apparently for an earlier printing by Doubleday). It has a short (a bit over four pages) Introduction by Basil Davenport that mostly just summarizes Collins' life and writing career; it touches on the features of the real-life Saville Kent case that suggest aspects of this novel, but doesn't really present spoilers as such. (Davenport makes one major blooper here, though, where he confuses a "bloodstained nightgown" with a paint-stained one!)
October 15, 2022
Victober (1)
Si tuviera que empezar a describir La piedra lunar, ¿cómo sería? Posiblemente si mencionara que es una novela donde la trama nunca decae estaría mintiendo inmediatamente, porque tiene sus partes donde sí que quería decir, 'ya para con esto, por favor'; si dijera que es la mejor novela de detectives que he leído tampoco sería del todo sincero, no porque no haya sido excelente en términos de la resolución del caso —que lo es— sino porque la novela es tan larga y tan compleja que no podría definirla como una novela de detectives, así sin más. Decir que es mi Wilkie Collins favorito, ahí iría otra mentira más, ya que en mi opinión La mujer de blanco sigue manteniéndose en el primer puesto por toda la trama compleja que incluye muchos giros y por supuesto, porque tiene al conde Fosco, y ¿cómo se olvida a un villano como Fosco?, honestamente no tengo respuesta.
No, La piedra lunar la describiría como un rompecabezas, donde mientras más lees, más piezas vas encajando en su determinado lugar hasta que llegas al final del libro, ves el resultado, y ¡oh, sorpresa!, el resultado es simplemente impresionante.
Sin duda, Collins se ha convertido ya en uno de mis autores victorianos favoritos, y tras mi lectura de La piedra lunar —que fue además una lectura conjunta de poco más de cuarenta días con mi madre—, no cabe la menor duda de que lo seguiré leyendo tanto como me sea posible, no sólo porque es un autor que lo que busca principalmente es entretener pero lo hace con una trama compleja y una prosa sencilla, sino también porque la sociedad victoriana ha sido y será uno de mis tópicos favoritos cuando se trata de leer clásicos.
Como dije anteriormente, a modo de rompecabezas La piedra lunar se va integrando hasta formar una historia completa, y es que a lo largo de dos épocas, y la segunda dividida en ocho narraciones distintas que corresponden a testimonios, cartas o diarios de varios personajes, la trama se va construyendo y desarrollando para conocer todo el misterio que se esconde detrás de la piedra lunar, robada en la noche del cumpleaños de Rachel Verinder. Lo que hay que recordar aquí es que La piedra lunar es considerada como una de las primeras novelas inglesas de detectives, y para ser tal el caso, el resultado ha sido más que satisfactorio.
Sí que he dicho que la trama tiene sus altibajos y hay momentos donde sentía que se estaba alargando de más, no la trama en sí, pero sí algún episodio en específico, como si algunos narradores dieran detalles de más a cosas que no nos interesan como lector, pero de nuevo, siento que eso no le quita lo positivo a la historia ni mucho menos la opaca. También mencioné que La mujer de blanco sigue siendo mi novela favorita del autor, pero considerando que las obras son totalmente distintas en términos de la historia al final todo es cuestión de gustos, e incluso sé que La mujer de blanco es una novela sensacionalista, mientras que La piedra lunar no encaja dentro de ese género. Como novela de detectives de época, funciona y funciona muy bien, porque a diferencia de una obra policíaca convencional, donde el objetivo es descubrir al criminal, cómo lo hizo y por qué lo hizo, y los personajes pasan a ser el medio para llegar a ese fin, en este caso la historia trata y desarrolla a sus personajes principales, terminamos conociéndolos a profundidad y entendemos aún más las motivaciones detrás del robo; en pocas palabras, los personajes tienen dimensiones, y he ahí el por qué de más de 700 páginas de libro (al menos en esta edición).
No hace falta que diga que recomiendo, no sólo leer a Wilkie Collins si nunca antes se le ha leído, sino también darse una oportunidad con La piedra lunar, que sin duda no fallará si lo suyo son las historias victorianas, historias de época en general, y donde el autor se toma su tiempo para desarrollar trama, personajes y ambientación.
Ojalá hallen en esta narración salida de mis manos lo que encontró Robinson Crusoe durante su aventura en la isla desierta..., por encima de todo, «algo que los resarza de la misma y que puedan anotar en el haber del libro del Bien y del Mal».
Si tuviera que empezar a describir La piedra lunar, ¿cómo sería? Posiblemente si mencionara que es una novela donde la trama nunca decae estaría mintiendo inmediatamente, porque tiene sus partes donde sí que quería decir, 'ya para con esto, por favor'; si dijera que es la mejor novela de detectives que he leído tampoco sería del todo sincero, no porque no haya sido excelente en términos de la resolución del caso —que lo es— sino porque la novela es tan larga y tan compleja que no podría definirla como una novela de detectives, así sin más. Decir que es mi Wilkie Collins favorito, ahí iría otra mentira más, ya que en mi opinión La mujer de blanco sigue manteniéndose en el primer puesto por toda la trama compleja que incluye muchos giros y por supuesto, porque tiene al conde Fosco, y ¿cómo se olvida a un villano como Fosco?, honestamente no tengo respuesta.
No, La piedra lunar la describiría como un rompecabezas, donde mientras más lees, más piezas vas encajando en su determinado lugar hasta que llegas al final del libro, ves el resultado, y ¡oh, sorpresa!, el resultado es simplemente impresionante.
Sin duda, Collins se ha convertido ya en uno de mis autores victorianos favoritos, y tras mi lectura de La piedra lunar —que fue además una lectura conjunta de poco más de cuarenta días con mi madre—, no cabe la menor duda de que lo seguiré leyendo tanto como me sea posible, no sólo porque es un autor que lo que busca principalmente es entretener pero lo hace con una trama compleja y una prosa sencilla, sino también porque la sociedad victoriana ha sido y será uno de mis tópicos favoritos cuando se trata de leer clásicos.
Como dije anteriormente, a modo de rompecabezas La piedra lunar se va integrando hasta formar una historia completa, y es que a lo largo de dos épocas, y la segunda dividida en ocho narraciones distintas que corresponden a testimonios, cartas o diarios de varios personajes, la trama se va construyendo y desarrollando para conocer todo el misterio que se esconde detrás de la piedra lunar, robada en la noche del cumpleaños de Rachel Verinder. Lo que hay que recordar aquí es que La piedra lunar es considerada como una de las primeras novelas inglesas de detectives, y para ser tal el caso, el resultado ha sido más que satisfactorio.
Sí que he dicho que la trama tiene sus altibajos y hay momentos donde sentía que se estaba alargando de más, no la trama en sí, pero sí algún episodio en específico, como si algunos narradores dieran detalles de más a cosas que no nos interesan como lector, pero de nuevo, siento que eso no le quita lo positivo a la historia ni mucho menos la opaca. También mencioné que La mujer de blanco sigue siendo mi novela favorita del autor, pero considerando que las obras son totalmente distintas en términos de la historia al final todo es cuestión de gustos, e incluso sé que La mujer de blanco es una novela sensacionalista, mientras que La piedra lunar no encaja dentro de ese género. Como novela de detectives de época, funciona y funciona muy bien, porque a diferencia de una obra policíaca convencional, donde el objetivo es descubrir al criminal, cómo lo hizo y por qué lo hizo, y los personajes pasan a ser el medio para llegar a ese fin, en este caso la historia trata y desarrolla a sus personajes principales, terminamos conociéndolos a profundidad y entendemos aún más las motivaciones detrás del robo; en pocas palabras, los personajes tienen dimensiones, y he ahí el por qué de más de 700 páginas de libro (al menos en esta edición).
No hace falta que diga que recomiendo, no sólo leer a Wilkie Collins si nunca antes se le ha leído, sino también darse una oportunidad con La piedra lunar, que sin duda no fallará si lo suyo son las historias victorianas, historias de época en general, y donde el autor se toma su tiempo para desarrollar trama, personajes y ambientación.
Ojalá hallen en esta narración salida de mis manos lo que encontró Robinson Crusoe durante su aventura en la isla desierta..., por encima de todo, «algo que los resarza de la misma y que puedan anotar en el haber del libro del Bien y del Mal».
March 4, 2021
I greatly enjoyed reading this story which was told through various characters and I liked them all with the exception of miss Clack since I found her character unsympathetic to say the least.
The narratives which I enjoyed most were Betteredge's, Mr. Bruff's and Fraklin Blake's.
The narrative given by Betteredge was the one which amused me at many points and I found his relationships with the family members, his daughter and his employees very endearing and I liked his personality!
The most intriguing narrative was for me the one from Franklin's point of view and he was the character I liked most!
In the story we encounter many different characters that provoke the reader's sentiments each for different reasons like Rosanna with her past and unrequited love or Rachel Verinder with her sacrifice to protect a person she cares about or Ezra Jennings that despite his misfortunes who remained a wonderful person!
The mystery is also very intriguing and the resolution in my opinion very clever.
All in all I really loved the story as a whole and can't wait to read another story written by Wilkie Collins!
The narratives which I enjoyed most were Betteredge's, Mr. Bruff's and Fraklin Blake's.
The narrative given by Betteredge was the one which amused me at many points and I found his relationships with the family members, his daughter and his employees very endearing and I liked his personality!
The most intriguing narrative was for me the one from Franklin's point of view and he was the character I liked most!
In the story we encounter many different characters that provoke the reader's sentiments each for different reasons like Rosanna with her past and unrequited love or Rachel Verinder with her sacrifice to protect a person she cares about or Ezra Jennings that despite his misfortunes who remained a wonderful person!
The mystery is also very intriguing and the resolution in my opinion very clever.
All in all I really loved the story as a whole and can't wait to read another story written by Wilkie Collins!
November 28, 2021
اولین، طولانی ترین و بهترین اثر در میان رمان های کارآگاهی انگلیسی.
"T. S. Eliot"
به سختی باورم میشه که قرن نوزدهم نوشته شده! سیر معمایی داستان کشش لازم رو داشت و وجود راویهای متفاوت باعث شدند داستان برام جذاب باشه
"T. S. Eliot"
به سختی باورم میشه که قرن نوزدهم نوشته شده! سیر معمایی داستان کشش لازم رو داشت و وجود راویهای متفاوت باعث شدند داستان برام جذاب باشه
August 29, 2017
Rereads generally work very well for me, as I have memory like a sieve. However, some books are more rewarding when re-reading than others and I usually only find out once I have committed to the reread. I first read The Moonstone decades ago and I enjoyed it very much, unfortunately even my poor memory still retains the outrageous denouement to the central mystery of the theft of the eponymous diamond. Still, I was curious to reread it as I remember enjoying it so much.
The Moonstone is about the theft of an Indian diamond from a country house on the night of a birthday party for eighteen-year-old Rachel Verinder. The theft and its continued disappearance have serious repercussions for the two main characters of the novel throughout the book which spans about a year. It also, directly and indirectly, causes the death of several characters. First published in 1868, this novel is deservedly lauded as the “proto-detective” novel.
The novel is structured in the epistolary format where multiple characters narrate sections of the story through their written accounts of their involvement in the case. The different narrative tones are very skillfully written, with the distinctive personality of each narrator coming through clearly. Some of the narrators are rather eccentric and unreliable and this adds a lot of flavors and humour to the narrative. I particularly like the grumpy butler Gabriel Betteredge who uses the book Robinson Crusoe as if it is The I Ching , the fanatical evangelist, and – best of all – the almost Sherlockian Sergeant Cuff who would have solved the crime single-handedly if not for the stupid meddling kids (basically the two main characters Franklin Blake and Rachel Verinder.
There are quite a few other colorful characters I could mention but, if you are interested to read this book, the less you know about it the better.
There are a couple of issues with this book for me, the solution to the mystery stretches believability, but I suppose that is what makes it so memorable. The other issue is the depiction of Indian characters as inscrutable, sinister people, too foreign to be understood, not to mention evil. Racist much?
Sinister foreign types on this edition’s cover.
Neither flaws are too injurious to the overall quality of the book, it is a product of its time after all, and even ahead of its time in some ways. If you have never read Victorian literature before The Moonstone may be the ideal starting point, it is very readable even for modern readers who are not familiar with Victorian prose style. Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is even better than this (a lot better I would say) so I would recommend that as a starting point also.
Rating: 5 stars for the first read, 4 stars for the reread.
Note:
I mostly reread this book in audiobook format, provided free by Librivox . As with the printed edition the book has multiple narrators, unfortunately, this is to the detriment of the audiobook as some readers are better than others; ranging from perfect to awful. The Mrs. Clack chapters are particularly hard to listen to. Ah well, can’t complain, they all graciously narrated the book for free, for which I am grateful.
Addendum: I just found an alternate Librivox edition narrated by a single reader, Tony Addison, it does not sound like an improvement on the multiple readers one to be honest, but you may want to listen to some samples.
Quotes:
“the nature of a man’s tastes is, most times, as opposite as possible to the nature of a man’s business. Show me any two things more opposite one from the other than a rose and a thief; and I’ll correct my tastes accordingly.”
“Sergeant Cuff never laughed. On the few occasions when anything amused him, he curled up a little at the corners of the lips, nothing more.”
“Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!”
“The cook looked as if she could grill Mr. Superintendent alive on a furnace, and the other women looked as if they could eat him when he was done.”
Sergeant Cuff is awesome!
The Moonstone is about the theft of an Indian diamond from a country house on the night of a birthday party for eighteen-year-old Rachel Verinder. The theft and its continued disappearance have serious repercussions for the two main characters of the novel throughout the book which spans about a year. It also, directly and indirectly, causes the death of several characters. First published in 1868, this novel is deservedly lauded as the “proto-detective” novel.
The novel is structured in the epistolary format where multiple characters narrate sections of the story through their written accounts of their involvement in the case. The different narrative tones are very skillfully written, with the distinctive personality of each narrator coming through clearly. Some of the narrators are rather eccentric and unreliable and this adds a lot of flavors and humour to the narrative. I particularly like the grumpy butler Gabriel Betteredge who uses the book Robinson Crusoe as if it is The I Ching , the fanatical evangelist, and – best of all – the almost Sherlockian Sergeant Cuff who would have solved the crime single-handedly if not for the stupid meddling kids (basically the two main characters Franklin Blake and Rachel Verinder.
There are quite a few other colorful characters I could mention but, if you are interested to read this book, the less you know about it the better.
There are a couple of issues with this book for me, the solution to the mystery stretches believability, but I suppose that is what makes it so memorable. The other issue is the depiction of Indian characters as inscrutable, sinister people, too foreign to be understood, not to mention evil. Racist much?
Sinister foreign types on this edition’s cover.
Neither flaws are too injurious to the overall quality of the book, it is a product of its time after all, and even ahead of its time in some ways. If you have never read Victorian literature before The Moonstone may be the ideal starting point, it is very readable even for modern readers who are not familiar with Victorian prose style. Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White is even better than this (a lot better I would say) so I would recommend that as a starting point also.
Rating: 5 stars for the first read, 4 stars for the reread.
Note:
I mostly reread this book in audiobook format, provided free by Librivox . As with the printed edition the book has multiple narrators, unfortunately, this is to the detriment of the audiobook as some readers are better than others; ranging from perfect to awful. The Mrs. Clack chapters are particularly hard to listen to. Ah well, can’t complain, they all graciously narrated the book for free, for which I am grateful.
Addendum: I just found an alternate Librivox edition narrated by a single reader, Tony Addison, it does not sound like an improvement on the multiple readers one to be honest, but you may want to listen to some samples.
Quotes:
“the nature of a man’s tastes is, most times, as opposite as possible to the nature of a man’s business. Show me any two things more opposite one from the other than a rose and a thief; and I’ll correct my tastes accordingly.”
“Sergeant Cuff never laughed. On the few occasions when anything amused him, he curled up a little at the corners of the lips, nothing more.”
“Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!”
“The cook looked as if she could grill Mr. Superintendent alive on a furnace, and the other women looked as if they could eat him when he was done.”
Sergeant Cuff is awesome!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 6,044 reviews