Wednesday 17 October 2018

Read in 2018 - 16: The Moonstone

The Moonstone

by Wilkie Collins



This mystery novel, originally published in 1869, was my train travel reading for several weeks - it is a lengthy book, but I captured my attention enough for me to want to find out what was going to happen.



The plot is simple enough: A big diamond, very important to a Hindu cult and its followers in India, is stolen by an English army officer when his regiment attacks the cult's temple during the time the British brought India under their control.



Many years later, the diamond (called "Moonstone" because it has an opaque core that shines like the moon) is given to family member for her 18th birthday. The young lady does not know of the violent history of the jewel, but soon realises nothing in her and her family's life will ever be the same again.



The moonstone is taken from her room, and the police are called. Strangely enough, the young lady, although very upset about the missing stone, refuses to cooperate with the police. Does she know who took it, or is she in some other way involved in the theft?



The number of suspects is small enough; the servants are quickly ruled out, but still there is no progress in the investigation, and the moonstone is not found.



A year or so later, the young lady's mother has died, a young servant has committed suicide, the lady is about to marry a man she does not really love, and the stone as well as its thief are still at large.



The young man who love s her returns from a trip to Europe and reopens the investigation with the help of a retired detective. Together with the oldest, most faithful and most trusted servant of the family, they solve the puzzle - not after many more dramatic events.



All this is presented as if written by the various persons involved, each from their own perspective. I most enjoyed the servant's account; he was my favourite character in the book. The others vary from humorous to dramatic, and some are really unnecessarily lengthy, but everything is within character, and leads to a rather surprising solution of the whole case.



Needless to say, the book ends well; the young lady and the man she loves are together, and the stone is restored to its rightful place.



The wikipedia entry says that the story "...is generally considered to be the first detective novel, and it established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel." I had not heard of the author before, but his own entry on wikipedia is rather interesting. The picture is not mine - my free kindle version from Amazon has a very plain cover.

11 comments:

  1. I read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and absolutely loved it! It was also lengthy, but I had a few days off and read it all in a couple of days...and I wonder why my eyes are going so bad nowadays! :)

    I've been curious about Moonstone so thanks for the review!

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    1. I have left out a lot in this review - the book is so long and the characters and story rather complex, I could have written a lot more. But of course I did not want to give away too much, so hopefully I have not spoiled it for you!

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  2. I remember reading this with my class when I taught and I also remember how popular it was.

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    1. Amazing! Your class must have been busy with this book for a long time; I don't know how many pages in print the book has, but it was reeeeeeally loooong!

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  3. This does sound interesting, and I feel a bit guilty that I've had a very nice copy someone gave me as a gift. It's been on my shelves for years and not a page has been turned. You make me think I would like to read it...I will try to email your Mom tomorrow -well, today during the day. I just really love my new socks!

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    1. Thank you, Kristi! My Mum will be happy to read that.
      If you read "The Moonstone", I recommend looking up some of the information in the wikipedia article - not the whole plot, as it would spoil the fun, but the character descrpitions and how they are to understand in the context of their time.

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  4. I read it back in February 2015 (and also wrote about it on my blog - just checked). I think I also read The Woman in White later in the same year, but seem to have forgotten to put that on my list (nor on my blog).

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    1. Thank you for pointing that out to me, Monica - I shall go and read your review in a minute.

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    2. Aha! So it was your review that made me download the book in the first place! :-)

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    3. Haha :) I did not reread the comments on my post, so did not notice that! I suspect I have probably downloaded several Kindle books on your recommendations as well - without getting round to actually reading all of them (because I've probably downloaded more free and "bargain price" books already than I'll ever find the time to read...) ♥

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    4. Same here, Monica - I have downloaded several books because I liked your reviews, but I am determined to read them ALL!

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