Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Candy box of surprises August 5, 2008
reader 451
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pastiche Victorian mystery and adventure tales are currently in vogue; but why settle for an imitation when you can read the real thing?
The Moonstone is at heart a mystery and detective story about a lost diamond. The gem is a sacred Indian artefact that carries a curse, and it leaves a trail of confusion and ruin in its path. Only the virtuous are likely to survive it, and when young heiress Rachel Verinder is bequeathed the stone by an evil uncle, her love, reputation and marriage plans are immediately thrown upside down. And the theft proves equally fateful to the host of family relations, servants, friends and professional detectives who join in to help the reader solve this artfully constructed case.
But Wilkie Collins's novel, written in the era of Dickens and George Eliot, is also a commentary on the time and mores. Five principal voices, of different social and intellectual standing, alternate as the narrator, each bringing its own colour, and this helps the book pick through such archetypes as the faithful old butler, the bigoted poor relation, and the pusillanimous cousin, as well as offer glimpses of contemporary attitudes to scientific enquiry, drugs, superstition, and the law. The dialogues are equally truthful. Indeed, The Moonstone is a pleasure to read, subtly written and constantly amusing. And importantly, it skirts the pitfalls of Victorian prejudice, whether social, religious or racial. This surprising book ranks alongside the better known 19th century classics and is not to be missed.
brilliant!!!!! August 2, 2008
jesus' girl (england)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
this is an awesome book i'd recommend to any age or sex...it's just brillant, with laugh out loud parts, fab characters, a gripping plot and an excellent ending. It is sectioned off into different characters narrating different bits which is genius because the contrasts are very funny and evocative. I don't know how anyone could not like this frankly it's a true classic - get it, it will make you laugh
 Packed full of dastardly adventures, hilarious characters and a mystery with a diamond at its heart December 28, 2007
Rivercassini (London)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
T S Eliot called The Moonstone "the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels". It's hard not to agree. The Moonstone, an enormous diamond of religious significance, is vilely plundered by a British soldier during the taking of Seringapatam in 1799. The Moonstone is brought back to England and, eventually, given to the prim, beautiful and wilful heiress, Rachel Verinder, on her birthday in 1848. And it goes missing the very same night. Rachel's family and friends are keen to recover the lost stone and to identify the thief and thus call upon the services of Sergeant Cuff, the most celebrated and successful detective that Scotland Yard can offer. Yet Rachel is strangely reluctant to assist in the investigation, and the professional sleuth is not the only one searching for the stone and for answers. Three juggling Indians accompanied by a clairvoyant young boy, a ruthless London money lender and an amiable philanthropist all seem to have their own interests in recovering the stone, while others including Rachel and a reformed thief turned servant girl, seem at least as anxious to conceal certain facts surrounding its disappearance. The stage is thus set for a gripping detective story full of twists and turns and unexpected developments, all centred on the Verinder's country house in Yorkshire.
Written in a semi- epistolary style, with several of the major characters telling the parts of the story with which they were most concerned from their own perspective, Collins' novel has strong gothic overtones and much in common with the `big-house' novels written earlier in the century and serves as a bridge with the swelter of English detective fiction which was to follow. It is long, but you hardly notice as Collins whisks his mystery from India to Yorkshire, to London, to Brighton and back to Yorkshire. Elegant prose reminiscent of yet lighter than Dickens encapsulates an enchanting mystery with magical, even fantastical overtones, and presents a series of warm, engaging, if somewhat stereotypical characters: who can forgot the admirable Gabriel Betteredge, with his mystic faith in the powers of Robinson Crusoe to provide answers to daily difficulties, or the misunderstood Erza Jennings, with his face so much older than his body and his two-tone hair?
A sheer delight to read, like some much detective fiction, it does not demand to be taken seriously, yet for the careful reader, there are on offer deeper strains of tension over class, over Empire, and over religious differences and good and evil, which one might more readily associate with the post-war literature of a cosmopolitan diaspora.
 Long and Tedious November 25, 2007
R. P. Sedgwick (UK)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This might be the first detective novel but the story is dragged out to fit a serialisation schedule when it was first published. The first 150 pages or so when the crime is first committed is good. The middle part of the book set in London is almost pointless and adds nothing to the story. The ending, when all is revealed, is weak and relies on a rather unconvincing storyline.
If you want to read a decent book by Wilkie Collins try The Woman In White, which is very good. As this is supposed to be his second best novel I won't be trying the rest in a hurry.
First Class Mystery June 27, 2007
Tony Walker (Edinburgh)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
As to the quality of the novel, I can only echo the sentiments of the other reviews. However, new reviewers beware of the explanatory notes. In some of the notes, the editor casually mentions future plot developments, slightly spoiling my enjoyment of the mystery. Ironically, he states at the head of his introduction that new readers should not read it because it reveals explicit details of the plot. NB!
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