The Moonstone
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Description
The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collins's 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a 'locked-room' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.
In her introduction Sandra Kemp explores The Moonstone's the detective elements of Collins's writing, and reveals how Collins's sensibilities were untypical of his era.
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln's Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced and acted in two melodramas written by Collins, The Lighthouse and The Frozen Deep. Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868).
If you enjoyed The Moonstone you might like Collins's The Woman in White, also available in Penguin Classics.
'Probably the very finest detective story ever written'
Dorothy L. Sayers
'The first, the longest and the best of modern modern English detective novels'
T.S. Eliot
Book Information
Posts
Es ist sehr umfangreich! Es hat durchaus seinen Scharm und Collins ist sehr gut in der Lage, viele unterschiedliche Perspektiven zu einem Fall zu schildern. Jeder Mensch nimmt Dinge auf seine Art wahr und das hat er hier sehr gut beschrieben. Gegen Ende wurde ich auch an Draculas „Helden“ erinnert, da man sich hier für einen guten Zweck zusammenschließt, und das Rätsel lösen will. Sehr lesenswert und für Sherlock Holmes Fans ein Muss!
While the whodunit/mystery aspect still was somehow interesting, I was much more interested in the character studies. Wilkie Collins created wonderfully fascinating, quirky characters that represent perfectly some types of people everyone knew at the time and in a way still knows now. My favourite example of the relevance of this portrayals is the butler, whose obsession, excapism to, and almost religious believe in the book Robinson Crusoe is a better caricature of modern fan culture than anything you see in contemporary works. I loved how every different point of view changed and shaped the readers thoughts on the characters, especially Rachel. Also, the framing devise of the book being a collection of accounts about the case was quite clever and well done. Above all, the good balance of humor and serious topics and moments was outstanding. It had some adventure, some love story, some mystery and satire, showed the thoughts and lives of different classes and all of this in a really nice writing. It deserves to be a classic. I think 4.5 stars comes closest to the rating I want to give this but since there aren't half stars at goodreads I'll settle for 4. It's just not a perfect 5 stars for me since the mystery itself isn't as intriguing as others I loved, but I might still change the rating. (Edit: What the heck, I'm just giving every book that "feels like a 5 star" to me the appropriate rating now. Critique still stands, and that's ok.)
La pietra di luna è il più celebre romanzo di Wilkie Collins insieme a La donna in bianco.In entrambi abbiamo misteri da svelare, equivoci ed amori tormentati, ma mentre ne La donna in bianco questi elementi assumono le forme tradizionali del feuilleton qui sono strumentali allo svolgimento dell'indagine, che ricopre un ruolo preponderante: non a caso è considerato il primo poliziesco inglese.Non dobbiamo però immaginare un giallo per come lo concepiamo oggi, infatti è pieno di ingenuità tipicamente vittoriane che ai giorni nostri non possono che farci sorridere, ad esempio l'idea che i gentiluomini e le gentildonne di un certo rango siano superiori alla polizia, tanto che possono impunemente ostacolare le indagini o addirittura chiudere l'inchiesta a loro discrezione; tuttavia per la prima volta compare sulla scena un detective professionista, dotato di acume e spirito deduttivo, che richiama alla mente i successivi e più celebri Sherlock Holmes ed Hecule Poirot, piccole manie incluse (in questo caso la coltivazione delle rose).La struttura narrativa è quella tipica dell'autore, ossia una relazione particolareggiata degli avvenimenti in rigoroso ordine cronologico, talmente minuziosa che rischierebbe di annoiare se non sfruttasse l'espediente del cambio di punti di vista, tecnica di cui Collins si conferma maestro, per vivacizzare il ritmo. Ogni narratore ha una personalità ben distinta, che traspare dalle pagine e contribuisce a renderle uniche: come dimenticare lo zelo religioso di miss Clack o la personalissima visione del mondo del maggiordomo Betteredge, i personaggi più riusciti del romanzo.I protagonisti invece risentono della morale vittoriana e sono scialbi, dei campioni di virtù la cui ossessione per l'onore li rende irritantemente ottusi; in particolare l'eroina, la tipica ereditiera bella buona ed intelligente che ispira devozione in chiunque la incontri.Nonostante certi difetti tipici del suo tempo e nonostante la soluzione del mistero sia immediatamente intuibile per un lettore smaliziato, è un libro godibile e scorrevole, che si legge con facilità e che riesce a coinvolgere il lettore grazie a dei riuscitissimi ritratti d'ambiente.
Description
The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand. The intricate plot and modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collins's 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings and a 'locked-room' puzzle, The Moonstone was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel.
In her introduction Sandra Kemp explores The Moonstone's the detective elements of Collins's writing, and reveals how Collins's sensibilities were untypical of his era.
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln's Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced and acted in two melodramas written by Collins, The Lighthouse and The Frozen Deep. Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for The Woman in White (1859), No Name (1862), Armadale (1866) and The Moonstone (1868).
If you enjoyed The Moonstone you might like Collins's The Woman in White, also available in Penguin Classics.
'Probably the very finest detective story ever written'
Dorothy L. Sayers
'The first, the longest and the best of modern modern English detective novels'
T.S. Eliot
Book Information
Posts
Es ist sehr umfangreich! Es hat durchaus seinen Scharm und Collins ist sehr gut in der Lage, viele unterschiedliche Perspektiven zu einem Fall zu schildern. Jeder Mensch nimmt Dinge auf seine Art wahr und das hat er hier sehr gut beschrieben. Gegen Ende wurde ich auch an Draculas „Helden“ erinnert, da man sich hier für einen guten Zweck zusammenschließt, und das Rätsel lösen will. Sehr lesenswert und für Sherlock Holmes Fans ein Muss!
While the whodunit/mystery aspect still was somehow interesting, I was much more interested in the character studies. Wilkie Collins created wonderfully fascinating, quirky characters that represent perfectly some types of people everyone knew at the time and in a way still knows now. My favourite example of the relevance of this portrayals is the butler, whose obsession, excapism to, and almost religious believe in the book Robinson Crusoe is a better caricature of modern fan culture than anything you see in contemporary works. I loved how every different point of view changed and shaped the readers thoughts on the characters, especially Rachel. Also, the framing devise of the book being a collection of accounts about the case was quite clever and well done. Above all, the good balance of humor and serious topics and moments was outstanding. It had some adventure, some love story, some mystery and satire, showed the thoughts and lives of different classes and all of this in a really nice writing. It deserves to be a classic. I think 4.5 stars comes closest to the rating I want to give this but since there aren't half stars at goodreads I'll settle for 4. It's just not a perfect 5 stars for me since the mystery itself isn't as intriguing as others I loved, but I might still change the rating. (Edit: What the heck, I'm just giving every book that "feels like a 5 star" to me the appropriate rating now. Critique still stands, and that's ok.)
La pietra di luna è il più celebre romanzo di Wilkie Collins insieme a La donna in bianco.In entrambi abbiamo misteri da svelare, equivoci ed amori tormentati, ma mentre ne La donna in bianco questi elementi assumono le forme tradizionali del feuilleton qui sono strumentali allo svolgimento dell'indagine, che ricopre un ruolo preponderante: non a caso è considerato il primo poliziesco inglese.Non dobbiamo però immaginare un giallo per come lo concepiamo oggi, infatti è pieno di ingenuità tipicamente vittoriane che ai giorni nostri non possono che farci sorridere, ad esempio l'idea che i gentiluomini e le gentildonne di un certo rango siano superiori alla polizia, tanto che possono impunemente ostacolare le indagini o addirittura chiudere l'inchiesta a loro discrezione; tuttavia per la prima volta compare sulla scena un detective professionista, dotato di acume e spirito deduttivo, che richiama alla mente i successivi e più celebri Sherlock Holmes ed Hecule Poirot, piccole manie incluse (in questo caso la coltivazione delle rose).La struttura narrativa è quella tipica dell'autore, ossia una relazione particolareggiata degli avvenimenti in rigoroso ordine cronologico, talmente minuziosa che rischierebbe di annoiare se non sfruttasse l'espediente del cambio di punti di vista, tecnica di cui Collins si conferma maestro, per vivacizzare il ritmo. Ogni narratore ha una personalità ben distinta, che traspare dalle pagine e contribuisce a renderle uniche: come dimenticare lo zelo religioso di miss Clack o la personalissima visione del mondo del maggiordomo Betteredge, i personaggi più riusciti del romanzo.I protagonisti invece risentono della morale vittoriana e sono scialbi, dei campioni di virtù la cui ossessione per l'onore li rende irritantemente ottusi; in particolare l'eroina, la tipica ereditiera bella buona ed intelligente che ispira devozione in chiunque la incontri.Nonostante certi difetti tipici del suo tempo e nonostante la soluzione del mistero sia immediatamente intuibile per un lettore smaliziato, è un libro godibile e scorrevole, che si legge con facilità e che riesce a coinvolgere il lettore grazie a dei riuscitissimi ritratti d'ambiente.