Rating: 
Summary: A Stolen Gem
Review: The Moonstone is a slow-paced detective novel written in the 19th century in London, England. The Moonstone was first obtained by Colonel Herncastle who bequeaths it to his niece Miss Rachel on her sixteenth birthday. She is thrilled with her gift and sets the gem in her bedside table that night. When she awakens the next morning, the moonstone is nowhere to be found. The loss of the moonstone is told by Mr. Betteredge, a servant in Miss Rachel's house. Mr. Betteredge offers an outside opinion, as he is not directly involved in the mystery, but sees all that goes on. The rest of the book is split up into different narratives from various characters of the book. Each character's narrative is able to give the reader more pieces to the puzzle. Wilkie Collins wrote this book so well that the characters stand on their own during their narratives. Their personalities surface and are not supported by one another. This was very helpful in keeping the characters straight due to the detail and character that Collins gave them. I really liked this part of the book because all the clues to the mystery weren't given to the reader on a silver platter. Every character in the book had a separate identity. They had more purpose than just happening to be involved in the mystery.
The Moonstone is also unpredictable. Collins will lead the reader to believe and act on other facts before turning the evidence completely around and ending up with a conclusion that throws the reader for a loop. I appreciated this because it kept me reading. I found out who stole the moonstone along with the characters. It was refreshing not to know the answer and having to wait for the other characters to figure it out. I also found the little subplots that were created during the story. They showed the interactions of the characters and helped to explain the personalities of the characters even more. The only problem that I found with The Moonstone is that Collins has a lot of patience. He is content to examine every detail before moving on with the next piece to the puzzle. He also encourages his characters to wait with the solving of the mystery. It is almost exasperating to be so close in solving the mystery that only one character must be interviewed. Almost always, the character will be indisposed or out-of-town. It was a little frustrating to have to wait for the characters to return and having to read about what they had for dinner in the meantime. On a positive note, reading The Moonstone was like watching a movie. However, instead of watching the characters eat, the reader reads about it. This still only adds to the detail of the book and makes you appreciate Collins work on making sure that every element of the story is attended to. All in all, The Moonstone was a great novel, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good puzzle to solve.
Rating: 
Summary: A True Mystery Novel
Review: The Moonstone is a wonderfully written English mystery novel of the mid 1800s. It tells the story of the path of a stolen Indian gemstone. The path begins from the day it was stolen from the forehead of a sacred statue of the god of the Moon guarded by three Brahmins (or Indian priests) to and from its journey Yorkshire. While in Yorkshire, the stone is eventually passed down to Miss Rachel Verinder on the day of her eighteenth birthday and within the same night, the precious Diamond is stolen. In several narratives, the theft of the Diamond is described.I believe that The Moonstone was a fascinating and well thought out mystery novel. Although I thought it was a little too lengthy near the end, this was only for the better. Collins uses eight different narratives to re-tell the story of the missing Diamond. The characters develop into believable and helpful elements of the story. The narratives allow Collins to achieve suspense, thrill, and mystery. In my opinion, he has successfully accomplished the true title of a classic mystery novel.
Rating:
Summary: A True Mystery Novel
Review: The Moonstone is a wonderfully written English mystery novel of the mid 1800s. It tells the story of the path of a stolen Indian gemstone. The path begins from the day it was stolen from the forehead of a sacred statue of the god of the Moon guarded by three Brahmins (or Indian priests) to and from its journey Yorkshire. While in Yorkshire, the stone is eventually passed down to Miss Rachel Verinder on the day of her eighteenth birthday and within the same night, the precious Diamond is stolen. In several narratives, the theft of the Diamond is described. I believe that The Moonstone was a fascinating and well thought out mystery novel. Although I thought it was a little too lengthy near the end, this was only for the better. Collins uses eight different narratives to re-tell the story of the missing Diamond. The characters develop into believable and helpful elements of the story. The narratives allow Collins to achieve suspense, thrill, and mystery. In my opinion, he has successfully accomplished the true title of a classic mystery novel.
Rating:
Summary: trandescends the detective genre it helped to create
Review: The Moonstone is one of those books that, while the first in a particular genre, still holds fast over time. Masterfully written, its themes are surprisingly contemporary more often than not--the use of opiates to delve into the unconscious, the moral arguments about stealing relics from imperial colonies. The twists and turns are stunning, but they're used to a greater aim: to map the contours of human interaction. The intro in this edition is particularly well written as well.
Rating:
Summary: A book you must read, in the Penguin Classics edition!!!
Review: The Moonstone is the best detective story I have ever read. Just when you think you've solved the mystery a twist in the plot occurs. If you want to buy this book, I would recommend the Penguin Classics Edition and not this one. It is much better
Rating:
Summary: The Moonstone
Review: The Moonstone was an awesome book. I really like mysteries and this one was especially good because it came from the point of view of so many of the characters involved. It let you see everyone's personality from different perspectives so that you could judge which character had the mind of a criminal. My favorite character was probably Gabriel Betteredge because he was really quirky. His devotion to Robinson Crusoe and distrust of anyone who would not believe in it were amusing. He was the most informative narrator with respect to the time period. I learned the most about the treatment of women and servants during the mid-1800s from his portion of the novel. I think Rosanna Spearman's irrational conduct where Mr. Franklin was concerned was a bit beyond belief. I doubt that any servant would expect attention from a man from the upper-class society or that she would have gone to the lengths she did when her feelings weren't reciprocated from a man she had known such a very short while. I didn't like the part narrated by Miss Clack as much as I liked the rest of the book because her evangelical attitude kept getting in the way of the plot. It may be normal or slightly humorous to other readers, but it really annoyed me. I didn't particularly like Rachel Verinder because she never should have agreed to marry Mr. Ablewhite while in love with another man. At first, when Mr. Jennings experiment was introduced, I felt like it was all nonsense, but I didn't mind the scene too much because the improbable experiment didn't reveal the whereabouts of the diamond and the plot continued despite the interruption of Mr. Jenning's test. I wish Wilkie Collins had cleared up the mystery of Ezra Jennings' past. I would have liked the book better had we learned who the person he had saved his money for was and possibly what the crime he was never absolved of could have been. I liked the final solution to the disappearance of the moonstone, but I think it could have been more creative. I think the best mysteries are the ones in which the criminal is above suspicion until the very moment the author reveals the truth to his reader.
Rating:
Summary: An immersive, unforgettable mystery classic
Review: THE MOONSTONE was the first mystery story, and it in many ways remains one of the most remarkable. Working in the shadow of the Gothic and Romantic literary traditions, Wilkie Collins managed to create something new and unique. Instead of the endless evocation of atmosphere and focusing on sinister villains, Collins focuses instead on a simple mystery and its solution: who stole the diamond known as the Moonstone, and where did it go? But any reader of the novel knows that the mystery is secondary to the exposition and the marvelous parade of characters. It isn't the getting to the resolution of the mystery that is the main thing, but the process of getting there. One of the great attractions of the novel is the extraordinary style of the writing. Although the first English mystery story, it had not yet devolved into a genre, and Collins was not aware that a mystery story could not also be great literature. As a result, he imbued his characters with enormous charm and give them each a vivid manner in expressing themselves. The multiple narratives by this remarkable characters was a strategy to deal with the problem of authorial point of view. On the one hand, Collins wanted to avoid the omniscient narrator who would know the truth both about each character and about the myster of the fate of the diamond. Collins therefore cast the novel in the form of a succession of narratives by the various participants in the novel. He thereby limits the knowledge of each narrator, but he also is able thereby to provide considerable variation in the style of each narrative. The two most remarkable segments are those by Gabriel Betteridge, House-Steward in the service of Lady Verinder and her cousin Miss Clack, a prim and fervid evangelical Christian whose missionary zeal and prudish moralizing provide many of the funniest moments of the novel. The style of these two could not be more distinct, both from the rest of the narratives and from each other. Miss Clack has constantly to fight a tendency to sermonize. She is apt to turn out passages such as: "A thundering knock at the street door startled us all. I looked through the window, and saw the World the Flesh, and the Devil waiting before the house--as typified in a carriage and horses, a powdered footman, and three of the most audaciously dressed women I ever beheld in my life." Betteridge, on the other hand, is solid, practical, a tad parochial, but ferociously loyal to his employer. For him the good life consists of a good pipe and a copy of ROBINSON CRUSOE at hand. If one laughs a bit at Miss Clack, the reader comes to thoroughly like Betteredge. Between the two of them, their narrative occupy more than half the novel. The others are also quite enjoyable, but not to the degree that these two are. THE MOONSTONE is a page turner, which is to say that it is a delight to read. One wants to read quickly both because each page is such a joy and because one wants to discover what happens next. The characters are mainly enjoyable, but like so many authors his eccentric characters are far more memorable and enjoyable than his central characters. Betteredge, Miss Clack, and Sgt. Cuff far outstrip the "hero" of the book, who while a good citizen, is from a literary point of view a tad boring. I can agree with those readers who consider THE WOMAN IN WHITE a better book, but this is another of those comparisons that are odious. The book is so enjoyable, fun, and memorable that I can't imagine any reader lamenting during the course of its pages that they weren't reading the other book instead.
Rating:
Summary: An immersive, unforgettable mystery classic
Review: THE MOONSTONE was the first mystery story, and it in many ways remains one of the most remarkable. Working in the shadow of the Gothic and Romantic literary traditions, Wilkie Collins managed to create something new and unique. Instead of the endless evocation of atmosphere and focusing on sinister villains, Collins focuses instead on a simple mystery and its solution: who stole the diamond known as the Moonstone, and where did it go? But any reader of the novel knows that the mystery is secondary to the exposition and the marvelous parade of characters. It isn't the getting to the resolution of the mystery that is the main thing, but the process of getting there. One of the great attractions of the novel is the extraordinary style of the writing. Although the first English mystery story, it had not yet devolved into a genre, and Collins was not aware that a mystery story could not also be great literature. As a result, he imbued his characters with enormous charm and give them each a vivid manner in expressing themselves. The multiple narratives by this remarkable characters was a strategy to deal with the problem of authorial point of view. On the one hand, Collins wanted to avoid the omniscient narrator who would know the truth both about each character and about the myster of the fate of the diamond. Collins therefore cast the novel in the form of a succession of narratives by the various participants in the novel. He thereby limits the knowledge of each narrator, but he also is able thereby to provide considerable variation in the style of each narrative. The two most remarkable segments are those by Gabriel Betteridge, House-Steward in the service of Lady Verinder and her cousin Miss Clack, a prim and fervid evangelical Christian whose missionary zeal and prudish moralizing provide many of the funniest moments of the novel. The style of these two could not be more distinct, both from the rest of the narratives and from each other. Miss Clack has constantly to fight a tendency to sermonize. She is apt to turn out passages such as: "A thundering knock at the street door startled us all. I looked through the window, and saw the World the Flesh, and the Devil waiting before the house--as typified in a carriage and horses, a powdered footman, and three of the most audaciously dressed women I ever beheld in my life." Betteridge, on the other hand, is solid, practical, a tad parochial, but ferociously loyal to his employer. For him the good life consists of a good pipe and a copy of ROBINSON CRUSOE at hand. If one laughs a bit at Miss Clack, the reader comes to thoroughly like Betteredge. Between the two of them, their narrative occupy more than half the novel. The others are also quite enjoyable, but not to the degree that these two are. THE MOONSTONE is a page turner, which is to say that it is a delight to read. One wants to read quickly both because each page is such a joy and because one wants to discover what happens next. The characters are mainly enjoyable, but like so many authors his eccentric characters are far more memorable and enjoyable than his central characters. Betteredge, Miss Clack, and Sgt. Cuff far outstrip the "hero" of the book, who while a good citizen, is from a literary point of view a tad boring. I can agree with those readers who consider THE WOMAN IN WHITE a better book, but this is another of those comparisons that are odious. The book is so enjoyable, fun, and memorable that I can't imagine any reader lamenting during the course of its pages that they weren't reading the other book instead.
Rating:
Summary: This was the best mystery ever written!!!!!!!!
Review: This book has such an elaborate plot from detectives to suicides. It really leaves you guessing who, what, where, when, and most of all how. It kept my eyes glued to the page and without a doubt is one of the best mysteries ever written.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Both Worlds
Review: This book, the first detective novel written, is a great combination of the eloquence of the Victorian novel and the entertainment of a mystery novel. Collins' main characters of Gabriel Betteridge and Franklin Blake are immensely likeable and there's a good deal of humour here as well. The only complaint I have about the novel is that it's entirely anti-climactic. Most of the suspense comes near the middle of the novel and you'll spend a good portion of the latter part of the novel with a pretty solid idea of who the culprit is. Overall, though, a very good read.
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