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letitiaharmon 's review for:
The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins
When I finished The Woman in White by this same author a couple years ago, I was so delighted. My inner besotted gothic heroine was extremely satisfied with the book’s darkness and clever end. Then I found out Wilkie Collins had also written a novel that is credited as being the first modern mystery, at least as we understand the genre today. And indeed, I think the current reader of mysteries will find a lot of familiarity in style and how the plot progresses. This is basically setting up the era of Sherlock Holmes, though it isn’t as smart or dark as those classics. In fact, I would barely call this gothic. It doesn’t have that salacious and lurid backdrop, and the tortured love story is barely there. It’s also hard to get past the intense and pervasive xenophobia (ok, yes, Britain in the mid 1800s was not exactly the most woke place in history).
I can recommend this book as what it represents to a body of literature and a seminal piece in a genre, but I don’t know that I can recommend Moonstone on just its own merits. Not quite dark enough, not quite clever enough, pacing is atrocious. However, it is prettily written and the characters are adorably quirky and unique.
I can recommend this book as what it represents to a body of literature and a seminal piece in a genre, but I don’t know that I can recommend Moonstone on just its own merits. Not quite dark enough, not quite clever enough, pacing is atrocious. However, it is prettily written and the characters are adorably quirky and unique.