The Moonstone

The Moonstone 

by Wilkie Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

According to Wikipedia:

The book is regarded by some as the precursor of the modern mystery novel and the suspense novel. T. S. Eliot called it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe," and Dorothy L. Sayers praised it as "probably the very finest detective story ever written".

This was a wonderful mystery, full of twists and turns and many of the tropes that have become the hallmarks of detective fiction. It is written as a series of reports (collected so that later generations of the family involved will know the truth) by people involved in the incidents connected with the Moonstone. This was supposed to be my chapter-a-day book but I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next so I flew through it. This was my second Wilkie Collins novel.

This book is on my Classics Club list, it is on my TBR pile challenge list, and I am counting it as a "Classic Mystery" for the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Unread Shelf Project January 2021

My UnRead Shelf, Jan 2021

I went through all my shelves in the last months of 2020 and identified 43 books as owned-but-not-read. I gathered most of these into a single bookcase. (Some are elsewhere because they are part of a project or collection that has its own home). During 2021 I am going to endeavor to read as many of these as I can. Or to decide I am not going to read some of these books and move them on to a new home. Most of these books have been in my house for many years and I have no idea exactly where they came from. As I get though these additional titles may be shifted to this collection so 43 is definitely not a firm number. 

  January challenge for the UnRead Shelf project is to read a book with high expectations. I considered several books for this designation: the 3rd and final volume of Blanche Weisen Cook's Eleanor Roosevelt biography (I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first 1300+ pages), an Anne LaMott book (Bird by Bird is an all-time favorite); The Moonstone (arguably the first mystery novel); and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (so much hype, so many awards!) I decided to go with Let the Great World Spin. Will see how that goes.

The December 2020 UnRead Shelf challenge was to read the shortest book on your shelf which for me was Life in the Garden by Penelope Lively at 199 pages. At this point it is still in progress, but I am moving through it, and for the most part enjoying it.

Double Date Challenge

Writing My Own Fairy Tale is hosting the Double Date Challenge for Bout of Books 9.0. You must pick two books that you would recommend someone read together (like a double date!) and explain your reasons for the recommendation. 
I have 2 double date recommendations:

Drood by Dan Simmons 
and 
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Drood tells the story (fictionalized) of the relationship between Collins, who is writing The Moonstone, and Charles Dickens.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham
and 
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Two great books, one is (among other things) the story of the woman who is writing the other. 

Top Ten Tuesday -- Best Books YTD

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic: the best books I've read so far in 2013.

The first 2 were 5 star reads. The rest were top 10 in no particular order.

1. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
3. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
4. Bitter Brew by William Knoedelseder
5. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
6. The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro
7. An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym
8. The Merry Heart by Robertson Davies (read, but didn't write up yet)
9. Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
10. Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins was a contemporary (and friend) of Charles Dickens, author of Bleak House (and many other books) and serves as the narrator of the novel Drood.  After reading about his rather sordid personal life in Drood, I was interested to see what Collins' writing would be like. It did not disappoint.

The Woman in White was originally published in serial form beginning in November 1859. It is a suspense novel filled with dastardly deeds and mysterious events. Spying and intercepted letters and forged documents and secret loves all play a part in the complex plot and keep the pages turning. What gives the novel weight is the characters. Each is a detailed and unique individual, especially the villains.

The point of view of the narrative switches around so you see events and people from various perspectives which adds depth to each character. Count Fosco, for example, is felt by some narrators to be evil and sneaky and definitely responsible for harming them all. Other narrators contend that he is the personification of a gentleman and acting only out of kindness and concern for the well being of them all. By the end you get a report of the actions from his own viewpoint and can draw your own conclusions.

The novel is composed of many pairs of people and this parallel structure --two heroines, two villains, two houses-- helps keep the action of the story moving without having to give anything away too soon.

I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading Collins' The Moonstone which was discussed at length in Drood.

Classics Club Readathon

I have never done a readathon, and am not totally clear on the rules, but as I understand it the idea is to read for 24-hours which sounds excellent. This readathon begins at 8am EST with a kick-off post on the Classics Club blog and we will be reading for 24 hours after that!

I had everything set up for this project: groceries for crockpot Taco Soup purchased, my husband expecting to be at the office that day, and and a stack of classics from my list ready to begin. Then my husband's work project got sorted out and we were invited to a private tasting at a local brewery that evening and I am going to have to choose between beer and books on Saturday.

I think I will join in the readathon during the day, and will go to the beer event in the evening. That still gives me a solid 9 hours of reading time.

I am about 75 pages into The Woman in White, so I will be reading that and I want to re-read Murder in the Cathedral so I can finish the blog post I started about it in November. If I need a break from Wilkie Collins, I may set it aside and pick up on of the children's classics on my list (The Phantom Tollbooth or Alice in Wonderland perhaps).

Challenge: 2013 Colorful Reading

I am signing up to do the 2013 Colorful Reading Challenge hosted at Lost in Books.

The rules are simple:

1. Just choose 9 books with colors in the titles.   2. The books can overlap with other reading challenges (because let's face it, we need them to.)   3. Post your links to your reviews each month to share with other participants. 4. The challenge runs from January 1, 2013 to December 1, 2013. 5. Read to your heart's content!

I plan to start with The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, The Bordeaux Betrayal by Ellen Crosby, and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.

Challenge: Tea and Books 2013

I completed the 2012 Tea and Books Challenge at The Book Garden and am signing up to try the 2013 Tea and Books Challenge. However, I am signing up this time at the "Chamomile Lover" level which only commits me to read 2 books over 650 pages (thank you for the rule change from 700 pages!). I hope to be able to upgrade during the year to the next level (because I can't stand chamomile tea), but don't want to take on more than I can manage and have quite a few other reading challenges planned for 2013. A review of my reading pile found several books over 600 pages, but only a couple over 650.

I plan to read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (702 pages) and The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (876 pages).

Review: Drood

Drood by Dan Simmons

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was really liking this book until I got to the ending which I thought fell flat. The novel is narrated by Wilkie Collins (the author) who is the epitome of the unreliable narrator: he takes a ton of drugs, drinks a good deal, and is completely self-absorbed and quite cruel. The story spans several decades and not a lot actually happens beyond basic life stuff (work, moving households, babies), unless we believe Collins in which case a battle to the death between Charles Dickens (the inimitable author) and a mysterious Egyptian monster named Drood is taking place over these years. There is a lot of detail about the work of both writers and various aspects of London that I found interesting. I especially liked the parts where Collins condemns Dickens' work as being sub-standard to his own. The Bleak House critique is excellent, for example. What I didn't like about the ending was that the whole novel (700+ pages) was heading for a grand battle between various players and then the battle scene isn't there. There are several smaller incidents that seem to foreshadow the showdown, but ultimately we never get to see it. I felt cheated.

There is a review of this book by Louis Bayard in the Washington Post.  I mostly agree with the reviewer, though the "padding and sock-puppetry" didn't bother me that much. I love his conclusion:

"A more apropos title, then, might have been "A Tale of Two Egos," which, all in all, is a worthy subject, but not worth the epic length afforded to it. Inside this artery-clogging almost-800-page book is a sleek and sinewy 300-page thriller waiting to be teased out. If only Simmons hadn't left the job to us"

I read this book for the Tea & Books Challenge (#5 of 6).