The Moonstone -

Wilkie Collins

Everyman's Library

1992

473 páginas

15h 46m

ISBN-13: 9780679417224

The Moonstone, a yellow diamond looted from an Indian temple and believed to bring bad luck to its owner, is bequeathed to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night the priceless stone is stolen again and when Sergeant Cuff is brought in to investigate the crime, he soon realizes that no one in Rachel’s household is above suspicion. Hailed by T. S. Eliot as ‘the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels’, The Moonstone is a marvellously taut and intricate tale of mystery, in which facts and memory can prove treacherous and not everyone is as they first appear.

Resenhas (1)

4 (Muito bom)

Surprisingly long for a relatively short book.

This is a bit so long book that feels like a one thousand page one. The reading doesn't flow easily, the beginning feels long and dragged (as well as troubled) and the choice of narrative downstairs seem to help. Collins chose to narrate the story via several narrators. I mean, several. "Lots" of characters have a say in the telling of this story, and just as the reader is getting used to the style and point of view, then the narrator changes and we have to familiarize ourselves from scratch. The story picks up towards the end, becoming one of those that's hard to put down, but even that doesn't last. The end doesn't satisfy. It may have been the first (?) investigation story in the history of English literature and it has its merits, but definitely not the best or gripping book of this genre I've read.