<p>As they used to say on Monty Python, And now for something completely different! Our December CC Book Club selection (yes, December is only 6 weeks away) will be The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. This classic British novel, written in 1871, was described by T.S. Eliot as The first and greatest of English detective novels.</p>
<p>Discussion will begin on December 1st. Please join us!</p>
<p>OMG, Mary! Awesome choice. I’m not a book club person, but I’m going to the library tomorrow to check it out. I first read this book when I was a teen, and I was so absorbed that I could not put it down until I finished it!</p>
<p>I read it after I’d been in Germany for several years and no longer felt the need to practice my German by reading things in German. I read a lot of fat British classics because that’s what the library had. (And tons of Neville Shute.) I remember liking it. My younger son read it recently when he took an English elective where they read (and watched) mysteries.</p>
<p>^ Neville Shute! I haven’t thought about him in a long time. Many years ago, I read A Town Like Alice and just loved it. I’m afraid to re-read it because I think I’ve grown cynical over the years and it wouldn’t have the same pull for me.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, was the last time you read The Moonstone when you were in your teens? If so, it will be interesting to see if it grabs you the same way it did back then.</p>
<p>Have “The Moonstone” on my Kindle, one of several I plan to get into during a couple of upcoming l-o-n-g flights. BUT, what really grabbed me about your initial post, Mary13, is that December is only 6 weeks away! Ack! Not ready for the whole holiday thing …</p>
<p>I still love A Town Like Alice. I reread it every once in a while. The mini series with Bryan Brown (swoon) was pretty good too, if I recall correctly. :)</p>
<p>I never read A Town Like Alice, and I only saw a few episodes of the miniseries, but I remember liking them a whole lot. I did read On The Beach, though. For some reason my grandmother had it in her beach house. (I read The Moonstone there, too, more years ago than I want to think about.)</p>
<p>Mary, I just started reading The Moonstone and what comes to mind is the way the classics tend to engage the reader in a direct manner; we are the author’s audience. I’ve missed that!</p>
<p>^ psychmom, I’ve only just started the book and I see what you mean. The reader almost becomes a character in the story.</p>
<p>Shout-out to others–There is still plenty of time to read The Moonstone! I hope there are classics lovers out there who will join us for discussion on December 1st.</p>
<p>Ah, I read this in my first semester freshman English seminar! Fun book. Great characters, especially the butler.</p>
<p>Hello readers! It’s December 1st! (No, I can’t believe it either.) I’m on my way to work, so I can’t post any substantive observations at the moment, but gather your Moonstone thoughts and let’s start discussing! Did anyone/everyone hang in there for the entire novel? I found it slow-moving, although I enjoyed it very much. Loved the character of Gabriel Betteredge.</p>
<p>I loved the sophistication of the various characters who aren’t traditional Victorian leading men – a servant, a person of color, etc.</p>
<p>I wrote a paper on this bit of wisdom from the butler:</p>
<p>“It often falls heavy enough, no doubt, on people who are really obliged to get their living, to be forced to work for the clothes that cover them, the roof that shelters them, and the food that keeps them going. But compare the hardest day’s work you ever did with the idleness that splits flowers and pokes its way into spiders’ stomachs, and thank your stars that your head has got something it MUST think of, and your hands something that they MUST do.”</p>
<p>This is such a great psychological insight. The human animal just operates better when it has work to do, and the freedom to be idle is of questionable benefit at best. We need obligations to keep us going.</p>
<p>I finished The Moonstone last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the rotating first-person naratives, with each person having their turn -in turn, perfect for the unfolding mystery. Usually when I describe a book as “slow-moving” I like it less than I did this one, so I think I’ll just say, “I read it slowly.” I also liked it enough to order The Woman in White.</p>
<p>Gabriel Betteredge - great character. :)</p>
<p>I just finished reading The Moonstone. I mean I literally just read the last page and shut the book. I found it slow in places, but overall I enjoyed it. It took me a while to get attached to the story. I had several false starts before finally starting it for real last week. </p>
<p>Once I got started (after my several false starts) I thought this quote by Betteredge, on page 26, was written just for me:
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<p>After completing the story, I see that the above passage spoke personally to me, just as the passages from ROBINSON CRUSOE often spoke to Betteredge.</p>
<p>I agree that Betteredge was a great character.</p>
<p>As with others, I found the book slow going at times, but I did enjoy it. Had never heard of it before, and probably never would have read it if not for this thread. </p>
<p>I did think everything got wrapped up a little too quickly at the end, after all the time (pages) it took to get there. How many people suspected who took the Moonstone before it was revealed?</p>
<p>Ditto with others about the “Slow going at times” understatement for me. </p>
<p>I enjoyed Gabriel’s passage’s and even I described this book as “delightful” to friends, in the beginning.
But “delightful” soon changed with Miss Clark.
Miss Clark’s section did me in, and turned this “delightful” romp into “painful”-wordy, tedious reading. I must confess it was Nov 28th and the countdown until this discussion so I felt I had long way to go, without much time, and hope of finishing it before the discussion.
Perhaps the time crunch made this book, the least favorite of the ones we’ve read. </p>
<p>So on Nov 30th I rushed towards the end of the book, something I hate to do, because I couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. The clock continued ticking!
Big mistake. Had to backtrack to find out the mystery of Rosanna Spearman, and other details.</p>
<p>This is NOT a book to read out of sequence. Perhaps I am not being fair to Collins’ clever plot and lively characters, because I felt so rushed.</p>
<p>My favorite character was Sergeant Cuff.
Re CBB- early on I suspected Mr Blake, but Collins cleverly convinced me he was innocent. Why would an innocent man rush to get the celebrated Sergeant Cuff ? </p>
<p>CBB, others, did you figure this out early on? How is it possible?</p>
<p>BU- loved that passage- one of the things I found “delightful” at the beginning. Even read the book while drinking tea, and I’m an avid coffee drinker !</p>
<p>I underlined a lot of what Betteredge said, including the passages that Hanna and BUandBC82 quoted. Some of his observations were profound; others just hilarious. He was a bit of a misogynist, at least as regards the late Mrs. Betteredge, but he and Lady Verinder had a strong affection and respect for one another. I liked their relationship.</p>
<p>Wilkie Collins himself is a rather fascinating figure:</p>
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<p>[WILKIE</a> COLLINS - BIOGRAPHY AND LIFE](<a href=“http://www.wilkie-collins.info/wilkie_collins_biography.htm]WILKIE”>WILKIE COLLINS - BIOGRAPHY AND LIFE)</p>
<p>Given the fact that Collins’ lived with two different women, and kept them in two different houses during the same period of time, it’s funny that Godfrey Ablewhite—keeper of a mistress and a secret villa—is the evil villain! Maybe that was Collins’ wry little dig at the Victorian establishment.</p>
<p>^^“Collins’s unorthodox lifestyle reveals a cynical regard for the Victorian establishment.”
Miss Clark comes to mind. LOL, I thought Wilkie was a woman, confirms I didnt’ do any pre-research! Very interesting Mary. This is why I love these discussions.</p>
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<p>SJChessMom, you are just too modern a woman! Look what I found:</p>
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<p>[Penguin</a> Reading Guides | The Woman in White and The Moonstone | Wilkie Collins](<a href=“http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/woman_white_moonstone.html]Penguin”>http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/woman_white_moonstone.html)</p>
<p>^ Note to ignatius: The above site is interesting, but you should enter at your own risk—it gives everything away about The Woman in White.</p>