The Moonstone Read-Along: Post One (Introduction)
It’s time to start The Moonstone Read-Along, hosted by Ellie at Lit Nerd! I’m about 50 pages in to this behemoth and it was slow going for the first few chapters, but Betteredge, the hilarious butler and our narrator, has won me over.
My Copy
I’m reading the free Gutenburg on my Kobo. So far it’s not too bad (sometimes the freebies are riddled with formatting errors.)
I also shelled out $4.99 for a cheap paperback, as I’ll probably need to flip back when posting my reactions. Ereaders are great but I hope there’s a crack team of scientists somewhere working out the flipping issue because I am a flipper – backwards when I have a “who is this guy again” moment (often) and forward when I have a “I just need to make sure everything turns out ok!” panic attack.
What I Know About the Book
Nothing. Honestly nothing. I didn’t even know what the “moonstone” in question was till I started reading. Once I found out that it’s a humungous, yellow, cursed diamond, I immediately thought, “hey didn’t JLo have a yellow diamond engagement ring and maybe that would explain a few things in her life?” This article rounds up celebrities that have famously worn yellow diamonds, including JLo, but check out the entry on Marilyn Monroe, with eerie similarities to The Moonstone:
“The incredible 24-carat yellow diamond, famously known as the Moon of Baroda, was worn by Monroe at the Hollywood premier of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The diamond belonged to the royal dynasty Gaekwad Maharajas and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Reportedly to be cursed, the diamond was said to have been the source of Monroe’s misfortune and ultimately, her death.”
via pulpinternational.com
What I Know About the Author
Also nothing. I though he was a she until recently. Wilkie is a guy’s name, I guess!
What I Hope To Get Out of the Read-Along
- Cross off another 1,001 Book
- Cross off another Classics Club book. I actually had The Woman in White on my list, because the title reminded me of Days of our Lives. If you watched during the 90s you get it. I switched it out for The Moonstone because of this read-along.
- Chat with some new book bloggers. I don’t know many of the participants, so I look forward to discovering some new blogs!
I’m chatting on #readWilkie Twitter and will do a mid-way post around November 16th.
Have you read The Moonstone? If you’re reading along, what do you think so far?
Reading in Bed 
That settles it, I’m going to avoid yellow diamonds for the rest of my life. I would rather not be cursed thank you very much.
I always need to flip back in classics just in case I lose the drift a bit which is why, even with so many free ebooks available, I’d still usually read a paperback.
I hope you enjoy your foray in Wilkie territory 🙂
Were you in danger of owning yellow diamonds before? 😉 Enjoying it so far!
I loved this book when I read it, it’s really gripping and I hope you all enjoy the book.
But isn’t a moonstone different from a yellow diamond? I once visited a moonstone mine, and the moonstones there were a whitish color, looking more like pearls than diamonds.
The book described it as yellow. A moonstone mine, that just sounds cool!
Unfortunately the mine itself was not so cool. It was blazing hot and uncomfortable. The moonstones looked fancy though 🙂
I’m really enjoying this one so far–hope you are, too!
I know zilch about Wilkie Collins but The Woman in White is on my CC list — can’t wait to hear what you think of this one!
What made you add The Woman in White? Are you a closet Days fan too? 🙂
No, ‘fraid not — it’s just one of those books you hear about all the time in grad school, but since I wasn’t a specialist in the nineteenth century, I never got around to reading it. 🙂
Ooh, what is the Days connection to The Woman in White (which I have not read)?
Not a real connection! There was a storyline about a “woman in white” who haunted some of the characters… Stephano was involved (as always)… this was in the mid-90s!
Oh Stephano … I must have missed this tantalizing storyline. I’ve been in and out of the soap since the 80s.
Eek, that is really eerie about Marilyn. I think I’ll steer clear of any yellow jewelry for a while.
About the Gutenberg version — I was reading it online yesterday and then noticed, when I started reading the book itself, that I had missed an entire chapter. I’m not sure if all of the formats are the same, but when I double-checked it, there was definitely a chapter in my book that was missing from the online version. Just a warning! Not sure if your version is as scanty as the one I was reading (or maybe I just have a weird edition of the book…?)
whaaat? Can you tell me what chapter, maybe give me the first sentence, so I can check?
Of course. For me it was right at the beginning – it skipped over chapter 2. Chapter 2 in the book version I have starts with: “I spoke of my lady a line or two back.”
Its also entirely plausible that I am an idiot, and accidentally missed a chapter while reading!
Checked and I’ve got that chapter in my Gutenburg edition. Good thing, there’s some handy background info in there!
I read The Moonstone a few months back and loved it. It was kind of fluffy, but still fun. I loved that you switched between narrators and tried to piece the story together from sometimes reliable and sometimes unreliable sources. Woman in White is on the list of 100 and now I am really looking forward to reading it.
Just passing through to say hello! *waves*
The diamond in question is yellow!? Yeah, I so totally knew that :s I have actually been paying fairly close attention to the text but somehow that fact completely escaped me. I’m struggling to picture a yellow diamond actually. Also, on my cover, the diamond is pink:
Go figure.
I didn’t know anything about the book either. I bought it from a charity shop a few years ago because I already had The Woman in White and this was a matching edition. I didn’t even look at the blurb when I signed up for this read-a-long!
I LOVE IT though., way more than I expected to.