Dickens' Friend Wilkie

Day 16 of Blogtember: Review a book, place, or product.

picture credit: Alan Bresloff

To any of you other literary enthusiast or classic works obsessed, I highly recommend Wilkie Collins. As a good friend of the brilliant Charles Dickens, his books come highly recommended by association alone. He was the very first author to write a sensation novel and so his works carry you through suspense, mystery, excitement, romance, and all of the best of fiction. To top it all off, these wonderful elements of literature are written in such a profoundly beautiful and eloquent way.

I am part of a book club and we recently finished his work “The Moonstone”. This book starts out a little slower than his other works, and I did not feel bonded with the characters right off the bat (I am one of those readers who become emotionally involved in the lives of those in the story). However, once it got going, the story was very entertaining, having the feel of a classic adventure novel. I learned to love the character of Betteredge as he looks for all of life’s answers in Robinson Crusoe. The story follows the trail of a priceless gem through generations, demonstrating the destruction the stone leaves in its wake. 

One of the most interesting elements about the narration of this work is that the story is told by many different characters, voices, and writing styles. Brilliant. 

I am not going to go into details regarding the plot of the story. I don’t want to give anything away to those readers out there who would enjoy a new classic novelist. Just know that he is a truly talented writer and this was a very entertaining piece of fiction.