Digest urth.v022.n015
The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 05 Jan 1999
https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1316

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Alice Turner — 05 Jan 1999, 20:35

Stephen et al,

> Michael Straight wrote :

> > This sounds like it was inspired by a novel from the mid 1800's by Wilkie
> > Collins called _The Moonstone_, which T.S. Eliot called "the first and
> > greatest of English detective novels" (it introduced the idea of giving
> > the reader all the clues necessary to solve the mystery and of having a
> > "detective" to put it all together).  It features chapters written by
> > each of the witnesses to the crime.  I don't know if they contradict each
> > other, as, alas, I haven't read it yet. 

> A quick recommendation of _The Moonstone_. I love Wilke Collins' fiction
> and perhaps this is the best of his novels, with a wonderful complex plot
> and great characters (the detective Sgt. Cuff is great) and a marvelous
> sense of place this is of interest to Wolfe fans. As far as I can recall
> the Chapters written by various characters do not contradict each other
> they move the plot on seamlessly and are only written by divers hands
> because some of the narrators are not on hand to describe all of the
> events.

I too think -The Moonstone- holds up wonderfully well, especially
considering what a pioneer it was, 1868, decades before the great adventure
fiction of the end of the century. And I'll recommend -Incident of the
Fingerpost- too, with one caveat: it is awfully long, and ones attention
(mine, anyway) does tend to wander at times, so that it becomes a bit of a
slog. But clever and atmospheric and amusing.

-alga

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