Mine.
It’s HERE! I had to skip out on Alice’s The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins readalong and I am super jealous that I missed the epicness of it. Soooo here I can finally join in what is sure to be another awesome readalong and experience the Wilkie-ness of it all. Yay!
Oh right, supposed to introduce myself. Hi, I’m Sarah *WAVES* and I missed TWIW readalong in April because my poor grandma was sick and then she died and you know, I had stuff to do cause of that. I’m sure that my grandma very much regrets making me miss out on the fun. Hmmm… what else? I’m 25, I’m a homebody, obviously I like to read and……… I’m hungry.
Seeing as how this will be my first Wilkie Collins book, I don’t have a whole lot to say here. According to my awesome powers of looking stuff up on Wikipedia, The Moonstone is about some guy giving his niece a giant-ass diamond (AKA THE MOONSTONE) for her 18th birthday, but that diamond was stolen from a holy statue in India and there are dudes looking for it and it gets stolen and drama and mystery ensues. Just like The Woman in White, this book is considered to be among the first of the crime / mystery genre and introduces a number of the “classic” mystery novel icons, like “red herrings” and “an inside job” and so on and so forth.
I did read the introduction, which was a lot of “this character is regarded as this and this novel is so celebrated because of this” and explained some of the background of big popular diamonds. (And the intro did give a little background on the messed-up-ness that happened at Seringapatam.) There are also two prefaces by the author, in which he admits that while writing this he was in bed suffering massively from gout, but that he couldn’t stand the thought of his readers missing his weekly sections of the story so he dictated the book from bed. The intro points out that because of this, he was probably high off his ass on opium while writing some of this book.
So obviously this is going to be awesome.
~Sarah
I have a copy of The Woman in White, which I really need to read! I always avoid my classic books for some reason …
Enjoy the readalong!
!!! My edition doesn’t have the forewords by Wilkie! I must find them! Oh, the collective Wilkie love in this readalong could power a small city. I hope you’ll add to our store of it.
My book doesn’t have those intros from Wilkie but I’m even more excited at the prospect of him being high as well while writing this. And yay to being able to play along this time
A death in the family always trumps a readalong…EVEN if the book is The Woman in White. Even then. But I do hope you’ll go back to it later, because it truly was delightful.
I think I made fun of Wilkie’s gout in my intro post for WiW…because I assumed he was a terrible person and the gout was possibly his punishment for rollicking with Dickens and breaking ladies’ hearts. But now that I know he was a dear, sweet Wilkie, I feel really guilty about his gout. I hope that opium was very, very strong.
HE WAS HIGH WHILE HE WROTE THIS?! Omg, it’s going to be RIDICULOUS!! In a good way! YAY FOR READING WILKIE WITH US
Hooray, our “second-but-really-first” Wilkie readalong! When I think “book club”, i think of 40 yr-old moms (which is also awesome), but as a fellow 25 yr-old, “readalong” has a nicer vibe to it, doesn’t it? I had no idea that Wilkie may have been high on opium whilst writing – can’t wait to read!
Hey Sarah! Joining along with this one too. It’s nice to see an old blogger friend in the mix.
Cynical me, I read that preface and I thought “riiiiight, you wrote it for all those dedicated fans. Nothing to do with the monies.” But, yeah, this IS going to be awesome!
I think the only thing that could improve Wilkie’s storytelling is a dash of opium-induced hilarity.
Glad you’re joining in on this one! I’m so excited!
Hm, I thought I had left a comment but I guess it didn’t go through properly. Basically, I am excited that you are joining in this time! It will be awesome.
Also, the only thing that can improve on Wilkie’s writing is a dash of opium-induced hilarity.
It’s Wilkie time! Ah, I hope you like it. Mystery! Intrigue! Britishisms! What’s not to like? Wilkie’s prefaces were great. I love that he was so nervous about the reception of this book. You needn’t have worried, Wilkster.
Oh I love it, possibley high on bed rest, lol. This is my first time reading Wilkie, I look forward to it. Sounds like fun with all of you.
Look forward to discussions with everyone.
YES! Your copy has the intros, too! I love how he was all, “I won’t talk about how ILL I was…” and then does just that.