This is the next book that i shall be reading (actually that i read and completed last night) for my blog. I know that we, as bloggers, should not dote on summary writing and undue narrating of the story. However, in order to encapsulate my ideas in a way that will easily be understood by my reader, it is mandatory that i provide a brief summary of what transpires in the book beforehand. Thus, without further ado, i now present to you...
THE MOONSTONE - an abridged version brought to you by Adrian.
Setting - England, 1848. The story plays out for the greater part in London.
POV - First person narrative of a butler or house-help named Betteredge.
Outline - The moonstone, a valuable diamond from the statue of the Hindu Moon godess is stolen from India by the late uncle of a Miss Rachel, whom, upon his death, bequeaths the valuable stone to his beloved niece for her birthday. Mr. Franklin, an acquaintance of Ms. Rachel's, is charged with the duty of delivering the moonstone to Rachel on her birthday. He does so with great regret (though he does not evidence this outwardly) for he knows that the moonstone is cursed and brings bad luck to any and all who possess it (all this Mr. Franklin confides in our faithful narrator). Later that night, however, Miss Rachel's diamond is stolen. The mystery being that all the doors and windows of the house were locked shut and that noone could have entered or left with the diamond during the course of the night, suggesting that the thief was someone that stayed over that night. The only people that resided in the house that night were Miss Rachel, Mr. Godfrey Abelwhite (a family friend), Dr. Candy (another family friend), the house-helps (including our narrator) and Mr. Franklin...
...skip several chapters and we come to the end of the book. It turns out that Mr. Godfrey conspired with Dr. Candy to drug Mr. Franklin's drink so that he would act "out of the ordinary". Due to Mr. Franklin's concern for Rachel and the diamond's safety, he had inadvertently (in his somnambulant state induced by the drugs) stolen the diamond so as to hide it from the Hindu men that were trying to retrieve the relic at all costs (they even showed up at the birthday party under the guise of magicians but were spotted out by a wise man who had done a lot of travelling to India and could discern their foul motives). But as Mr. Franklin retired to his room, he was intercepted by Mr. Godfrey Abelwhite who took the diamond and left the house the following day. Mr. Franklin was spotted by Ms. Rachel, though, and she thought that he was stealing her diamond. Mr. Franklin remembered none of this of course, so he was very upset when suddenly Ms. Rachel would not speak to him. Anyway, the book ends with one of the Hindu mercenaries killing Mr. Godfrey Abelwhite, retrieving the fabled moonstone, and returning with it to India to replace it in the statue of the godess. So the truth is revealed, Ms. Rachel loves Mr. Franklin again and becomes Mrs. Franklin, and everyone lives happily ever after...except for the few people that died during the course of the story.
My next post will be on the differences and similarities between this story and the Holmes stories. Till then, adieu.
1 comment:
So being that this is yur summary, I'm going to withhold any real commenting. All I guess I'm guna put out there is that this sounds like an intersting story, I like that you decided to go for a story that had clear similarites and differences between the first, Holmes book you read. This will help you when you come to analysis, becasue you can look at how the difference betweeen narrators adn plots affects your image of the typical detective story.
Post a Comment