The beginning of The Moonstone!

This is really sad.... I really am having a hard time getting into this book.  It is a struggle to talk myself into picking it up at night to read a few pages. 

If someone else would like to start the discussion, I would really appreciate it.

I really enjoyed The Moonstone.  It took me a little while to get into it too, but once it got to Betteredge's narrative I really liked it.  I thought he was a very funny and engaging narrator.  Throughout the book I thought Collins' use of different narrators was really interesting.  I also thought it was interesting to see all the things that Collins originated that have become "stock" elements of country-manor house mysteries.

I thought the character of Rachel was interesting too.  Her behavior in this section is inscrutable and kind of obnoxious, although when I was considering the story after I'd finished it, I could see the foreshadowing in Betteredge's description of her.  That to me is one thing that makes a good mystery- the way you can see clues that you didn't recognize as clues on a first read.

A lot happens in the first period, and I'll probably post more as I think of it, but I was wondering if anyone had also read The Woman in White.  I read it about a year ago and really liked that one too.  But I was struck by the difference in tone between that and The Moonstone, because Woman in White is really a much darker, more gothic mystery while Moonstone has a lot more humor and adventurey stuff in it.

I really do need to reread The Moonstone because I really don't remember it very well.  To be honest, it wasn't my favorite of his.  It seemed a little bloodless to me compared to the high gothic melodrama of The Woman in White or Armadale (which I am obsessed with).   No Name is really good, too.

Off to read!

*pant, pant* Wait for me! I finally found a copy today and I'm getting started! Hope I don't have too hard a time...

I'm enjoying it so far! If you're familiar with Librivox, they have free audio downloads of public domain books (of which The Moonstone is one) so I was able to listen to a few chapters while I worked on dinner tonight. It was nice to be able to multi-task.

The book is funnier than I expected so far (I'm about 100 pages in) and as Vanessa said, it's fun to see all the ways the "country house mystery" draws from this book. The butler's obsession with Robinson Crusoe is making me want to read that next, LOL.

I enjoy the way Betteredge regards "Robinson Crusoe" as his 'good book' as others would the Bible :)  I'm still reading the first section but I think I'll try listening to it as well.

I think I'll miss Betteredge when we switch. 

I think I'll miss Betteredge when we switch.

I was thinking the same thing!