ReaderAnn returns this week with the following observations. I'm looking for one more lead poster for next week, then I hope to be back on the track for the very last installment of THE MOONSTONE! Thanks to all readers! --Serial Susan
***I'll comment without giving away any new developments in deference to
readers not caught up. Though I will say I have no new sense of who the
thief might be, and I¹m afraid I might end the book not knowing for sure.
In this installment I particularly enjoyed the Franklin Blake chapters, the
voices within voices, if you will. I don't recall other chapters like this
one, though there might have been. Here, through Blake, there is the happy
return, from my point of view, of Betteredge. And from Betteredge's hand,
there is the very, very, very long letter from Rosanna Spearman, whose voice
is entirely believable as the hard-life girl with the crooked shoulder,
hopelessly in love.
I must say I miss Cuff, and I paged back to the Table of Contents to see
when he returns. Sad to say, there will be no more Clack!***
For next time (July 1868): more Blake, chaps 9-10; Ezra Jennings' journal. Only one more installment after that, then.....??
1 comment:
Oh my, I'm not nearly as thoughtful to those behind in the reading. If I'm behind I avert my gaze from the blog. Perhaps I should say Spoiler Alert! I was quite surprised by Franklin Blake's response to learning that the nightgown was . . . . His! The pacing of that section reminded me of an old radio play. I thought the flannel robe mark was the giveaway that it wasn't really him, and I had my clear hypothesis as to who impersonated him (Godfrey, of course), but Rachel's testimony suggests we are in for a more super-natural (if only through the miracles of chemistry) solution. I think this mystery will be solved, but I don't think the reader has the clues or superior insight to do it for herself.
I wonder whether suspense always leads readers to try to guess or whether we were trained to do that from the texts we've met as children, tv shows etc. I think the reader can't really figure out Holmes story solutions, because the narrator doresn't tell us everything S. H. sees until he reveals the explanation. This multiple voiced story in some ways does the same thing.
I find Franklin's voice most like a narator's and the least amusing to read so far. I look forward to learning more about Ezra!
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