#154 in Romance
The Moonstone
- 366
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- TV film 1974
- On screen
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Our view
“The Moonstone” helped found the detective novel and still entertains, told through letters and diaries and ending in a real surprise. Serialised in 1868 in Dickens’s magazine, it set many of the rules the genre has followed since. Some readers find it long-winded, and some tire of the cliffhangers in the second half, which they put down to the way it first appeared; others think the solution repays the wait.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Moonstone: A Romance by Wilkie Collins is an 1868 British epistolary novel. It is an early example of the modern detective novel, and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. Its publication was started on 4 January 1868 and was completed on 8 August 1868. The story was serialised in Charles Dickens's magazine All the Year Round. Collins adapted The Moonstone for the stage in 1877.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- TV filmThe MoonstoneIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 170 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 53% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Romance average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 23 | 14% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 147 | 87% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Moonstone?
It has 366 pages — shorter than 67% of the ranked books in Romance.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 7.4 and 8.0, closest to this book.
