Wilkie Collins
Yesterday was a rainy day, and I finally finished The Moonstone, the excellent (and very long) novel by Wilkie Collins that defined the detective fiction novel genre. So I will turn to the other masterpiece, The Woman in White, wherein he writes in preface to the second edition:
"I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story."
That might seem obvious, but novels are written for other purposes, where the story and characters are subsumed to another purpose, usually a moral or political point. Some good novels have done that, but I find that when I just let my characters be themselves, I'm much better off.
Anyway, I recommend The Moonstone to anyone willing to invest several months in its reading. I loved it, but I started a while back and read a chapter or two at a time. It's 380 dense pages, but the writing is spectacular.
"I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story."
That might seem obvious, but novels are written for other purposes, where the story and characters are subsumed to another purpose, usually a moral or political point. Some good novels have done that, but I find that when I just let my characters be themselves, I'm much better off.
Anyway, I recommend The Moonstone to anyone willing to invest several months in its reading. I loved it, but I started a while back and read a chapter or two at a time. It's 380 dense pages, but the writing is spectacular.
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