Victorians! discussion

Here you may discuss the last captures of the book, and the ending, and share your thoughts of what you thought to the entirety of the book.

Did you guess the ending? I didn't

I certainly didn't. Collins did a superior job of misdirection in this novel. I am not sure that opium would in fact induce the actions described in the book. I'd be curious if anyone here can shed some light on whether Blake's behavior was plausible, but it certainly provided a fun read.

I was clueless all the way through!

I read somewhere that Collins was an opium addict and drew upon his personal experiences with the drug when writing this book. I have "English opium eater" in my library. This book got me interested in getting around to reading it.

I certainly did not see the ending coming but nevertheless found Rachel hilarious. I thought the novel on the whole a scathing social satire pariculary with regards to class and race. The Indians and the detective were trated quite appallingly. . . Now if you want a novel which grips the reader like a nightmarish opium dream then I highly recommend 'Uncle Silas' by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It is rivetting page-turner. Though you would be well advised to read the Penguin Classics edition edited with explanatory notes by Victor Sage due to the spiritual beliefs of the narrator's late father which is one of the key themes of the tale. If you loved The Woman in White then you are sure to enjoy Uncle Silas.

Hi Silver, earlier I may have made a blunder. While discussing with someone my favourite characters from The Moonstone and The Woman in White we went on to comment upon an earlier Collins work. Among other things I touched upon a characteristic of more than one of his novels - duality and draw a distinctive comparison.

Later another reader commented that they had yet to read a particular novel and hoped that our discussion/chat wasn't a spoiler.

Seeing that now at least two works of one author has been read been read perhaps their should be some place where we can discuss the works of that author's generally? How can one discuss development of recurring themes and other literary devices otherwise?

Malcolm wrote: "I certainly did not see the ending coming but nevertheless found Rachel hilarious. I thought the novel on the whole a scathing social satire pariculary with regards to class and race. The Indians..."

Uncle Silas seems like a very interesting novel! I just added it to my wish-list

I assure you that you'll love it Gitte. It is by far his best novel. He expanded it from an earlier short story 'Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess', which he later re-wrote as the short story 'The Murdered Cousin'. Although the same tale, these short stories differ greatly from Uncle Silas lacking a particular depth and certain characters :o) Personally I think reading these short stories prior to reading Uncle Silas does not ruin the experience as there are differences. In fact I came across Passage in the Secret History first which made me go out and buy Uncle Silas :o)

Malcolm wrote: "Hi Silver, earlier I may have made a blunder. While discussing with someone my favourite characters from The Moonstone and The Woman in White we went on to comment upon an earlier Collins work. A..."

You make a good an interesting point. For future discussions I will consider creating a special thread in which people can comparatively discuss related works, and other works by the same author which they think may be relevant without anyone unintentionally being exposed to spoilers for works they have not yet read.

I just finished reading this book, and I really enjoyed it. I was completely surprised by the ending. Though I had began to suspect that Godfrey may have been the man in disguise, partially because I figured that it had to be someone the reader already knew and who was present during the dinner party, and I could not think of anyone else who it could have been.

I found the death of Ezra Jennings to have been quite sad even though we did not see very much of his character. I am curious to the way in which Collin's creates this mystery around Ezra and his past and what happened to him without offering any explanation. I presume that part of his reputation was related to what seemed to be his own addiction to opium, but perhaps he started his use of opium because of whatever happened to him.

It seemed as if in many ways Ezra was a parallel character to Godfrey and I found it interesting the way in which he died shortly after Godfrey's own murder.

Hi Silver, thanks. I'm surprised that discussion rooms for the works of popular authors (that is, a group read of two or more works by a particular author) are not more common :o)

Obviously these rooms will have clear "MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!" warnings :o)

Silver wrote: "I just finished reading this book, and I really enjoyed it. I was completely surprised by the ending. Though I had began to suspect that Godfrey may have been the man in disguise, partially because..."
Ezra Jennings was by far my favorite character. His history and status was more compelling then any other.

It is odd that Jennings was falsely accused of something (Godfrey was hardly accused), he was mixed and looked down on (Godfrey's father was originally from a lower class but he was hardly looked down on), nobody hardly noticed Jennings good deeds (Godfrey had to flaunt it), Jennings was in love with someone he could never be with but helped Rachel and Blake reunite (Godfrey didn't truly love and almost kept them apart). There are so many contradicting actions and traits between the two who basically started and ended the story. I wondered about Godfrey throughout the novel and after Miss Clack's part highly suspected him to be part of the conspiracy.