Style
The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins

The Moonstone: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

Wilkie Collins's writing style varies greatly in The Moonstone depending on which narrator the reader is encountering. In general, however, the style of the novel's writing is forthright, intense, and emotional, which belies the complexity of Collins's intensely tangled plots. Collins's novels (especially this one) are known for "traps" and red herrings intended to mislead a reader, and for intricate and intellectually stimulating puzzles and tricks. His figurative language provides a highly detailed and intense landscape for the reader to explore, as he engages with the psychological struggles of complicated characters. He depicts moral issues in a nuanced and thorough way through a variety of perspectives, and peppers the book with romantic and occasionally poetic descriptions of treasure, romance, and the English countryside. The novel's relationship with time is interestingly inconsistent, as some sections "come from" the distant past, and the end of the novel is narrated from a future beyond the events of its central plot.