If there was such a thing a "meandering story", this one could fit the bill methinks. A pleasure to read (in spite of some ghastly events recounted), and one learns a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
The thing that might stick with me could be the credible unearthing of the roots of the modern detective story, in the vein of Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle. And how grotesque our time would likely seem to people of the Victorian age, seeing that such crimes are now more or less commonplace in the news.
Victorian papers were jam packed with grisly stories of murder and crime. Executions were still public. Today’s restraint is what would surprise a Victorian time traveler.
The Moonstone is the first detective novel and first “house murder” story (think of the game Cluedo, called Clue in the US). It’s still a great book to read today, a very modern story (you could send a telegram to the then-new Scotland Yard police and someone could come by on the train later in the day!).
What’s crazy is that it’s author, Wilkie Collins, was at the time more famous and successful than Dickens, but is practically unknown today.
Thanks, all valid points. Maybe we've just come to expect better. The relative violence in society then and now is likely thoroughly researched, I have just not heard about it.
While his research about corals was also interesting, the most important work of William Saville-Kent was published in "A Manual of the Infusoria" (1880-1881, 3 volumes), which is still quoted even today in many research papers.
Among other things, this contained all the early knowledge about Choanoflagellata, the closest unicellular relatives of the multicellular animals.
The thing that might stick with me could be the credible unearthing of the roots of the modern detective story, in the vein of Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle. And how grotesque our time would likely seem to people of the Victorian age, seeing that such crimes are now more or less commonplace in the news.