The Moonstone

This is a superb detective novel, and author William (Wilkie) Collins is credited for having pioneered the genre. His earlier novel, The Woman in White, was also a mystery, but in The Moonstone the storyline hews much closer to what we have come to expect from a traditional English detective novel: bumbling and bungling policemen who miss obvious clues; a sharp-eyed, experienced detective who is intimidating yet ultimately likable; many colorful characters; the author luring readers to suspect several plausible suspects for the theft at the center of the story; and a fabulous English manor house with guests and servants galore.

Once again, Collins tells the story from the perspectives of key characters, most delightfully Gabriel Betteredge, house-steward of Lady Julia Verinder. Betteredge has served the family for 50 years, and his own daughter, Penelope, is the personal maid of Miss Rachel, Lady Julia's daughter and the shocked recipient of the moonstone: an enormous yellow diamond, formerly set in the forehead of a Hindu god in an Indian Temple, and stolen by Rachel's late uncle (Julia's brother) during the siege of Seringapatam, the final confrontation in a war between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore back in 1799. Rumor had it that anyone who took possession of the diamond would endure very bad luck, perhaps even tragedy. The estranged uncle's "gift" of the diamond seemed a way to get revenge on the sister who spurned him. The night after the spectacular moonstone is bestowed on Rachel for her birthday, it has already disappeared.

As Betteredge describes in his diary entry, ". . . here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian diamond--bringing after it a conspiracy of living rogues, set loose on us by the vengeance of a dead man. That was our situation, as revealed to me in Mr. Franklin's last words! Who ever heard the like of it--in the nineteenth century, mind; in an age of progress, and in a country which rejoices in the blessings of the British constitution! Nobody ever heard the like of it, and concequently, nobody can be expected to believe it."

Themes in the novel include issues of class and titles. Collins treats key members of the household staff with dignity and kindness, including a housemaid named Roseanna, who has been given a second chance after having done time in a women's reformatory and who becomes a suspect in the theft of the diamond. Collins had no patience for religious reformers, either, and a character delightfully named Miss Clack, who self-righteously litters the homes of her wealthy cousins with religious tracts urging repentence and is clueless that her efforts are resented. In the face of resistence, Miss Clack writes, ". . . the true Christian never yields. . . We are above reason, we are beyond ridicule. . . we are the only people who are always right."

I found this novel to be an absolute page-turner. Even during stretches when no new clues would emerge, the liveliness of the writing, and springing to life of the characters, made this a delight and understandably a classic.