Movies - The Moonstone

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The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century novel, generally considered the first detective novel in the English language.

Plot summary

The story concerns a young woman called Rachel Verinder who inherits a large Indian diamond, the Moonstone, on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt English colonial army officer. The diamond is of great religious significance as well as being enormously valuable, and three Indian 'Hindoos' (sic) have dedicated their lives to recovering it.

Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party, whose guests include her impecunious beau Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who happen to call on the house. Later that night, the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom...

General

The book is widely regarded as the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novels. T. S. Eliot called it 'the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels'. It contains a number of ideas which became common tropes of the genre: a large number of suspects, red herrings, a crime being investigated by talented amateurs who happen to be present when it is committed, and two police officers who exemplify respectively the 'local bungler' and the skilled, professional, Scotland Yard detective.

Collins employed his usual technique of multiple narrators who take turns in telling the story. It is perhaps his most successful use of this method, the sections by Gabriel Betteredge (steward to the Verinder household) and Miss Clack (a poor relative and religious crank) being very funny as well as skilfully advancing the story.

One of the things that made The Moonstone such a success was its sensationalist depiction of opium addiction. Unbeknownst to his readership, Collins was writing from personal experience. In his later years, Collins grew severely addicted to laudanum and as a result suffered from paranoid delusions, the most notable being his conviction that he was constantly accompanied by a doppelganger he dubbed 'Ghost Wilkie'.

It was Collins's last great success, coming at the end of an extraordinarily productive period which saw four successive novels become best-sellers. After The Moonstone he wrote novels containing more overt social commentary, which did not achieve the same audience.

Examined nowadays from a post-colonial viewpoint, The Moonstone's portrayal of three mysterious Indians who play an integral role in its plot seems unusually positive for a book of its time.

Adaptations

In 1934, the book was made into a critically acclaimed motion picture by Monogram Pictures Corporation. Adapted to the screen by Adele S. Buffington, the film was directed by Reginald Barker and starred David Manners, Charles Irwin and Phyllis Barry. The New York Times said of it: "The Moonstone is a prime example of what can be accomplished on a small budget with a little extra time and care."

In 1996, it was remade in the United Kingdom for television by the BBC and Carlton Television in partnership with American station WGBH of Boston, Massachusetts, airing on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre.

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