The jewel of the East (The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins)

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Product:	The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Date:	24/02/06 (203 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully written, strong characterisation

Disadvantages: None

Introduction
I've been meaning to read this book for ages, but kept putting it off - I do most of my reading on public transport and so tend to prefer something reasonably light - and a book written in 1868 isn't really my idea of light reading. But as a fan of crime fiction, I felt that I had to read the book that has been classed by many as the first of modern English detective novels and so just finished reading it. It was definitely one of the best books I've read for a long time; not particularly for its crime fiction value, but more for the fabulous writing style and some of the most vivid characters I have come across. What's more, it wasn't anything like as hard to read as I was expecting - I read it in three or four days and didn't once find it hard-going.

The author
Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824. He trained in law, which provided him with a lot of material for his literary career. He became friends with Charles Dickens; the latter produced and acted in two plays written by Collins. Collins is most famous for his novels, however; the most famous of which are The Moonstone and The Woman in White, which is now an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

The story
Everything revolves round a diamond called The Moonstone, stolen from its native India by John Herncastle from under the nose of three guardian priests, specially tasked with guarding it. Despite the fact that, or perhaps because, The Moonstone was believed to bring bad luck to its owner, Sir John bequeathed it to the daughter of his estranged sister, Rachel Verinder, on her eighteenth birthday.

On Rachel's birthday, there is a house full of guests, including two men that she has shown signs of wanting to marry: Franklin Blake and Godfrey Ablewhite, both of whom are Rachel's cousins, a doctor, a distant relative - Miss Clack, Rachel's mother - Lady Verinder and Mr Murthwaite, a neighbour. All goes well, until the morning after, when it is discovered that the jewel has been stolen from Rachel's sitting room.

Sergeant Cuff is called in from London to investigate; and finds a house in confusion. Rachel Verinder has locked herself in her room, refusing to speak to anyone, including the man she was considered most likely to marry; Lady Verinder is clearly unwell; and the servants are in uproar, particularly one called Rosanna Spearman, who was a thief in a previous life. The only clue is some smeared paint on a recently painted door - yet there is no item of clothing to match the smear. Why has the diamond had such a strange effect on everyone? And can it be found before the lives of all the innocent people involved are ruined? And who are the three mysterious Indians who are constantly spotted around people that were involved with the diamond?

The characters
There are a number of characters that are pivotal to the story; I will give an introduction to the main ones:

Franklin Blake - cousin to Rachel Verinder and the person she is suspected to have fallen in love with. He is intelligent, having been educated abroad, and is described by other characters in the book as having different personalities depending on whether his French, German, English or Italian sides were uppermost. He does not really come into his own until nearer the end of the book - he is portrayed very much as a nice young man with slightly odd habits that everyone puts down to his foreign education.

Rachel Verinder - she is a well-educated, well brought up young woman preparing herself for marriage. All the more reason, then, that her sudden personality change once the diamond has been stolen is out of character. She has violent mood swings and changes from a likeable, easy-going young woman to a selfish annoying brat. Her mood changes are particularly vividly portrayed.

Godfrey Ablewhite - also cousin to Rachel Verinder and seemingly in love with her. He is known as a good sort, spending a lot of his time doing good deeds and charitable work. He comes from a good home; although his mother, Lady Verinder's sister, married below herself. Godfrey is considered to be a nice young man, but there is something slightly creepy about him.

Sergeant Cuff - the famous detective brought in to solve the crime. Lean and ugly, he scares a number of people in the household with his tough questions. He has a touch of the Sherlock Holmes about him - he sneaks around and acts oddly - all for very good reasons that are totally unclear to everyone else. However, despite his suspicions, he struggles to prove who the thief is.

Gabriel Betteredge - steward to the household, who is exceptionally loyal to Lady Verinder, Rachel Verinder and Franklin Blake. He tells the first part of the story. His loyalty, although admirable, does prevent him from seeing the truth. He has a kind heart and has a soft spot for one of the servants, Rosanna Spearman.

Rosanna Spearman - was rescued by Lady Verinder from a reformatory and is ostracised by the other servants. She does well in the house; until Franklin Blake first returns from abroad and she falls deeply in love with him. Her behaviour becomes erratic, particularly after the disappearance of the diamond, and she becomes the chief suspect in the case. Her story is the most touching of all; she is a plain girl with a disabled shoulder who has suffered greatly and unfortunately looks to continue to suffer greatly.

Ezra Jennings - only comes into the story towards the end of the book, but nevertheless plays a major role. He is of mixed blood and because of his ugliness and a scandal in his past, finds it hard to mix with other people for fear of them discovering his secret. He is probably the easiest person to visualise, described as he is as having 'piebald' hair - one layer of black and one of white. His story is also deeply touching.

All of the characters were very easy to visualise and easy to either like or dislike according to the way they were portrayed. There is no way, however, to guess who was responsible for the theft of the diamond from the characters - that is something you will just have to wait for. What was most interesting is the way that the story is told over the course of the book by a number of different characters and each character sees the others in a slightly different way. The characters are therefore less one-dimensional than they would otherwise have been.

Conclusion
The book was written as a series of manuscripts, letters and diary extracts from the main characters present at varying parts of the story. Rather than hear different views of the whole story from different people, each character describes it up to a certain point. Gabriel Betteredge begins the story and continues for about half of the book, which helps to instil the story into the reader's head before the final half, which is split between several people. I usually find this way of story-telling quite annoying, but it worked in this case, primarily because each document was long enough that it didn't break the continuity; at the same time, when the story-teller came to an end, it was nice to have a change of style. That was one of the best things about this book; it was easy to tell the character of each writer from the way their section was written - the styles changed each time and really helped to build up an opinion of the writer. Perhaps because the characters were telling the story almost as if they were talking, the language was very easy to understand. The characters, as already mentioned, are beautifully portrayed and the format of the book only exacerbated this.

Collins' novels were in the style of Victorian sensationalism. As such, the key to the story, although a fascinating idea, isn't quite as believable as it could be. To a reader of the time, it probably wasn't beyond the realms of imagination; to a reader of today, with our knowledge, it is. This is the only disappointing part of the book; but even that, taken in the spirit of when it was written, is not much of a disappointment, and it does mean that it is even more difficult to guess how the theft was carried out and by whom.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable book; it was easy to read, but by the time I had put it down, I felt that I had read something worthwhile, something of literary merit, but without the complicated language of Dickens or some of the Russian authors. Highly recommended, whether you're a fan of crime fiction or simply just like a damn good read.

The book is available from Amazon for just £1.99! Published by Penguin Books, 464 pages. ISBN: 0140620133

Summary: A classic whodunnit