The Shivering Sand (The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins)

Member Name: Jake Speed

Product:	The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
Date:	31/05/09 (195 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absorbing, clever story

Disadvantages: Nothing major

'The Moonstone, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple and maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend and suitor Franklin Blake brings her gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff and Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream and as deceptive as the nearby Shivering Sand.'

Described by TS Eliot as 'The first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels', The Moonstone is a classic mystery story first published in 1868. It was written during the middle of the Victorian era and is set in London and Yorkshire in 1848 after beginning with a very atmospheric prologue in India during the Siege of Seringapatam fifty years earlier. In the prologue to The Moonstone, the diamond is originally stolen by brutal British Army Officer John Herncastle in India from a sacred temple - 'The Moonstone will have its vengeance on you and yours yet!' Bequeathed years later to Rachel Verinder, as revenge by Herncastle on the family that shunned him (the gem is said to have guardians), on her eighteenth birthday, it is stolen after one night, leading to a mysterious investigation and, at times, ingenious story that is remarkably gripping with some audacious twists. Is there a curse on this precious stone as legend suggests?

I found The Moonstone to be a surprisingly compelling book that is quite hard to put down once you get into it. My paperback copy is 463 pages long so it's quite a long book too and will keep you occupied for a while. The story is told by several different characters and together they piece together the mystery of the diamond's disappearance and the subsequent quest to provide an answer to this strange and perplexing puzzle. This device is a clever one that allows us different accounts and viewpoints, sometimes overlapping and adding more complexity to the narrative. One of the strengths of the author is that he makes his characters distinct, seperate and vivid, something that books with a structure like this can struggle with.

The Moonstone itself is almost like another character in the story and its mysterious loss at the Verinder's country home is very atmospheric as a set-piece. 'The light that streamed from it was like the light of the harvest moon. When you looked down into the stone, you looked into a yellow deep that drew your eyes into it so that they saw nothing else. It seemed unfathomable; this jewel, that you could hold between your finger and thumb, seemed as unfathomable as he heavens themselves. We set it in the sun, and then shut the light out of the room, and it shone awfully out of the depths of its own brightness, with a moony gleam, in the dark. No wonder Miss Rachel was fascinated: no wonder her cousins screamed.' The Moonstone has a nice dreamlike quality at times as a book.

Almost as mysterious as the theft of the stone is Rachel's relationship with Franklin Blake, especially her sudden change of attitude towards him. The book supplies numerous intriguing questions and plot strands that you become very eager to get to the bottom of. Along the way we get suspicious servants, Indian jugglers, red-herrings, twists and turns, bungling local police (later to become a staple of this genre) and the 'Shivering Sand' which, like the Moonstone, is almost like a character. The Sands are an ominous presence in parts of the book, a desolate place that hides its secrets. 'The sunlight poured its unclouded beauty on every object that I could see. The exquisite freshness of the air made the mere act of living and breathing a luxury. Even the lonely little bay welcomed the morning with a show of cheerfulness; and the bared wet surface of the quicksand itself, glittering with a golden brightness, hid the horror of its false brown face under a passing smile.'

There are some great characters in The Moonstone like Gabriel Bettteredge, the Verinder's old 'House-Steward' - 'Now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.' By far the most important possession belonging to Bettteredge is a copy of Robinson Crusoe, a book which he believes can answer many of life's abstract questions. There is a theological subtext to his reliance on this book but it's quite an amusing and interesting device nonetheless. Bettteredge is a very vivid character at times. 'Let the Diamond be, Mr Franklin! Take my advice, and let the Diamond be! That cursed Indian jewel has misguided everybody who has come near it. Don't waste your money and temper - in the fine spring time of your life sir - by meddling with the Moonstone.'

Another great character is the tormented Roseanna Spearman, a servant holding onto secrets. Spearman is used very well by the author to advance the plot. None of the characters seem superfluous. Another thing I like about the book too is that the author's sympathies often seem to lie with outsiders. Rachel is also a strong and impulsive character and comes across as an independent spirit.

Perhaps the most interesting character in the book though is the rose-loving ('That's a pretty sweet bed of white roses and blush roses. They always mix together well don't they? Here's a white musk rose, Mr Betteredge - our old English rose holding up its head along with the best and newest of them') Sergeant Cuff, who may well have been a big inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Holmes' ode to nature in 'The Naval Treaty' appears to be a direct doff of the cap by Conan-Doyle to Collins and Cuff. Cuff is a brilliant detective who uses his intellect and deductive reasoning to solve a case. Cuff is rather enigmatic like Holmes and his investigation of the case is always very gripping. 'He was dressed up in decent black, with a white cravat around his neck,' write Collins of Cuff. 'His face was as sharp as a hatchet, and the skin of it was yellow and dry and as withered as an autumn leaf. His eyes, of a steely grey, had a very disconcerting trick, when they encountered your eyes, of looking as if they expected something more from you than you were aware yourself.'

The Moonstone is a very descriptive and entertaining novel with some distinctive and memorable characters. The story is also very gripping with some clever twists and turns and develops a real air of mystery. Highly recommended if you've never read it before.

Summary: Classic mystery novel