It's Just a Diamond

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It's hard to believe that all of the mystery conventions in this book we might consider to be trite were innovations at that time.  It's also amazing that Collins was (apparently) dealing with an opium addiction while writing this.  [Well, that's what Wikipedia said Monday.  It may have changed since.]
I had read this before, many years ago, after reading The Woman In White which itself was in response to a book I read in the 1970s about how real life experiences informed the fiction of several mystery writers.  TWIW was terrific in the beginning, but my recollection was that I thought it went out of control toward the end and I lost interest in it.  This book was not like that.  I kept surging forward, although I had a memory in the back of my mind what the solution was.  I just had to see how we got there. 
What fun characters!  And in their own words.  There are many narrators, each giving their peculiar spin on events.  How can you not love that dear Miss Clack and her well-meaning but "sadly" unwelcome proselytizing!  And it's so much more fun to hear it from her side. 
The re-reading of this book was a result of having read of the influence of the Kent murder on it (the nightdress! the nightdress! the failed detective! the failed detective coming out of retirement!) in Kate Summerscale's book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. 
A book of its time (which is a coded way of expressing the possible political incorrectness), there is a lot of silly business about the superstitions of the "Hindoo" and yet there are characters that tread a bit far the other way to ennoble the Indians.  The most satisfying way in which Collins tips his hand in how he feels about them is by allowing them to rescue their Moon God's stolen diamond ... after 300 years of failing at it. 
Collins also shows his sympathies to the serving class by giving us well-rounded characterizations there ... yet making the steward/butler a figure of fun with his obsession with Robinson Crusoe and his way of soothing the distaff branch of the below stairs bunch by setting them in his lap.  Oh dear. 
As I said, great characters, interesting POVs, a jolly good mystery, and a trailblazer in the genre!



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