Cursed Gems and the London Undercity

Characters not to be found in The Moonstone!

Since my last post ended with Scooby-Doo, it is proper that I begin this one with what I've long considered the grown-up version of those episodes: a work of Wilkie Collins. I was first introduced to the work of Wilkie Collins in a class on sensation fiction and I've been hooked ever since. With that said, it has taken me a very long time to get around to Collins' second most famous work: The Moonstone.

Before I turn to the pages of the book, I look back to my trip to London. There, in the Natural History Museum, I encountered the first cursed gem to make my acquaintance: an amethyst supposed to bring "despair and devastation" to anyone who dared to own it.You can learn more about it here. I remember pausing long on the gem and wondering if a glass case and a home among other treasures helps disperse the curse!





If anyone wants to send a cursed sparkly my way, I'd rather prefer the Orlov diamond...

An early version of the detective story, The Moonstone is told in several different voices and contains a collection of letters and journal entries spanning the affair of the stone's theft and the mystery surrounding who took it. I loved the horticultural-minded Sergeant Cuff, retired from mystery cases to breeding roses as well as the faithful servant Gabriel Betteridge and his bibliomancy with Robinson Crusoe. As with all mysteries, I was surprised by the end revelations (though I did make a good guess at Mr. Franklin Blake's actions; I guessed mesmerism). I do wonder how his contemporaries took Mr. Collins' ending, however. Would they have been able to look past the imperialism of the time and rejoice at the stone's return to its proper resting place?

The Moonstone was based on the Koh-i-Noor diamond, shown here in a bracelet of Queen Victoria. Today it resides in the Queen Mother's crown. Who said the Empire is dead?

Dickens and Collins were competitors as well as rivals (Dickens being the winner as far as history is concerned). I used this book of criticism about Dickens when I was writing my dissertation and was excited to finally own a copy. The research is impressive. Stone marshals quite the pile of evidence, including illustrations, and some of his prose is marked with a playful, poetic character that Dickens himself might approve of. The book is uneven, however. The chapter on cannibalism is the strongest, with passion coming in second and necessity being a bit of a slog.