I am going to preface this review of The Moonstone
by acknowledging the fact that I read this book for class. By the time I read this book, I had already read four other sensation fiction novels and I had pretty much had my fill of them at this point. So while my overall experience with this book was not so great, I think if I would have read this book at a different time I might have enjoyed it more. Therefore, I gave it a little more lenient of a grade than my actual feelings about it and my review will probably be largely negative because my experience was not the best.
A beautiful and mysterious diamond called the Moonstone has been stolen from India and ended up on Rachel Verinder's neck by the hands of her crush, Franklin Blake. Even though she is warned that if she wore the diamond in India her life would be worth nothing (yeah that's right, those Indians would kill her), Rachel still flaunts her new diamond at a party. And even though everyone tells her she should lock the diamond up, she puts it in her Indian cabinet because it's the perfect spot. The next morning it is discovered that the diamond has been stolen, but who stole it? Rachel stubbornly refuses to talk to anyone about it. This makes a detective wonder if she stole the diamond or if she knows more information.
The storyline is pretty good, and it begs the question who should end up with the diamond? Rachel, who loves the diamond and received it as a gift, or the Indians who it rightfully belonged to in the first place? Modern day reader probably don't have to consider that question too much, but in the Victorian era it was a little more complicated than that. What makes this dynamic even more interesting is the three Indian jugglers that show up on the night the Moonstone is stolen. Hmmmm?
My favorite part of this story, however, was Rosanna Spearman, the disfigured maid who is also in love with Franklin Blake. She has a shady past and was once a thief, although now it is clear she should be trusted. She loves to go out to the quicksand and she follows Franklin Blake like a puppy even though he never notices her. Rosanna is sad, but also kind of entertaining. She has such a good heart but no one trusts her. Betteredge, one of the narrators of the novel who is a butler of sorts, thinks of her like his daughter. His real daughter Penelope thinks Rosanna is weird though. Do people think she is weird because she was a thief? Because she is disfigured? Because she is in love with Franklin Blake who is way, way out of her league? Who knows, probably some combination of the three, but I have a sinking feeling that was kind of a Rosanna Spearman when I was sixteen. I pitied her.
Okay, so this wasn't as negative as I thought it would be. Here is my burst of negativity: After reading five sensation fiction novels in a little over three months I can assure you that, yeah, they're all pretty much the same. I wouldn't suggest reading five in such a short time span unless you really, really like mysteries. Also, Wilkie Collins does this thing that frustrates me to no end. He always says things like, "A normal man would do this, but such and such character did not do this, he did this instead." I don't know why this bothers me but after reading three of his books and seeing this appear on every third page I really started to get fed up. Can he not think of any way to describe a person other than he did something a normal man or most men would not. Argh! Sorry, but I wanted to say that in class all semester and now I've finally gotten it out of my system.
So I suppose this book is really up to you. I think I would probably suggest it over Armadale (another Collins novel) if for no other reason than it is shorter and the twist to the story is about as engrossing. Armadale has better characters though, I will admit that.
For me, this novel was more of a C, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for you and giving it a B.
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