Un-Englishness Unveiled

Un-Englishness Unveiled

Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone is noted by T.S. Eliot as “the first and greatest of English detective novels” (Collins back cover). At first glance, the novel appears like a typical Victorian English novel with its explicitly detailed passages and representation of Victorian hierarchal society but, as one delves into the novel, many “un-English-like” things start popping out.

The primary storyline is about an exotic jewel involving its missing, and describes how both its presence and absence affect the situations and people in the novel. Having a Victorian novel revolve around “the loss of [an] Indian Diamond” (Collins 7), a non-English element, is the first glance of its “un-Englishness”. Another hint of the novel’s “un-Englishness” is the fact that the character of Mr. Franklin Blake, the one who organizes and puts together the account of events from the loss to the recovery of the diamond, is not entirely English himself. Mr. Betteredge describes him as having different sides that correlate with his education in “institutions in Germany”, France, and Italy, calling him a “sort of universal genius” (Collins 15).

After finishing the novel, a very non-English idea reveals itself. It is the idea of karma – what goes around comes back around. On the first page of the novel, in the Prologue, it describes “the stone as having been set in the forehead of the four-handed Indian god who typifies the Moon” (Collins 1). On the final page of this novel, the Moonstone is “in the forehead of the deity” (pg 466); back in its original place. An even more obvious example of karma involves Godfrey Ablewhite, the thief who consciously stole the diamond. He is found dead “with a white pillow over his face” (Collins 442) after being spotted by Gooseberry as being the man whom Mr. Luker passed the diamond to. On a more positive note, Rachel suffered being accused by the “renowned and capable” (Collins 95) Sergeant Cuff for stealing her own diamond in order to protect Mr. Blake. In the end, there is the “marriage of Miss Rachel and Mr. Franklin Blake” (Collins 458). Rachel, out of love for Mr. Blake, did not confess to anyone that it was him whom she saw take it and Mr. Blake says that if “times, pains, and money can do it, [he] will lay [his] hands on the thief who took the Moonstone!” (Collins 291-92). The combined efforts of these two lovebirds brought them together happily in the end.

On a final note, the novel itself is not written like a typical Victorian English novel. The majority of Victorian novels were written with a single narrator whereas The Moonstone has many different narrators (Shlensky). It is interesting to note that not all the contributors to the story are at the top of the social hierarchy. Rachel Verinder, a young heiress is never chosen as a narrator but Gabriel Betteridge, a steward, is. Parts of the story are told by the opium addicted assistant, Ezra Jennings while others by the legendary English detective, Sergeant Cuff. Wilkie Collins’s Moonstone scatters significant un-English elements throughout his novel underneath its Victorian novel façade to interest and entice the reader to explore both what is English and what is un-English.

Works Cited
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. Ed. John Sutherland. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Shlensky, Lincoln. "Victorian Literature – The Moonstone." English 200C Lecture, University of Victoria. 25 October 2006.