Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Moonstone

I wrestled with what to give this book for many reasons, and finally landed on 3.75⭐️s.

I do not doubt that this is a classic text, made to be peeled apart layer by layer. I also don't doubt that this was a well received piece at the time it was written. However, as a modern reader, there were a few things that in general, made this story less enjoyable.

First and foremost, being the typecast racism of the 'villains'. With a modern eye it is hard to see the three Indians as anything other than countrymen seeking a violent process of cultural restoration, at a great cost to themselves.

Add in the sexism and bible bashing common with Victorian literature, and you'll know why I was annoyed!

That said, upon reading more into Collins, it appears that the prologue of this narrative was in fact written in subtle condemnation of the British Empire and their thievery of artifacts from other countries.

Dubbed as "the first of English detective novels", I will say that the mystery of the Moonstone did leave me guessing, and that I can see why the story has been so celebrated.

While I do recommend this book as a read, I also recommend taking it with a pinch of salt and breathing through the frustration of sexism, racism and Christian superiority.

Content Warnings

hbic's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

c_wilkinson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Content Warnings

aliwhaley's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book is well plotted with plenty of twists and turns and red herrings to keep you guessing, but why is the middle section so boring?

Weirdly, I think it suffers from over-thinking. I think Wilkie Collins was so determined to make sure there were no plot holes, and make sure that everything was explained and justified, that reading the tightly woven plot is like wading through mud.

E.g The time elapsed from deciding to give Franklin laudanum to actually doing it must be at least 50 pages, and all because Collins is double-securing all the explanations. There’s a whole paragraph on why Ezra doubles the dose from 20 to 40mg. WHY?!

It is a good book, it’s interesting to see how the detective genre began, especially with tropes like the detective’s sidekick narrator (Hastings / Dr Watson / Betteredge) represented here.

Also, I was surprised to see that (amongst all the casual racism / colourism and stereotyping in the book) Collins does at least acknowledge that English colonisers stealing diamonds from Indian people (and religious shrines) is a bad thing, and makes a curse stem from that crime.

I was surprised that the ‘happy ending’ was the diamond returning to India. I thought the book would resolve with Rachel getting her birthday diamond back. I was happy to see that the diamond went back to it’s shrine, although I think Collins had it return to India so that the curse would end, not so that the religious Indian people would have their shrine restored and their property back.

There is also something to be said for the characters. They were comedically larger than life in some places but that injected some humour into the book. I very much enjoyed Betteredge’s reliance on Robinson Crusoe. I got that the religious Miss Clack was a caricature intentionally, and that we were meant to hate her, but once that joke got old I found her chapters stopped me from wanting to pick the book back up.

Something I learnt from this book was about the existence of ‘visiting cards’ / ‘calling cards’ - a card that you leave at someone’s house if you call for them and they’re not in. I think this is where the criminal ‘calling card’ comes from

Content Warnings