The moon diamond

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The moon diamond: illustration from 1874

The moon diamond (original title: The Moonstone ) is a novel by Wilkie Collins . It was published in 1868 and is considered a pioneering work for crime fiction . The diary and epistolary novel tells the complex story about the theft and retrieval of Indian diamonds in England the colonial period in order to further critically with social and political questions.

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The starting point of the plot is the siege of Seringapatam in 1799. The British Colonel Herncastle steals a legendary gemstone, the moon diamond, from a temple during the sack of the city and takes it home. Three Indian priests pursue him to England in order to win back the diamond, which is of great spiritual importance to them. Herncastle ordered in his will that his niece Rachel Verinder should inherit the stone on her 18th birthday.

The main story takes place between 1848 and 1849. Rachel Verinder wears the diamond at her birthday party at her Yorkshire country estate . Without an invitation, three Indian jugglers appear at the celebration. The well-traveled Mr. Murthwaite, who is familiar with the cultures of India, recognizes the three men as Brahmins who disguise themselves as members of a lower caste - since this is a great sacrifice in Indian society, the three men must pursue an important cause.

During the night, the moon diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom. Since the house was cordoned off, only the guests of the birthday party come into question as suspects. The first to be suspected are the three Indians; they do have an alibi, however. Suspicions next fall on domestic servant Rosanna Spearman, who appeared nervous and unhappy in the days leading up to the birthday party and who commits suicide shortly after the theft. The local police do not get very far with their investigation. Therefore the famous detective Sergeant Cuff is summoned from London. He conducts his own investigation and comes to the conclusion that the diamond was not stolen: he suspects Rachel of hiding the stone herself. This is supported by the fact that Rachel deliberately complicates the investigation and that she meets Franklin Blake, who supports Sergeant Cuff, with a sudden refusal. Sergeant Cuff cannot prove the fraud and gives up the case.

Rachel Verinder lives in London about a year later. There the rumor spreads that the moon diamond is in town and has been placed in a pawnshop. Strangers attack Rachel's cousin Godfrey Ablewhite. He was a guest at the birthday party and is therefore also suspected of theft, until Rachel declares that he is sure of his innocence. The suspicion for the attack falls again on the Indian jugglers, who were also seen in London.

When Franklin Blake returns from a trip abroad, he receives a suicide note from the domestic worker Rosanna Spearman. He discovers that she took her own life out of an unrequited love for him and that she thinks he is the thief of the diamond, since he was verifiably in Rachel's room that night. She hides the piece of evidence, Franklin Blake's nightgown, to protect him. Franklin Blake thinks this is a misunderstanding and arranges a meeting with Rachel to find out how this suspicion came about and why Rachel has been avoiding him since the theft. He learns that Rachel also thinks he is the thief: she saw him come into her room that night and take the diamond with him. Like Rosanna Spearman before, Rachel, out of love for Franklin Blake, does not speak to anyone about her observation and accepts to be suspected herself. Franklin Blake, who can't remember what happened, wants to prove his innocence and starts the investigation himself again. He travels back to Yorkshire. There he made friends with the doctor Ezra Jennings, an employee of the country doctor Dr. Candy. Together they find out that Dr. Candy, with whom Franklin Blake had quarreled at the birthday party , gave him tincture of opium on the night of the theft to play a prank on him. Ezra Jennings suspects that Franklin Blake's concern for Rachel, combined with the influence of the opium, caused him to take the diamond out of Rachel's room to keep the stone and Rachel safe. Mr. Bruff, the lawyer for the Verinder family, and Rachel are summoned to the manor for a reenactment of the scene under equal conditions and in front of witnesses. Sergeant Cuff is also returning from retirement. The experiment confirms Ezra Jenning's thesis: Franklin Blake took the diamond from Rachel's room. The whereabouts of the gemstone is still a mystery. The group travels back to London and waits for the period for which the diamond is in the pawnshop to expire. In fact, the diamond is picked up by an unknown man on the first possible day. They follow his lead and finally find him murdered in a hotel room. The murdered man turns out to be Godfrey Ablewhite. He was in debt and was desperately looking for a way to raise money. When Franklin Blake took the diamond while under the influence of opium, he had entrusted it to Godfrey Ablewhite so that he could bring the stone to safety. Godfrey Ablewhite took his chance and kept the stone when he realized that Franklin Blake no longer remembered the meeting. Franklin Blake's innocence is proven, and he and Rachel can marry.

The epilogue tells of the journey home of the three Indians who took the gem back for themselves. Sergeant Cuff has them pursued, but loses their trail. A year later he receives a letter from Mr. Murthwaite, who is traveling again in India and has seen a ceremony there to bring the moon diamond back to its place in the temple.

Narrative

The moon diamond is divided into two parts: the first reports on the loss of the diamond, the second on the investigation of the theft. The epilogue tells of the return of the moon diamond to India.

Wilkie Collins told the story of the moon diamond in the form of diary entries and letters from the perspective of changing characters, each with its own narrative style. In the first part, Gabriel Betteredge, the longest-serving domestic worker in the Verinder family, reports. He helps Sergeant Cuff with his investigation and is torn between detective curiosity and his unwavering loyalty to the Verinder family, which he does not want to cast in a bad light. The second part of the book is told by different people: First, Rachel's cousin Miss Clack reports in letters to Franklin Blake of her observations from London. As an avid missionary, she tries to convert Rachel and her mother to better Christians. Although she has no interest in the history of the lunar diamond, she makes some accidental discoveries through her meddling in the private lives of her relatives. After her the lawyer Mr. Bruff takes over the narration. When Franklin Blake takes over the investigation, he records his experiences himself, partially supplemented by the diary entries of Ezra Jennings. Upon his return from retirement, Sergeant Cuff took over the transcription of events, supplemented by a letter from doctor Mr. Candy. Gabriel Betteredge closes the Verinder family story. The epilogue tells of the escape of the three Indians from the perspective of an employee of Sergeant Cuff and a ship's captain. The tour concludes with the traveler Mr. Murthwaite, who a year later observes the return of the diamond.

Publication history

Title of the first book edition

The moon diamond first appeared as a serial in the weekly All the Year Round, published by Charles Dickens . The story was so popular from the start that readers queued up and placed bets on the lunar diamond's whereabouts at each new issue of the magazine. While Collins was still working on the story, it was extended from a 26-part series to a 32-part series - this will be the reason that the events in the middle part develop much more slowly than in the first part. The moon diamond soon appeared in book form.

Wilkie Collins turned his novel into a play that premiered in 1877. Collins had changed the story so that the Indian priests no longer played a role, and neither did Rosanna Spearman and Ezra Jennings. This tightened the plot, but lost its essential symbolic elements and was less successful than the novel.

The moon diamond continues to appear in new editions to this day. German translations have been published by Marie-Luise Hellmann and Gerhard Heller , Inge Lindt , Siegfried H. Engel and Gisela Geisler , among others . There are numerous audio book versions of the original version , read by Peter Jeffrey , Ronald Pickup and Patrick Tull , among others .

Topics and social background

The moon diamond is to be understood in the context of the relationship between the British Empire and its crown colony, British India , and reveals Collins' anti-colonial stance. After the Indian Uprising of 1857 , the British media increasingly portrayed the people of India as a threat. The three Indians also see the characters in the novel as intruders and dangerous opponents. The story is embedded in its historical context through its prologue and makes it clear that the British invaders were the first to trigger the chain of crimes. The Indians are portrayed as victims of British exploitation of their land and appear in a more positive light than is common in contemporary European literature. Although they end up resorting to drastic means and themselves committing a crime, Collins leaves no doubt in the epilogue about the legality of the return of the diamond to India. The last word has Mr. Murthwaite, who of the British characters is the one with the greatest understanding and respect for Indian culture. In contrast to the Indians who revolted against the injustice done to them, there is the wealthy and respected Godfrey Ablewhite, who turns out to be a mere criminal with base motives. A parallel to the relationship of the colony to the colonial power is seen in Rachel Verinder, who wants to preserve her independence from men and who is most harmed by the man who tries to protect her in a misguided way. The descriptions of Rachel as an independent young woman who is critical of marriage, and Rosanna Spearman, who has no development opportunities as a woman of the lower social class, are also expressions of Collins' attitude critical of rule. Dorothy L. Sayers , who wrote a foreword for the book in 1944, described it as truly feminist in its dealings with female figures.

In his novel, Collins twisted common social roles: the supposed philanthropist Godfrey Ablewhite is the thief. Disregard for low-level employees turns out to be a mistake Franklin Blake must regret. Misunderstood by everyone, Rosanna Spearman comes closer to solving the criminal case than the expert Sergeant Cuff. The key information comes from increasingly unlikely sources: the police in charge of finding out next to nothing, the crime expert suspects the wrong people, and Franklin Blake is in his own way to investigate. Instead, the crucial elements of the crime of Rosanna Spearman, the outsider Ezra Jennings and, most recently, a London boy are exposed. The character Ezra Jennings challenged the prejudices of the time the most: Jennings, whose mother comes from a colony, is treated with suspicion due to his perceived alien appearance and his closed manner, but he is a gentleman and a hero. This makes him the counterpart to Godfrey Ablewhite. Ezra Jennings is the most successful in his investigations thanks to his methodical approach. Only when the characters bring their different experiences together do they come to a result that Sergeant Cuff, limited in his perspective, could not achieve on his own.

Collins' socialist stance expresses Rosannas Spearman's friend Lucy by calling for a revolution by the poor against the rich. At the center of the crimes in the novel are always members of the upper class, while the poor and outcasts are unjustly suspected and prove to be righteous.

Another unusual feature of this novel was the frank and compassionate portrayal of a drug addiction: Ezra Jennings, who suffers from a deadly disease, takes opium as a pain reliever and suffers from the effects of the increasing doses he takes. Collins himself was addicted to opium at this time. In the foreword to his 1871 edition, he reported - possibly exaggerated - his hallucinations under the influence of this drug. Ezra Jennings is often viewed as Collins' alter ego .

In his research, Ezra Jennings incorporates the results of contemporary science, which had a great interest in subconscious action, sleepwalking and hypnosis . He quotes several real-life scientists, including John Elliotson , with whom Collins was friends. Sergeant Cuff also has a real role model, an investigator named Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

Significance in literary history

In addition to his commentary on political and social conditions, the importance of the novel The Moon Diamond is seen primarily in its role as a role model for crime literature. The Moon Diamond is not the first detective novel - its predecessors are The Notting Hill Mystery from 1862/63 and The Dead Letter from 1867. However, it is considered to be the first novel in which the formative elements of the genre are fully developed. TS Eliot and Dorothy L. Sayers each wrote a preface for later editions of the book. Both called the work the first and best detective novel and Collins the inventor of the genre. Collins developed a story with elements that were taken up in countless later detective novels: the incompetent local police force, the famed detective brought in, and the deliberate misdirection with numerous false suspects until, in a surprising resolution, one of the most unlikely suspects is the perpetrator. The lunar diamond is also an early example of a locked room mystery that became a common element in crime stories.

Arthur Conan Doyle alluded to the novel The Moon Diamond by introducing the character Abel White in his Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four , who also has a connection to India, albeit without adopting Collins' stance critical of colonialism.

In The Guardian newspaper , The Moonstone was ranked 19th in the list of the 100 best English-language novels published in 2014 .

Film adaptations

The moon diamond has been filmed many times. The 1909 short film The Moonstone is inspired by the plot of the novel. In 1915, Frank Hall Crane filmed the novel in a script adaptation by E. Magnus Ingleton . In 1934 the American film The Moonstone by Reginald Barker was released based on a script by Adele Buffington . In 1959 the BBC showed a television series based on the novel. In 1972 a new edition of the series was shown on British and American television. A multi-part German-language television adaptation by WDR starring Stefan Behrens , Helmut Förnbacher , Paul Dahlke , Anita Lochner and Theo Lingen was first broadcast at Christmas 1974. Another television film, a British-American co-production starring Keeley Hawes and Greg Wise in the lead roles as Rachel Verinder and Franklin Blake, was first shown in 1997. A five-part television film based on a script by Rachel Flowerday and Sasha Hails and directed by Lisa Mulcahy was broadcast on BBC One in December 2016 .

Web links

Wikisource: The Moon Diamond  - Sources and full texts (English)
Commons : Der Monddiamant  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h Stephen Knight: Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics. Detecting the Delights of 21 Enduring Stories. McFarland & Co. Jefferson, North Carolina 2015, ISBN 978-0-7864-9398-2 , pp. 44-54.
  2. ^ Nicholas Rance: Wilkie Collins and Other Sensation Novelists. Walking the Moral Hospital. Macmillan, Basingstoke 1991, ISBN 0-333-53745-9 , pp. 130-136.
  3. ^ Roslyn Jolly: Postcolonial Readings. In: William Baker, Kenneth Womack (Eds.): A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-31407-1 , pp. 379-390.
  4. a b c d Lillian Nayder: Victorian Detective Fiction. In: William Baker, Kenneth Womack (Eds.): A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-31407-1 , pp. 182-184.
  5. a b c Vicki Corkran Willey: Wilkie Collins's "Secret Dictate". The Moonstone as a Response to Imperialist Panic. In: Kimberly Harrison and Richard Fantina (Eds.): Victorian Sensations. Essays on a Scandalous Genre. Ohio State University Press, Columbus 2006, ISBN 978-0-8142-1031-4 , pp. 225-233.
  6. ^ A b Nicholas Rance: Wilkie Collins and Other Sensation Novelists. Walking the Moral Hospital. Macmillan, Basingstoke 1991, ISBN 0-333-53745-9 , p. 34.
  7. Yumna Siddiqi: Anxieties of Empire and the Fiction of Intrigue. Columbia University Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-2311-3808-6 , pp. 34-36.
  8. Philip O'Neill: Wilkie Collins. Women, Property, and Propriety. Barnes & Noble, Totowa, NJ 1988, p. 3.
  9. ^ Kathleen McCormack, Intoxication and the Victorian Novel. In: William Baker, Kenneth Womack (Eds.): A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-31407-1 , p. 137.
  10. Lillian Nayder: Victorian Detective Fiction. In: William Baker, Kenneth Womack (Eds.): A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-31407-1 , p. 178.
  11. Lillian Nayder: Victorian Detective Fiction. In: William Baker, Kenneth Womack (Eds.): A Companion to the Victorian Novel. Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-31407-1 , p. 186.
  12. ^ Robert McCrum: The 100 best novels: No 19 - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868). In: The Guardian . January 27, 2014, accessed September 9, 2016 .
  13. The Moonstone (1909) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  14. The Moonstone (1915) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  15. ^ The Moonstone (1934) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  16. ^ The Moonstone (1934) for free download from the Internet Archive
  17. The Moonstone (1959) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  18. The Moonstone (1971) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  19. The Moon Diamond (1974) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  20. The Moonstone (1997) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  21. The Moonstone (2016) on the BBC One website, accessed January 1, 2017.