The Moonstone: Readalong!
Wilkie Collins seems to have been a multi-talented man. Born in Britain and living for a time in Italy and France with his family, he was fluent in French. His painter father wanted him to become a clergyman, but he rejected this and pursued legal training. Called to the bar, he didn't work in the legal profession, but apparently his legal knowledge served him well in his writing. Writing was clearly his passion, and I was interested to learn of his partnership with Charles Dickens. They co-wrote plays, and even acted in plays together with Dickens' amateur theatre company. Apparently, Collins didn't like the idea of marriage, and lived with two different women over his lifetime. He had a difficult case of gout, and struggled with laudanum addiction.
The Moonstone was published as a serial story in Dickens' magazine All the World Round between January and August 1868, and simultaneously in the American Harper's Magazine. It is an epistolary novel, and is considered one of the templates for the modern detective/police procedural novel. And remember the gout? Apparently, Collins suffered a bad episode while writing this novel, and several portions were written while high on opioids. The novel had good critical reception, and has stood the test of time, with several adaptations.
So buckle up! This should be fun.
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The Readalong Plan: I'll be reading this over four weeks, and updating my blog with brief daily comments and quotes.
Day 1: Prologue-1st Period Ch. III:
First of all, let me just say: I think this is going to be an engaging book.
The beginning is a quick and easy to follow set up for a mystery, and I'm already engaged. I love Gabriel Betteredge, steward extraordinaire. I feel as if I must read Robinson Crusoe immediately.
"I have tried that book for years-generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco-and I have found it my friend in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad-Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice-Robinson Crusoe. In past times when my wife plagued me; in present times when I have had a drop too much-Robinson Crusoe."
As to Betteredge's criterion for picking a wife, this made me chuckle: "See that she chews her food well and sets her foot down firmly on the ground when she walks, and you're all right."
As to the nephew of the family, Mr. Franklin Blake, he seems much beloved, but I can't get past this phrase, which hints at a weakness: "The more money he had, the more he wanted; there was a hole in Mr. Franklin's pocket that nothing would sew up."
Day 2: Ch. IV-VI:
Mr. Betteredge's little asides show his pretty good opinion of himself, and reveal his character, even if sometimes he may protest a bit too much. Like yesterday, when he noted that he felt compelled to tell us that he's "the last person to distrust another person because he happens to be a few shades darker than myself." Today, he tells us that (with respect to Nancy, the kitchen-maid, a "nice plump young lass"), "When she looks nice, I chuck her under the chin. It isn't immorality-it's only habit." Fortunately, he decides against taking the older servant Rosanna onto his lap to comfort her, even though, "When you want to comfort a woman by the shortest way, take her on your knee." I've got to shake my head a bit at Mr. Betteredge, but I still enjoy his (somewhat cringey) character.
I'm wondering about this "horrible quicksand," also known as the Shivering Sand. I'm betting something or someone will have to be swallowed up by this terrible place.
"'Do you know what it looks like to me?' says Rosanna, catching me by the shoulder again. 'It looks as if it had hundreds of suffocating people under it-all struggling to get to the surface, and all sinking lower and lower in the dreadful deeps!'"
Meeting Franklin Blake today and him laying out the basis of the mystery felt like reading Agatha Christie, somewhat. There are many characters, a precious diamond, murky motivations, and danger lurking nearby. I can see already how this book lays the basis for the modern detective novel. Though I must say I kind of side with the Indian guardians at this point!
Day 3: Ch. VII-IX:
I'm getting more of a sense of Mr. Betteredge's personality, as fussy as he is, and as condescending as he can be sometimes. But so likeable for all that, and Collins' way of writing him is personable and conversational. Most tellingly today, I quite enjoyed the passages where Mr. Betteredge wrote about the idle upper class and how they mess everything up in an effort to keep busy.
"Gentlefolks in general have a very awkward rock ahead in life-the rock ahead of their own idleness. Their lives being, for the most part, passed in looking about them for something to do, it is curious to see-especially when their tastes are of what is called the intellectual sort-how often they drift blindfold into some nasty pursuit. Nine times out of ten they take to torturing something, or to spoiling something-and they firmly believe they are improving their minds, when the plain truth is, they are only making a mess in the house."
He compares this to the honest working man, for whom he has much respect:
"But compare the hardest day's work you ever did with the idleness that splits flowers and pokes its way into spiders' stomachs, and thank your stars that your head has got something it must think of, and your hand something that they must do."
Mr. Betteredge is a bit superior in his self-regard, but this is probably a reaction to his place in the household. He's a servant of the idle rich, and values his role but must feel slightly resentful while he watches Rachel and Franklin spend their days painting a door, his daughter Penelope sickening while holding the painting supplies!
As for the new character today, the philanthropic new-monied barrister and would-be suitor of Miss Rachel, this made me laugh:
"...she had a photograph of Mr. Godfrey in her bedroom; represented speaking at a public meeting, with all his hair blown out by the breath of his own eloquence, and his eyes, most lovely, charming the money out of your pockets."
Day 4: Ch. X:
I often find dinner party narratives interesting interludes, and Collins' chapter recounting Miss Rachel's birthday party is no exception. Mr. Candy, the local doctor is a jokester, but an inept one. "In society, he was constantly making mistakes, and setting people unintentionally by the ears together." Fortunately, he's a more prudent doctor. Mr. Murthwaite, a "celebrated Indian traveller...who, at risk of his life, had penetrated in disguise where no European had ever set foot before," is super interesting, and I hope he plays a bigger role in the story.
The dinner is a dud, and Mr. Betteredge plies the guests with wine, and encourages the guests to eat the rather unpopular dishes, but laments:
"Looking back at the birthday now, by the light of what happened afterwards, I am half inclined to think that the cursed Diamond must have cast a blight on the whole company."
As to that, the three jugglers and the boy show up to entertain the guests, and Mr. Murthwaite suspects they are the high-caste Brahmins vying to get the Moonstone back. He offers his opinion of the danger these men pose: "If a thousand lives stood between them and the getting back of the Diamond...they would take them all." Despite that, Mr. Murthwaite maintains that the Indians "were a wonderful people," when Mr. Betteredge expresses his opinion that they are "murdering thieves."
Of course, I see a solution: to give the Moonstone back to the Brahmin...but that would make for a boring mystery.
Here is the cover of the book from Project Gutenberg, but I can't find what year this edition was originally published. It shows the three Brahmin.
Day 5: Ch. XI:
I can't help but read these chapters with a view to any clues that may be laid out for the reader to see. The difficulty here is that I don't want to give spoilers...or rather, to interfere with any clues or suspicions that anyone else reading may have picked up. I'll just say, though, that Rachel's behaviour seems pretty odd. Also, I'm ever more curious about the relationship of Rosanna Spearman to Franklin Blake. I'm loving the exactness of the details that play into the mystery: the time the doors are locked for the night, and the dogs' silence that preclude people sneaking around outside.
As to the authorities jailing the Indian jugglers: "Every human institution (justice included) will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way."
Mr. Betteredge's commentary today spoke volumes about his dealings with and views on women, particularly those of the servant classes.
"...they took to whispering together in corners, and staring at nothing suspiciously, as is the manner of that weaker half of the human family, when anything extraordinary happens in a house."
"When there's a mess of any kind in a house, sir, the women-servants like to look at the gloomy side-it gives the poor wretches a kind of importance in their own eyes. If there's anybody ill, trust the women for prophesying that the person will die. If it's a jewel lost, trust them for prophesying that it will never be found again."
Day 6: Ch. XII-XIII:
Bring on Sergeant Cuff! Mr. Betteredge's initial impressions are underwhelming, a "grizzled, elderly man, so miserably lean that he look as if he had not got an ounce of flesh on his bones in any part of him." It's neat that he starts with a tour of the rose garden:
""If you will look about you (which most people won't do),' says Sergeant Cuff, 'you will see that the nature of a man's tastes is, most times, as opposite as possible to the nature of a man's business. Show me any two things more opposite one from the other than a rose and a thief; and I'll correct my tastes accordingly..."
(This puts me in mind of a book I just read, called Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solint, which has the author discussing Orwell's love for roses as a counterpoint to his political writing).
Sergeant Cuff is this book's Hercule Poirot, on first meeting him. "In all my experience along the dirtieset ways of this dirty little world, I have never me with such a thing as a trifle yet." This, of the paint smear that everyone has so far discounted.
I'm eager to hear more from Rachel and Rosanna in the coming chapters.
Day 7: Rest Day
Day 8: Ch. IV-XV;
Here are some quotations from Sergeant Cuff that I enjoyed today:
"But doors and listeners have a knack of getting together; and, in my line of life, we cultivate a healthy taste for the open air."
"The ugly women have a bad time of it in this world; let's hope it will be made up to them in another." [on the subject of Rosanna's supposed feelings for Mr. Franklin]
"'This is a miserable world,' says the Sergeant. 'Human life, Mr. Betteredge, is a sort of target--misfortune is always firing at it, and always hitting the mark.'"
"Excuse my being a little out of temper; I'm degraded in my own estimation--I have let Rosanna Spearman puzzle me."
"Don't be alarmed! I have put the muzzle on worse family difficulties than this, in my time."
Mr. Betteredge, for his part, has been afflicted by detective-fever, despite his better judgement! I'm wondering, along with the good Sergeant, what Rosanna has hidden in the tin case. Those Shivering Sands are indeed playing a role in the mystery.
On the subject of genre, Collins has appended "A Romance" to his novel's title. Romantic literature, characterised by by the prominence of nature, chivalry, nostalgia, exoticism and the sublime, and heroism; was waning by the 1860s, but his novel certainly seems to have aspects of this. It is also known as a "sensation novel": one that has mystery and secrets. Collins' novel The Woman In White was one of the first of these. Here are a couple of articles that I found useful:
https://lifelinetheatre.com/the-moonstone-and-genre/ (apparently The Moonstone was a slightly unsuccessful play!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensation_novel
Day 9: Ch. XVI-XVIII:
Despite her frequent appearances earlier in the novel, the events of today's reading brought home to me that we haven't seen much of Miss Rachel in recent days, shut up in her room as she's been. Her mother and Penelope have seen her, so my initial fanciful notion that there is someone else rather than Rachel closeted away in her room seems impossible (made entirely wrong when she appears at the end of Chapter XVIII). She's under suspicion from Sergeant Cuff, and Mr. Betteredge is affronted that Rachel could be anything resembling guilty. It leaves him heavy-hearted.
"This was the first trouble I remember for many a long year which wasn't to be blown off by a whiff of tobacco, and which was even beyond the reach of Robinson Crusoe."
And then: "If Sergeant Cuff had been Solomon in all his glory, and had told me that my young lady had mixed herself up in a mean and guilty plot, I should have had but one answer for Solomon, wise as he was, 'You don't know her; and I do.'"
I love this statement. It accounts for character. Mt. Betteredge is certain he knows Rachel, and that a person doesn't just change their character easily. Not over a Moonstone. I'm intensely curious to know Rachel's involvement, and not only that, but her motivation. I wonder if Mr. Betteredge's accounting for character is accurate.
Finally, this gave me a chuckle today (while shaking my head at the old-fashioned notions filling Mr. Betteredge's head and hearing the author's satirical glee--I hope):
"But it is a maxim of mine that men (being superior creatures) are bound to improve women--if they can. When a woman wants me to do anything (my daughter, or not, it doesn't matter), I always insist on knowing why. The oftener you make them rummage their own minds for a reason, the more manageable you will find them in all relations of life. It isn't their fault (poor wretches!) that they act first and think afterward; it's the fault of the fools who humour them."
Day 10: Ch. IX-XI:
So much action today. Has Rosanna indeed met her end? Probably, but I'm always suspicious when there's no body, although the Shivering Sands won't give up any secrets. As the fisherman Yolland says, "What the Sand gets, the Sand keeps forever."
Mr. Betteredge is horrified, and frightened by the events:
"I heard her again, telling me that the Shivering Sand seemed to draw her to it against her will, and wondering whether her grave was waiting for her there. The horror of it struck me, in some unfathomable way, through my own child. My girl was just her age. My girl, tried as Rosanna was tried, might have lived that miserable life, and died this dreadful death."
When Sergeant Cuff finally lays out his case to her ladyship, suggesting that Miss Rachel is almost certainly involved, Lady Verinder echoes the thoughts of Mr. Betteredge earlier: that she has absolute confidence in her daughter's character.
"...I have to tell you, as Miss Verinder's mother, that she is absolutely incapable of doing what you suppose her to have done. Your knowledge of her character dates from a day or two since. My knowledge of her character dates from the beginning of her life...I know my child."
All of which continues to puzzle concerning Rosanna and Rachel's actions and motives. We now have Sergeant Cuff's reasoning, and we'll see what comes of further pressing Miss Rachel.
Day 11: Ch. XII-XIII (End of the First Period):
Mr. Franklin is put out by Miss Rachel's sudden departure, and change of heart since the Moonstone disappeared. "It left him unsettled, with a legacy of idle time on his hands, and, in so doing, it let out all the foreign sides of his character, one on top of another, like rats out of a bag." In his turn, Mr. Franklin complains to Mr. Betteredge:
"I have several worthy aspirations, Betteredge; but what am I to do with them now? I am full of dormant good qualities, if Rachel would only have helped me to bring them out!"
Poor Mr. Franklin, though I have trouble sympathising too much.
Lady Varinder's faith in her daughter's good character continues, as despite Rachel's silence on all matters Moonstone, she tells her mother that one day she will know the reason for her silence. Lady Varinder says of Sergeant Cuff: "...I have only to say that I am convinced of her honesty and his intelligence; but I am more firmly persuaded than ever, that the circumstances, in this case, have fatally misled him."
As the action moves now to London, and Mr. Betteredge's narrative section is coming to an end. He speaks directly to us, in his honest tone.
"If you are as tired as reading this narrative as I am of writing it--Lord, how we shall enjoy ourselves on both sides a few pages further on!"
Then, at the very end:
"As this place, then, we part--for the present, at least--after long journeying together, with a companionable feeling, I hope, on both sides."
I suppose this means we will hear from Mr. Betteredge later in the book? That would be very welcome.
Day 12: 2nd Period, 1st Narrative Ch. I-II:
Wilkie Collins has a great talent for giving us the flavour of a character in short order. Now we are shown events in the person of one Miss Drusilla Clack, niece by marriage to Lady Verinder. Though already I sense that she would decry idle gossip as the Devil's pass time, "Clack" reminds me of the clacking of a typewriter spitting out a gossip rag, or of teeth clacking in judgement of her godless sort-of cousin Rachel. Though Miss. Clack retains some of the exacting habits of her happy childhood, the years have obviously led to disillusionment:
"In later life (alas) the Hymn has been succeeded by sad and bitter meditations; and the sweet sleep has been but ill exchanged for the broken slumbers which haunt the uneasy pillow of care."
"The uneasy pillow of care." I quite like that turn of phrase, and I think many of us could relate.
I'm also interested in her view of Penelope (answering the door in "insolent silence," and responding to Miss. Clack with the "dreadful boldness of her look") and Mr. Betteredge ("a heathen old man named Betteredge--long, too long, tolerated in my aunt's family"). She'd be even more fervent in her conviction in his tending to be a heathen if she knew his bible is not the Holy one, but rather Robinson Crusoe!
Miss. Clack has so many pearls of wisdom. Here's a good one: "Let your faith be as your stockings, and your stockings as your faith. Both ever spotless, and both ready to put on at a moment's notice!"
The three Brahmins have returned, and also don't escape Miss. Clack's mildly racist scrutiny. Lamenting their attack on the glorious Mr. Ablewhite, she transforms them into a metaphor:
"When the Christian hero of a hundred charitable victories plunges into a pitfall that has been dug for him by mistake, oh, what a warning it is to the rest of us to be unceasingly on our guard! How soon may our own evil passions prove to be Oriental noblemen who pounce on us unawares!"
There are many plot points today, but alas I've taken all my time with Miss. Clack.
Day 13: Ch. III-IV:
Collins wades into the tipping culture controversy. Miss. Clack is economical: "I paid the cabman exactly his fare. He received it with an oath; upon which I instantly gave him a tract. If I had presented a pistol at his head, this abandoned wretch could hardly have exhibited greater consternation. He jumped up on his box, and, with profane exclamations of dismay, drove off furiously. Quite useless, I am happy to say! I sowed the good seed , in spite of him, by throwing a second tract in at the window of the cab."
Miss. Clack and her tracts! To edify Lady Verinder, the first one goes "among the geraniums and roses." Then on the library table, in the bird feed, in the music books, amongst the embroidery, and on each of Lady Verinder's bedside tables.
Today, barrister Mr. Bruff adds his conviction in Rachel's innocence. It's amazing how many people have such a solid idea of her innocence.
"Rachel's own innocence is (as her mother knows, and as I know) beyond a doubt. Mr. Ablewhite's innocence is equally certain--or Rachel would never have testified to it. And Franklin Blake's innocence, as you have just seen, unanswerably asserts itself."
But even he cannot figure out, then, who is the culprit.
"And, on the other hand, we are equally sure that somebody has brought the Moonstone to London, and that Mr. Luker, or his banker, is in private possession of it at this moment. What is the use of my experience, what is the use of any person's experience, in such a case as that? It baffles me; it baffles you, it baffles everybody."
Day 14: Rest Day
Day 15: Ch. V-VII:
There are just some wonderful turns of phrase in this novel that I don't ever want to forget. When Miss. Clack is secreted behind the curtains listening to Godfrey and Rachel's impassioned conversation (a situation that she refers to as her "martyrdom") and she's aghast at Godfrey's conduct, she says: "My young female friends will feel encouraged to persevere, when I mention that it tried even my discipline before I could devour my own righteous indignation in silence."
When Rachel is endeavouring to explain to Godfrey the depths of her contradictory feelings for her secret love: "Oh, how can I find words to say it in! How can I make a man understand that a feeling which horrifies me at myself, can be a feeling that fascinates me at the same time? It's the breath of my life, Godfrey, and it's the poison that kills me--both in one!"
And one more Miss. Clack piece of wisdom before I leave off:
"But what are our complexions and our looks? Hindrances and pitfalls, dear girls, which beset us on our way to higher things!"
I was surprised when Lady Verinder died! And now the action moves to Brighton for a bit, where Miss. Clack takes Rachel to church. Of the hour long sermon: "'Has it found its way to your heart, dear?' And she answered, 'No; it has only made my head ache.'"
I'm looking forward to hearing from Godfrey tomorrow.
Day 16: VIII-2nd Narrative I:
With Godfrey back in Miss. Clack's good graces, I love how she overcome she is by her "spiritual self-forgetfulness" in his presence.
"He pressed my hands alternately to his lips. Overwhelmed by the exquisite triumph of having got him back among us, I let him do what he liked with his hands. I closed my eyes. I felt my head, in an ecstacy of spiritual self-forgetfulness, sinking on his shoulder."
The senior Mr. Ablewhite attends Rachel (along with Mr. Bruff) after her and Godfrey's engagement is broken off, and it is an unpleasant scene indeed. Miss Clack is a bit of a scapegoat, but Mr. Ablewhite finally says aloud what probably everyone has been thinking:
"'Who--who--who,' he said, stammering with rage, 'who asked this impudent fanatic into the house?'"
(He also calls her a Rampant Spinster. Now, Mr. Ablewhite is no paragon himself, so we'll have to take this with a grain of salt.)
The Second Narrative is Mr. Braff's point of view, and what a tonal change. He's lawyerly with the facts, exact in his recitation, and reasonably self-aware. He's still a bit misogynist, but you can't have everything I suppose.
Day 17: Ch. II-III (End of 2nd Narrative):
I really had to pay attention to details in today's reading. Mr. Bruff is thorough and relates a lot of factual information of the mystery. It was neat how he liked the Indian man so much. Lawyers do value their billable hours:
"Briefly answered, and thoroughly to the purpose! If the Moonstone had been in my possession, this Oriental gentleman would have murdered me, I am well aware, without a moment's hesitation. At the same time, and barring that slight drawback, I am bound to testify that he was the perfect model of a client. He might not have respected my life. But he did what none of my own countrymen had ever done, in all my experience of them--he respected my time."
Contrast that to Bruff's observation of Mr. Luker: "...in every respect, such an inferior creature to the Indian--he was so vulgar, so ugly, so cringing, so prosy--that he is quite unworthy of being reported, at any length, in these pages."
I'm glad Mr. Murthwaite has visited these pages again! He's so logical, and he and Mr. Bruff together are the perfect vehicle to lay things out very logically for the reader, bringing us up to speed on the state of things. He brings some insight into the mysticism shown by the Indians:
"The clairvoyance in this case is simply a development of the romantic side of the Indian character. It would be a refreshment and an encouragement to those men--quite inconceivable, I grant you, to the English mind--to surround their wearisome and perilous errand in this country with a certain halo of the marvellous and the supernatural."
With June of 1849 marked on the calendar as a risky time for anyone in possession of the Moonstone, Mr. Bruff ends his narrative with Mr. Murthwaite's warning:
"'I think I shall be safer,' he answered, 'among the fiercest fanatics of Central Asia than I should be if I crossed the door of the bank with the Moonstone in my pocket. The Indians have been defeated twice running, Mr. Bruff. It's my firm belief that they won't be defeated a third time.'"
Day 18: 3rd Narrative Ch. I-III:
Finally we get to hear from Franklin Blake, a year later in Spring of 1849! So far, he seems a level-headed young man who is determined to make things right with Rachel, even though he has no idea why she's so upset with him for trying to find the thief of the Moonstone.
It's interesting to see his view of Mr. Betteredge (a much more favourable view than Miss. Clack, that's for sure).
"There he was--the dear old friend of the happy days that were never to come again--there he was in the old corner, on the old beehive chair, with is pipe in his mouth, and his Robinson Crusoe on his lap, and his two friends, the dogs, dozing on either side of him!"
But Betteredge has a warning for Franklin: "Let the Diamond be, Mr. Franklin! Take my advice and let the Diamond be! That cursed Indian jewel has misguided everybody who has come near it."
Even so, the next morning, Mr. Betteredge is raring to go:
"'I complain of a new disease, Mr. Franklin, of my own inventing. I don't want to alarm you, but you're certain to catch it before the morning is out.'
'The devil I am!'
'Do you feel an uncomfortable beat at the pit of your stomach, sir? and a nasty thumping at the top of your head? Ah! not yet? It will lay hold of you at Cobb's Hole, Mr. Franklin. I call it the detective-fever; and I first caught it in the company of Sergeant Cuff.'"
And this is probably what gives credence to the label "sensation novel": "A horrible fancy that the dead woman might appear on the scene of her suicide, to assist my search--an unutterable dread of seeing her rise through the heaving surface of the sand, and point to the place--forced itself into my mind, and turned me cold in the warm sunlight."
At the end of Chapter III, I have never wanted to turn the page as much as I did today...but I will wait in suspense until tomorrow to read the next bit.
Day 19; 3rd Narrative Ch. IV-V:
After Mr. Franklin's shock at finding himself under suspicion, Mr. Betteredge comes to the rescue:
"Take a drop more grog, Mr. Franklin, and you'll get over the weakness of believing in facts! Foul play, sir!"
Rosanna's long letter sheds so much light on events, and reveals her to be a sensitive soul, and a victim of unrequited love. Her romantic side shines when she first sets eyes on Franklin, and is a great description of first love:
"You were like a prince in a fairy-story. You were like a lover in a dream. You were the most adorable human creature I had ever seen. Something that felt like a happy life I had never led yet, leapt up in me at the instant I set eyes on you."
I could just feel Rosanna's angst as she is completely outshone by Rachel: "...it does stir one up to hear Miss Rachel called pretty, when one knows all the time that it's her dress does it, and her confidence in herself."
What I think is also interesting is how Rosanna felt better when she was a thief, and worse when she was told it was wrong and must reform. She knows that her own story of hardship is a "common tale" but it was poignant nonetheless.
"My life was not a very hard life to bear, while I was a thief. It was only when they had taught me at the reformatory to feel my own degradation, and to try for better things, that the days grew long and weary."
For his part, Franklin is astonished that Rosanna even had these feelings toward him. Sadly, she hardly registered in his consciousness.
Day 20: 3rd Narrative Ch. VI:
Mr. Bruff doesn't trust Rosanna. "Without alluding to the woman's career as a thief, I will merely remark that her letter prove her to have been an adept at deception, on her own showing; and I argue from that, that I am justified in suspecting her of not having told the whole truth."
Franklin's debts have come up again, and have made Rachel apparently distrust him, and now he and Mr. Bruff will set a trap of sorts to allow Franklin to meet with her, as she's repeatedly refused to see him. Mr. Bruff, who likes Rachel enormously, is dismayed but resolute on this course of action:
"'In plain English,' he said, 'my house is to be turned into a trap to catch Rachel; with a bait to tempt her, in the shape of an invitation from my wife and daughters. If you were anybody else but Franklin Blake, and if this matter was one atom less serious than it really is, I should refuse point-blank.'"
And am I the only one who things that this interesting, piebald-haired man named Ezra Jennings will play a role in the story to come? It's notable that he's shown up twice, briefly, but I can't imagine it's not going to figure.
Day 21: Rest Day
Day 22: 3rd Narrative Ch. VII-VIII:
I noted that this was the longest day of reading, over these two chapters, but I must confess that the pages flew by. I'm glad that Franklin and Rachel were able to talk, but even that interlude seemed to be back and forth with so many devastated feelings, and continued misunderstandings that it was in the end a bit frustrating. Indeed, I think I was most frustrated at Franklin, for not trying to explain a bit more about his point of view and his utter lack of memory of taking the Moonstone. Rachel is impassioned: "'I can't tear you out of my heart,' she said, 'even now! You may trust in the shameful, shameful weakness which can only struggle against you in this way!'"
And also, there were a few false starts for Franklin, as he pursued both Sergeant Cuff and the guests from Rachels birthday party. I wasn't sure of the utility of Collins putting all that in, but I suppose I'm probably just showing my impatience to get to the bottom of things.
And I do wish Sergeant Cuff well in his retirement; sounds like he's enjoying his roses. "...I peered through the trellis-work, and saw the great Cuff's favourite flower everywhere; blooming in his garden, clustering over his door, looking in his windows. Far from the crimes and the mysteries of the great city, the illustrious thief-taker was placidly living out the last Sybarite years of his life, smothered in roses!"
(This reminds me of myself, in a a way: from a career in medicine, which I loved but retired from only to discover the world of books in its many forms!)
I also was reminded of how terribly unfair life is, with an offhand mention of Miss Clack, who is apparently living in poverty in France.
"A rich old lady--highly respected at the Mothers' Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society, and a great friend of Miss Clack's (to whom she had left nothing but a mourning ring)--had bequeathed to the admirable and meritorious Godfrey a legacy of five thousand pounds."
We finish off with Mr Candy, who's appearance and memory have deteriorated dramatically. I wonder what could be the cause? Maybe it's not just some ill-defined malady. And Ezra Jennings has indeed resurfaced.
Day 22: 3rd Narrative Ch. IX-X (end of 3rd Narrative):
Ezra Jennings is described rather well by Franklin, with a nod to mild xenophobia: "It was impossible to dispute Betteredge's assertion that the appearance of Ezra Jennings, speaking from a popular point of view, was against him. His gipsy-complexion, his fleshless cheeks, his gaunt facial bones, his dreamy eyes, his extraordinary parti-coloured hair, this puzzling contradiction between his face and figure which made him look old and young together--were all more or less calculated to produce an unfavourable impression of him on a stranger's mind."
Yet Franklin can't help but like and trust him rather quickly, as he has that "unsought self-posession, which is a sure sign of good breeding, not in England only, but everywhere else in the civilised world."
His father is an Englishman, his mother not, and he was raised in a British colony. Some scandal follows him, though he is an innocent in it all. I wonder what this could mean?
Anyway, lots of cool details about opium, and how this has potentially affected the events on the night the Moonstone was taken.
And my favourite part: we're all in for a good, old-fashioned reenactment!
"We shall have to put you back again into something assimilating to your nervous condition on the birthday night. If we can next revive...the domestic circumstances which surrounded you; and if we can occupy your mind again with the various questions concerning the Diamond which formerly agitated it, we shall have replaced you, as nearly as possible in the same position, physically and morally, in which the opium found you last year."
Should be fun.
I did a bit of searching and found this brief but interesting article about laudanum. I read about it so often in the classics from the 18th and 19th century.
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