Dear Serial Readers,
At long last, I am back to wrap up this serial reading! I enjoyed the variety of these last installments, from Franklin Blake's continuation, after Jennings' journal, of the story, and then the remarkable Sargeant Cuff's detective work, followed by Candy's letter about Jennings' death, and then--I know at least two of you serial readers were pleased--the return of Gabriel Betteredge as narrator.
I loved how he brings to a near-close the narrative with his ringing endorsement of the prophetic power of fiction (his beloved ROBINSON CRUSOE) as the new secular bible--he mentions his pleasure in pointing this out to Franklin Blake with the feeling that he's "converted" Blake to this new religion of English fiction! Can you imagine someone using this novel in a similar way?
Rather than the colonizing tendencies of Robinson C., this novel ends with a reversal of colonial conquest: the Epilogue describes the Moonstone's global journey as it is returned to its original home in the forehead of the statue of the Hindu god of the Moon from (as Murthwaite mentions) "the bosom of a [English] woman's dress!" But then he concludes with a few provocative questions that perhaps the Moonstone (and whatever else it signifies) may travel again: "Who can tell?"
According to the design of the novel, many can tell! I believe we have not encountered another novel in these screen-pages of "Serial Readers" that includes so many different tellers. I find this variety works well with the serial form.
Some lingering questions: the undisclosed secret of Ezra Jennings' sad life? and the thematic links between him, as outsider, with the wandering Murthwaite, who describes himself as "semi-savage" with hybrid origins, like Jennings. Interesting too that this novel both opens and closes in India, yet most of its settings are in England. I saw some interesting links to a novel that appeared some decades later, namely DRACULA--it also begins and ends in the "East" (Transylvania of Eastern Europe) and it also suggests the power of the colonized to regain and even extend their property and power.
I look forward to your comments on this novel!
My relative silence in these pages/screens suggests that I am compelled to take a recess from "Serial Readers"--the first hiatus in the twenty-eight months of the life of this reading log! Here is my proposal: we will reconvene in the second half of November with the linked stories of Elizabeth Gaskell's CRANFORD, first published in Dickens' HOUSEHOLD WORDS (from Dec. 1851-May 1853). We will begin with the first two installments, which include the first four chapters of most modern editions (through the chap titled "A Visit to an Old Bachelor"). I'll plan to post on these first installments the week of November 15th.
In the long meantime, please enjoy your serial readings and viewings, wherever they may take you! See you here in two months (and before, with all comments on the end of THE MOONSTONE).
Serially stalling,
Susan
4 comments:
I came to “The Moonstone” somewhat reluctantly, and I admit to, if not contempt, disparagement, prior to investigting. I had almost no recollection of the contents of the prologue, though, on rereading it, I recognize that it, too, like the subsequent narratives, has a personal, familiar voice, as if the teller were whispering in my ear. It kept me reading, and took me to the first narrative, that of the one and only Gabriel Betteredge, after which I was a goner. The authority of his voice—personal and yet restrained—its confidence, his humor, and sense of proportion, completely won me over. The surprise was that the other narrators were, in their own ways, almost, but not quite, as appealing—not to mention hilarious, in the case of Clack—as Betteredge, especially Cuff. (Now I’ve run voice right into the ground for the second, maybe third time.) Susan mentions that telling a story through several narrators works well for a serial novel. I think it also serves a tidy and uncommonly satisfying ending to a novel. Enlisting everyone from Sgt. Cuff’s assistant, to the Captain of Bewley Castle, to Mr. Murthwaite, left no stone unturned. And yet, a new cycle of Moonstone events could be underway as we speak! Every now and then, since finishing “The Moonstone,” I’ve picked it up again, just to get in the mood that Betteredge puts me in.
I’ll miss Serial Readers and am looking forward to Gaskell.
readerann, I'd just like to tell you that there is no way you can write too much about voice in The Moonstone! Let's collaborate and write a book on it! I think this would be a fun book to write about--I wonder if it's disparaged because it's a mystery, or because the solution is so slowly developed.
I also loved the scientific aspects of the opium project--it was interesting to me that the opium was not orientalized, but instead put in a western, scientific perspective. (going back to the previous installment!)
I was so satisfied by the ending, though I was not glad that Godfrey had to die. It was interesting he had to do so in the guise of a foreigner. I also thought it was deeply satisfying to get the diamond back to India!, rather than back to Rachel (whose voice we never get, nor do we get her mother's or Betteredge's daughter's). And I'm pleased that Rachel doesn't seem to care about getting it back.
Perhaps people dislike the book so much because the mystery matters more than the object--that can make a plot seem pointless. But the point is so much more in the telling and the re-telling, re-creating.
was eager to finish the book so I could watch a video, and I rented a 1934 film of The Moonstone that runs (in the DVD version) 46 minutes! And it was made in the US and set in the 1930s. The film may or may not be a good film--I had a hard time noticing. It was a travesty of the novel, however! I hate to have that attitude toward books made into film--I prefer to see it as a theme and variation, but some things were just so--oh, so horridly changed! I didn't mind that Betteredge becomes a woman, and that it turns into a mystery and solution that lasts about 48 hours, but I hated that it ends with Rachel and Frank kissing with the Moonstone dangling between them. And I care that the Hindoo wears a turban, sigh. And I care that there's no real India.
A fun aspect, though, was that her father is alive instead of her mother, and he's the scientist creating a new drug, so Ezra Jennings tries the experiment with Frank the night *after* the diamond was stolen. I loved the updating of the scientific aspect.
The painted door, though, was ugly and not at all as I imagined from the book. now I'd love to see the earlier, silent version, and one of the Masterpiece versions--we'll see!
I'll miss Serial Reading, but I'll look forward to Cranford.
I loved this novel. I just read every installment with a big smile on my face -- I enjoyed the clever plotting, the hilarious commentary of Clack and Betteredge, and the play of different perspectives. I even violated the plan of "serial reading" and read the last two installments in one sitting, which is something I was able to resist in all the other novels we've read. I just couldn't put this one down.
And I'll be looking forward to Cranford, too!
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