Talk:The Moonstone

Plot Weakness

Collins' plot was constructed in a clear and masterful fashion, for one who was supposed to be under the influence of drugs. However, the weak place in the amazing plot was Godfrey's third version of the story he told to Mr. Luker. This is Part IV of Sergeant Cuff's narrative toward the end of the book.Lestrade 14:25, 3 February 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

Hindoo / Hindu

I changed "Hindoos [sic]" to "Hindus". The "sic" made it look like the article was criticising Collins for using what was, at the time, a perfectly normal spelling. Since the word was being used just to talk about the characters, not in an actual quotation from the novel, I don't see why not just change it to the modern spelling. 84.69.129.25 12:23, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I changed "idol" to "image" for the same reason and had it reverted by a zealous guardian of the the page. It is extremely offensive today and it does not appear in a quotation but in a summary. To my mind, it is indefensible. This is in no way a criticism of the author, to whom it will have been normal usage. 16th and 17th century authors invariably use terms like "Papist" where we would automatically substitute "Catholic": there is no excuse for perpetuating pejorative and insulting terms except in quotations. I'm not going to get into an edit war, but I know what my Hindu friends would think about the issue, and so I suspect does the person who insists on "idol." Sjwells53 (talk) 00:45, 5 November 2016 (UTC)

Preceded / followed by?

I am a bit puzzled by the entries "Preceded by" and "Followed by" in the info box. As far as I understand, The Moonstone is not a part of a series. I suppose the books mentioned are those published by Wilkie Collins, before and after The Moonstone - but is that information of so big value it should be in the box? I suggest the entries are removed. // habj 11:51, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:WilkieCollins TheMoonstone.jpg

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BetacommandBot 04:39, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Precedence

In Wikpedia articles about Allan Poe and about detective-ficion, Poe's "The murders in the rue Morge" is credited as being the first detective novel in English, not Collins.

Perhaps the present article means the first detective novel in England instead of "in English"? Could you please clarify this issue? --Djacnov (talk) 12:37, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

"The murders in the rue Morgue" is not a novel. N p holmes (talk) 11:48, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

In the service of British imperialism

India serves as a great example of how literature and language can be exploited and created for furthering Illuminati interests. Wilkie Collins of the Illuminati Collins bloodline started publishing imaginary tales of Muslim atrocities against Hindus and temple trashing by Muslim rulers in his famous novel, the Moonstone.

The source of the quote can be looked up on Google. Is this a perspective which someone we could quote has raised? __meco (talk) 19:47, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like conspiracy theory bullshit.

Missing Word?

I think, in the plot summary, the wording should be " .. and who [Dr Candy] wanted HIM [Franklin Blake] to sleep more easily due to quitting smoking." Without the word 'him', it is the doctor who has insomnia. Or, I would suggest " .. and to overcome his insomnia, related to his giving up cigars", both 'his and 'him' meaning Franklin. I haven't read the book for years, but I think it means this.

Rogersansom (talk)

Epistolary novel?

I question the use of the adjective "epistolary" to describe The Moonstone. The phrase "epistolary novel" for me has the definite sense of referring to a novel entirely constructed from fictional letters supposed to have been written by one or another character. The Moonstone does not use letters. Rather it is composed of sections supposedly written by some of the characters from their recollections, and submitted to a fictional editor or compiler to be combined into a book. I understand that this method formally fits into usage of "epistolary," and therefore perhaps the term ought to be retained, but if it is retained I think a note should be inserted to clarify that the novel is not composed of letters. Dratman (talk) 06:38, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Libel of Drusilla Clack

In the Characters list, Miss Clack is described as "an unpleasant, hypocritical meddler". Rather than "hypocritical", my reading found her fanatical and self-deluding, but wholly sincere. If this be independent research, then it must rest here on the Talk page, but if it is evidence from the text itself, it bears moving to the article. GeorgeTSLC (talk) 07:32, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

"Ghost Wilkie"

In the "Literary significance" section of the article, we find the uncited claim that "Unbeknownst to his readers, Collins was writing from personal experience. In his later years Collins grew severely addicted to laudanum and as a result suffered from paranoid delusions, the most notable being his conviction that he was constantly accompanied by a doppelgänger whom he dubbed "Ghost Wilkie"." This claim was added in a 2005 edit by a now-long-inactive user. (The claim also used to be made in the Wilkie Collins article, before being excised in 2012.)

I very, very strongly suspect this rather picturesque claim to be made up. It's been repeated elsewhere- eg The New Yorker or this page on a site maintained by the University of South Florida- but this seems to be a case of citogenesis, as I can't find any references predating the claim's appearance on Wikipedia. Nothing about "Ghost Wilkie" appears in Kenneth Robinson's "Wilkie Collins: A Biography" (1951), or Catherine Peters's "The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins" (1991), or Alexander Grinstein's "Wilkie Collins: Man of Mystery and Imagination" (2003).

Anyway, it's gone now, and all this is why. Yspaddadenpenkawr (talk) 00:25, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

Calling it 'Ghost Wilkie' seems to be a neologism, but the idea that Wilkie Collins hallucinated "a second self" after taking opium is mentioned in the opening chapter of Catherine Peters' "The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins" (1991). This even appears in the chapter description on Jstor: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zv4s6

Peters talks about an incident in which Wilkie and his phantom double struggle over the writing paper, and accidentally knock over the inkwell. This is the anecdote which is repeated in the New Yorker source as well as Peter Ackroyd's 2013 biography. It's specified that this happened to him in his old age, though, so it probably did not affect him during the writing of The Moonstone. OldSwinburne (talk) 00:51, 9 November 2024 (UTC)