Introduction

I'm Dr Christopher Pittard.

I'm senior lecturer in English literature at the University of Portsmouth,

and this is a short course of lectures on Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone

Moonstone was first published in 18 68 serialised

in Charles Dickens's weekly magazine all the year round

and is often described as being the first detective novel.

That's not quite the case that claims often made,

but actually there are a couple of detective novels that preceded it.

And indeed,

we can define detective fiction in any number of ways to find a first novel.

Some critics will say, for instance,

that Charles Dickens's Bleak House Vague 52 to 3, which features the detective,

is the first detective novel.

Um, some critics will go back as far as 17 94 and William Godwin's Caleb Williams.

Um, some will even go all the way back to Sophocles.

Uh, and the edifice plays as a form of detective fiction.

There is also another detective novel

that that definitely precedes the moonstone.

This is Notting Hill mystery of 18 62 by Charles Warren Adams,

so that definitely proceeds Collins.

But Collins has this popular perception of being one of the

early important figures in the development of modern detective fiction.

So what I want to cover in the course of lectures today is the way in which this novel,

the Moonstone, covers or brings together two distinct realms.

On the one hand,

the external political realm of empire and of England's involvement in In in India

and, on the other hand, the more internal personal realm of the unconscious mind

and of the psyche and the way in which the novel builds

boundaries or build bridges rather between those two seemingly distinct realms.

So what I'm going to talk about? What follows is in five sections.

So firstly,

I want to start with a description or the description of the diamond itself,

the moonstone itself and the way in which this

diamond at the centre of the novel is described,

and the way in which that sets up this connection between the external

life of the Empire and the internal life of the unconscious mind.

Secondly, I want to look at the theme of sexuality and desire in this novel.

What is going on under the surface of this text?

What's the hidden story behind the theft of the moonstone

in the third section.

I want to talk a bit about the novel's imperial context,

how the novel deals with the 19th century history of British colonialism in India

and in the fourth section I want to think a

bit more about how this relates to the the narrative structure

of the novel, the fact that we do not get a linear narrative,

that it is a series of fragmented account.

So what's the effect of that?

And then finally,

I will wrap all this up with some concluding remarks on

the ending of the novel and how conclusive that is.