The Role of Visuals in Part 4 of The Moonstone

Comparing the two original publications of Wilkie Collins’ 1868 novel, The Moonstone, it is clear that although released at the same time, the periodicals could not be more different. As a result, the significance of Collins’ novel, released in 32 segments, can be interpreted in entirely different contexts despite the chapters being exactly the same. Charles Dickens' All the Year Round published the novel, unillustrated, in the United Kingdom. In the United States of America, Harper’s Weekly was responsible for the story’s release in their beautifully illustrated periodical, complete with jokes and satirical articles. Although, at first, the illustrations seem to add supplementary depth to the chapters, comparing them to the other sources the editors chose for the issue proves that images may not always be reliable, especially when reading detective fiction.

Elizabeth Anderman, associate director of University of Boulder's Farrand Residential Academic Program, argues for "reading of serialized sensation novels as a participatory process, where meaning and emotion are expanded through iterative and contextual interpretations" (Anderman 28). Sensation fiction of the 1860s relied on detailed description and gossip, but, according to Anderman, they may have even been too visual (27). After studying both versions of section 4, released on 25 January 1868, I suspect that The Moonstone, doubling as a detective story, also dependent on a reader's ability to visualize, asks its readers to be aware of their visual surroundings, and question the value of everything they see as if it were a clue. 

A "participatory" reading the two original publications of The Moonstone reveals that its images and surrounding sources do not always agree about the value of their relationship. In this exhibit, items selected from Harper's Weekly prove that while Anderman is correct about the intertextual interactions in serialized sensation fiction, she does not touch on the self-reflexive quality of images and imagery in The Moonstone that contradict the assumption that the illustrated edition tells the story more effectively.