The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins made its initial debut in a serialized fashion, appearing in the notorious All The Year Round publication headed by Charles Dickins, whilst appearing simultaneously in the American Harper’s Weekly. The dichotomy that was presented through the publication of the novel by two different establishments posed a unique challenge, with the reading of The Moonstone being suspectable to the external influences brought about by other content surrounding the different chapters in Harper’s Weekly and All The Year Round. In particular, the reading of Part II of The Moonstone, mainly concerning Chapter VI and VII, had the ability to be significantly influenced by not only the format of the magazines, but the content produced within them.
The different cultural phenomena that occurred across the Atlantic fostered perspectives that would not neccesarily be present in Wilkie Collins original serialization of the novel, and as noted by Mary Leighton, “profoundly affects the narrative’s unfolding and meaning” (Leighton 210). When putting these influences within the context of Chapter’s VI and VII, the narrator Miss Clack experiences manipulation to her own character and narrative through the external content present in both All The Year Round and Harper’s Weekly. This manifests through Miss Clack’s religious background, as the publications construe religion in vastly different ways, painting her narrative in a light reflective of the publication in contrast to the text as an autonomous piece.
Works Cited
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone, edited by John Sutherland, Oxford University Press, 1999
Leighton, Mary, and Lisa Surridge. “The Transatlantic Moonstone: A Study of the Illustrated Serial in Harper's Weekly.” Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 42, no. 3, 2009, pp. 207–243.
Gannon, Christiane. “Hinduism, Spiritual Community, and Narrative Form in ‘The Moonstone.’” Dickens Studies Annual, vol. 46, 2015, pp. 297–320.
Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, 1868.
All The Year Round, Charles Dickens, 1868.