The Moonstone

“The deity predicted certain disaster to the presumptuous mortal who laid hands on the sacred gem, and to all of his house and name who received it after him.”

This quotation introduces the curse associated with the Moonstone diamond, which has endured over centuries. The curse foreshadows the sinister role the diamond will play in the narrative, while also hinting at how the consequences of John Herncastle’s theft of the diamond will impact many other people.

“Starting from these plain facts, the idea is that we should all write the story of the Moonstone in turn—as far as our own personal experience extends, and no farther.”

Betteredge explains why he is retrospectively writing down a narrative of the events that occurred in June 1848 at the Verinder house in Yorkshire. The complex narrative structure of the novel results from multiple individuals’ being asked to describe the events they directly witnessed in the advent and aftermath of the theft; this structure prioritizes objective observations, and yet The Unreliability of Witnessing and Memory still plays a significant role in the plot.

“Persons and Things do turn up so vexatiously in this life, and will in a manner insist on being noticed.”

Betteredge makes this apology since he keeps getting distracted with digressions while trying to provide a purely factual and chronological account of events. The comment is ironic because the narrative ends up revealing that it is virtually impossible to distinguish what is significant and what is insignificant— many seemingly trivial details end up being essential to understanding the theft and how it happened.