I am in love with the narrator of (the first part of) The Moonstone. The faithful old steward, as the case against his mistress’s daughter becomes thicker and thicker:
It was downright frightful to hear him piling up proof after proof against Miss Rachel, and to know, while one was longing to defend her, that there was no disputing the truth of what he said. I am (thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason. This enabled me to hold firm to my lady’s view, which was my view also. This roused my spirit, and made me put a bold face on it before Sergeant Cuff. Profit, good friends, I beseech you, by my example. It will save you from many troubles of the vexing sort. Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!
How will this superiority repay him in the end? Funny that I like him, saying things like that, but I do.
This is the fellow who refers to random passages of Robinson Crusoe when perplexed, right? A great, great character.
Yes, one of his best qualities!
I think the strength of The Moonstone is it’s characters, especially Gabriel! I also love Miss Clack, whose po-faced Christianity isn’t entirely unknown these days.
[...] first such narrator (after the prologue) I have already mentioned, Gabriel Betteredge. He is unusual in that he is one of two people to tell two separate parts of the story, and in that [...]
[...] pure motives, and purely carried out:” My Life in Books has been reading Willkie Collins’ The Moonstone. You should read it, [...]