Moonstone - a novel from Sri Lankan writer daya dissanayake, published by Sarasavi Publishers, Colombo 2006
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Moonstones from Sri Lanka, the classical country of origin of the moonstone, shimmer in pale blue on an almost transparent background.
The moonstone is actually the feldspar variety known as 'adularia', a potassium aluminosilicate of gemstone quality, which is also found in the European Alps near the Adula Group – hence the name 'adularia'.
In their uncut state moonstones are rather unprepossessing and afford little idea of what it is that actually constitutes their charm: that mysterious shimmer of light.
The moonstone is characterised as female ‘growing and lessening in lustre with the waxing and waning of the moon’(p33)and, in the possession of the virginal Rachel this femininity has a particular resonance.
The male theft of the moonstone and the threat implied by Rachel’s approaching loss of virginity are equated with the colonial rape of a feminized India --the jewel in the imperial crown.
While The Moonstone is primarily a tale of family secrets, religious corruption, and an English society with a central core of rottenness, the use of colonial markers and the subversion of stereotypes reveal that for Wilkie Collins there was an inherent link between a malfunctioning society and colonial exploitation.
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