The Moonstone

Study Guide

Summary

First Period, Chapters X and XI

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Summary First Period, Chapters X and XI

Seegrave arrives on the scene of the crime and decides to shut down the house for investigation, thus ensuring the country house as the setting in which all events will be contained. Part of the innovative quality of The Moonstone and sensation fiction generally is to depict strange events in normal places. Though the diamond itself, and its history, create a level of exoticness and danger, the crime and investigation will take place within the confines of the country house—an entirely English setting.

In these early chapters after the theft of the diamond, Rosanna Spearman emerges as the most suspicious character. Yet Betteredge's good-natured support and protection for her suggest her ultimate innocence. The Indians seem to represent the only other immediately suspicious characters.

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