Harper's Weekly Featuring the Moonstone

As Loesberg writes in her essay titled “The Ideology of Narrative Form in Sensation Fiction”: “Class fear was distinctive in this period” (118). In such a rapidly changing world, middle-lower class individuals encroaching on the practices and lifestyles of the elite members of Victorian society was a real fear. As Altick points out, initially, lower class individuals were discouraged from education and literacy due to these class fears. However, with increased commerce and industry, it was discovered “A reasonable bit of elementary schooling made better workers” (Altick, 142). Thus, the lower-middle classes begun to experience an increase in literacy.

As a result, periodicals and newspapers alike capitalized on a new type of readership. In response, the sensation novel was born. The Moonstone, featured on this page, in many ways comments upon a fear of the lower-classes and vapid social change during the era. A major theme in the novel is a “loss, shift, or reversal of identity” (Loesberg, 129). Throughout the book, the intentions of upper and lower class individuals are questioned: such as Rosanna Spearman and Rachel Verinder. In the end, the “false identity” of Godfrey Ablewhite proves to be the cause of the moonstone’s disappearance. Perhaps, though, the moonstone itself represents a loss of identity so commonly introduced in sensation fiction. The loss of the precious stone could come to represent the loss of British identity and the mixing, blurring, and mingling of social classes during the era. Regardless, the inclusion of The Moonstone into a sensationalized newspaper such as Harper’s Weekly again only caters to the new, common reader. The theme of shifting or misleading class identity is one the middle-lower classes would have sympathized with and found enjoyment in reading. 

Loesberg, Jonathan. "The Ideology of Narrative Form in Sensation Fiction." Representations 13 (1986): 115-38. Print.

Alitck, Richard. The English Common Reader : A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1957. Print.