Introduction

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Sabina Fazli
Noor as the antipode of the British democratic mass-production of commodities
as presented at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Additionally, handing around the
diamond among common men exactly describes the plot of “The Rajah’s Diamond”.
According to Prince Florizel, it has therefore entered a system alien to it.
Ironically, Prince Florizel is of course not a “common man”, yet he eventually also
falls prey to the diamonds’ influence (129).
To sum up, the basic idea which both texts convey is the Otherness of the
diamonds. This is expressed in their ability to escape definition. Their effect on
the onlooker as well as their appearance has to be compressed in indistinct and
sometimes contradictory images. Moreover, their price cannot be securely set and
adds to their elusiveness. The flaw in the Moonstone and the assertion by Prince
Florizel that the Rajah’s Diamond was not meant to circulate in the market defines
them as alien and disruptive to the economic and social system. The excessive
worth concentrated in a small stone cannot be securely contained by society and,
as John Plotz argues, “threatens to become illegible” (34) and thus also indescribable
in familiar terms. The recourse to the vast but indistinct images of heaven
and hell reflects this impossibility of finding precise and moderate terms. Moreover,
it removes the diamonds from the everyday sphere and contributes to the
mystification of their nature which places them in romance rather than reality. The
monstrosity of their value is complemented by their monstrous age which also has
to remain undefined.
Diamonds as Cash
While the Moonstone’s singular nature is expressed through its religious significance,
the Rajah’s Diamond and the Great Mogul are set apart from the lesser
diamonds through their exceptional size and value. The Rajah’s Diamond is “the
sixth known [sic] diamond in the world” (Stevenson, “Rajah’s” 71) and the Great
Mogul “is said to be the second largest stone in existence” (Doyle, Sign 224). The
once existent Mogul was ranked as the largest stone ever to have been discovered
in India (King 34-35).
The Agra Treasure as a whole is worth “not less than half a million sterling”
(Doyle, Sign 150). The Moonstone’s worth is, as already mentioned, hard to pin
down because of the flaw in its middle. Franklin and Mr. Luker both deposit it in
the safe of a bank as “a valuable of great price” (Collins, Moonstone 55; 204). Ablewhite
has Mr. Luker estimate the worth of the Moonstone at thirty thousand
pounds (450), while it has been valued at twenty thousand before (89). As a cut-up
“marketable commodity” (452; 454) it is worth even more. Ablewhite then draws
two thousand pounds on the diamond to cover his embezzlements and the expenses
for keeping his mistress. The value of the Eustace Diamonds is put down
as ten thousand or twenty thousand pounds (Trollope 130; 194). The Datchet
Diamonds are worth a quarter of a million: