Introduction

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Sabina Fazli
wrong suspects are continental secret societies and German revolutionaries who
hide out in London (Doyle, Scarlet 33). Major Sholto and Thaddeus Sholto, although
not directly bound by the pact of “the Four”, still break their promise and
are consequently sought out by Small. Thus Thaddeus Sholto sees “secret agencies
at work all around us” (Sign 147) and assumes the same omnipresent and deceptive
plot as in The Moonstone. Both texts, however, assume different attitudes towards
the secretive pacts. The opacity of the Brahmins’ dealings juxtaposes
Small’s complete confession of the conspirators’ deeds so that The Sign of Four
presents a conspiracy that is finally unravelled. The diamonds instigate these conspiracies
and function as the bond which draws the alien characters to England.
They are associated with the obscure, criminal invasive.
The ‘Close’ Other
The Eustace Diamonds: Harter, Benjamin and Emilius
The mysterious Indians who follow the Moonstone and who are perceived as a
threat to Rachel have somewhat less sensational counterparts in The Eustace Diamonds.
The firm of Harter and Benjamin, Jewish moneylenders and jewellers, is
responsible for the two burglaries to steal Lizzie’s diamonds, one attempted and
the other successful. As Jews they represent a version of the ‘close’ Other, alongside
the racial hybrid as represented in Ezra Jennings.
The stereotypical depiction of Jews in nineteenth-century realist literature
shifts from the mythical arch-villain to the economic criminal. His relation to the
rest of society is structured by his economic activity and his exaggerated embracing
of capitalism and casts him as a new threat to the established and especially to
the landed society. This stereotype is backed by the much older stereotype of Jews
as usurers (Schuhmacher 44-45).
In The Eustace Diamonds, Benjamin and Harter are from the beginning introduced
as shady and dishonest, as they knowingly accept Lizzie’s lies about her age
and upcoming marriage and agree to support her scheme of letting Sir Florian pay
her debts after their marriage (Trollope 40-41; 46). Mr. Benjamin’s desire for the
Eustace Diamonds surfaces very early on when Lizzie presumes that “if Mr. Benjamin
got them into his hands, Mr Benjamin might perhaps not return them” (79),
and “she was wise enough to know that […] Harter and Benjamin were not trustworthy”
(80), that they were not “as firm as rocks” (80). Respectability and honesty
described as adamant firmness are also attributed to Lucy but not to Lizzie,
who knows that she is “paste” (628).
According to Lord George, who is in debt to Benjamin, he has “’that greasy,
Israelitish smile’” (494). Harter and Benjamin are immediately suspected by the
police to have stolen the diamonds (474): “That there was nothing ‘too hot or too
heavy’ for Messrs. Harter and Benjamin was quite a creed with the police of the