About this item
The Moonstone was published in 1868 and concerns the huge yellow diamond of the title that was once stolen from an Indian shrine. Rachel Verrinder receives the stone as a gift and does not realize that it has been passed to her in a sinister form of revenge by John Herncastle who, it transpires, acquired the moonstone by means of murder and theft. The jewel also brings bad luck. The stone disappears on the very night it is given to Rachel, though, and the tale concerns the unveiling of the culprit after the intervention of Sergeant Cuff, a famous London detective. A maid who is under suspicion commits suicide and Rachel herself seems reticent when it comes to aiding the investigation. Mysterious Indians appear frequently and there is an air of confusion and the unknown until the mystery is eventually solved.
About the Author
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 - 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. His best-known works are The Woman in White (1859) , No Name (1862) , Armadale (1866) , and The Moonstone (1868) , considered the first modern English detective novel.Born into the family of painter William Collins in London, he lived with his family in Italy and France as a child and learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel Antonina was published in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend, mentor and collaborator. Some of Collins' works were first published in Dickens' journals All the Year Round and Household Words and the two collaborated on dramatic and fictional works.Collins published his best known works in the 1860s, achieved financial stability and an international reputation. During this time he began suffering from gout took opium for pain and developed an addiction. During the 1870s and '80s the quality of his writing declined along with his health.Collins was critical of the institution of marriage and never married; he split his time between Caroline Graves except for a 2 year separation, and his common law wife Martha Rudd with whom he had 3 children. Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Elliott & Fry [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
