The Moonstone

Product Description

” The Moonstone” is one of the first true works of detective fiction, in which Wilkie Collins established the groundwork for the genre itself. This ” Penguin Classics” edition is edited with an introduction by Sandra Kemp. ” The Moonstone”, a priceless yellow diamond, is looted from an Indian temple & maliciously bequeathed to Rachel Verinder. On her eighteenth birthday, her friend & suitor Franklin Blake brings the gift to her. That very night, it is stolen again. No one is above suspicion, as the idiosyncratic Sergeant Cuff & the Franklin piece together a puzzling series of events as mystifying as an opium dream & as deceptive as the nearby Shivering S&. The intricate plot & modern technique of multiple narrators made Wilkie Collins` 1868 work a huge success in the Victorian sensation genre. With a reconstruction of the crime, red herrings & a `locked-room` puzzle, ” The Moonstone” was also a major precursor of the modern mystery novel. In her introduction Sandra Kemp explores ” The Moonstone`s” the detective elements of Collins` writing, & reveals how Collins` sensibilities were untypical of his era. Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was born in London in 1824, the eldest son of the landscape painter William Collins. In 1846 he was entered to read for the bar at Lincoln`s Inn, where he gained the knowledge that was to give him much of the material for his writing. From the early 1850s he was a friend of Charles Dickens, who produced & acted in two melodramas written by Collins, ” The Lighthouse” & ” The Frozen Deep”. Of his novels, Collins is best remembered for ” The Woman in White” (1859), ” No Name” (1862), ” Armadale” (1866) & ” The Moonstone” (1868). If you enjoyed ” The Moonstone” you might like Collins` ” The Woman in White”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”. ” Probably the very finest detective story ever written.” (Dorothy L. Sayers). ” The first, the longest & the best of modern modern English detective novels.” (T.S. Eliot).