Cover of Moonstone

Moonstone

by Unknown Author

4.1
(22 ratings)
640 pages2012HarperCollins Publishers LimitedISBN 9780007477401

About this book

<p>HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.</p><br/> <p>'The horrid mystery hanging over us in this house gets into my head like liquor, and makes me wild.'</p><br/> <p>Centred around a glorious yellow diamond that carries with it a menacing history, The Moonstone tells the story of Rachel Verinder, who inherits the stone on her eighteenth birthday. That very evening, the diamond is stolen and there begins an epic enquiry into hunting down the thief. At the same time, three Indian men, Brahmin guardians of the diamond are attempting to reclaim the stone in order to return it to their sacred Hindu Idol.</p><br/> <p>Told from the perspective of 11different characters, Wilkie Collins' tale of mystery and suspicion was considered the first modern English detective novel at its time of publication.</p>

Publication Details

Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Published
2012
Pages
640
ISBN
9780007477401
Language
eng

About Unknown Author

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer best known for *The Woman in White* (1859) and *The Moonstone* (1868). The last has been called the first modern English detective novel. Born to the family of a painter, William Collins, in London, he grew up in Italy and France, learning French and Italian. He began work as a clerk for a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, appeared in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became a close friend and mentor. Some of Collins's works appeared first in Dickens's journals *All the Year Round* and *Household Words* and they collaborated on drama and fiction. Collins achieved financial stability and an international following with his best known works in the 1860s, but began suffering from gout. Taking opium for the pain grew into an addiction. In the 1870s and 1880s his writing quality declined with his health. Collins was critical of the institution of marriage: he split his time between Caroline Graves and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children. **Source**: [Wilkie Collins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkie_Collins) on Wikipedia.

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