The Moonstone

One of the earliest examples of the detective novel, this taut and intricate mystery remains a classic work of Victorian literature

The Moonstone, a yellow diamond looted from an Indian temple and believed to bring bad luck to its owner, is bequeathed to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night the priceless stone is stolen again and when Sergeant Cuff is brought in to investigate the crime, he soon realizes that no one in Rachel's household is above suspicion. Hailed by T. S. Eliot as "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels," The Moonstone is a marvellously engrossing tale in which facts and memory can prove treacherous and not everyone is as they first appear.

Sandra Kemp's introduction examines The Moonstone as a work of Victorian sensation fiction and an early example of the detective genre, and discusses the technique of multiple narrators, the role of opium, and Collins's sources and autobiographical references.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author: Wilkie Collins
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 06/01/1999
Pages: 528
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 7.78h x 5.14w x 0.95d
ISBN: 9780140434088

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.6
Point Value: 34
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 11597 / Moonstone


Review Citation(s):
New Yorker (The) 07/25/2011 pg. 75

About the Author
Wilkie (William) Collins (1824-89) was a hugely successful and popular crime, mystery and suspense writer. He wrote the first full-length detective novels in English and set a mould for the genre as shown in The Moonstone and "The Woman in White."

Sandra Kemp has edited Virginia Woolf's short stories and Rudyard Kipling's Debits and Credits for Penguin Classics.