Described by T.S. Eliot as "the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels",
Wilkie Collins's classic
The Moonstone is also an important precursor of the modern mystery and suspense genres. When Rachel Verinder's legacy of a priceless Indian diamond is stolen, all the evidence indicates that it is her beloved, Franklin Blake, who is guilty. Around this central axis of a crime and a thwarted love, Collins constructs an ingenious plot of teasing twists and surprises, and an elaborate multi-voiced narrative that never flags in human interest.
A huge hit when first published and ever since,
The Moonstone keeps the reader guessing until the end, and together with
The Woman in White places Collins among the greatest storytellers in the English language.
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'The Moonstone is the first, the longest and the best of
modern English detective novels.'
T.S. Eliot
'You can’t help feeling that Wilkie Collins was more in tune with
modernity than his friend Charles Dickens.'
Nicholas Lezard - The Guardian
'Probably the very finest detective story ever written.'
Dorothy L. Sayers
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Read an excerpt from
The Moonstone
By the same author: