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Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. The diamond is of great religious significance and extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. At her eighteenth birthday party, she wears the Moonstone, and later that night the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom. A period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings, and ill luck ensues. The Moonstone is an early example of the modern detective novel and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. The Moonstone of the title is a diamond (not to be confused with the semi-precious moonstone gem). It gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the Moon, Chandra. It is protected by three hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and waxes and wanes in brilliance along with the light of the Moon. This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian-inspired dust jacket.

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9781774769232

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"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). 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. In May of 1851 Collins acted with Dickens in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's play Not So Bad As We Seem. Among the audience were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Collins's story ""A Terribly Strange Bed,"" his first contribution to Household Words, appeared in April, 1852. In May 1852 he went on tour with Dickens's company of amateur actors, again performing Not So Bad As We Seem, but with a more substantial role. 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."

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