The Moonstone (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Collins, Wilkie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141191929 ISBN 13: 9780141191928

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2010

Synopsis

A beautiful diamond - with a terrible curse

When Rachel Verinder is given the Moonstone - a large Indian diamond - on her eighteenth birthday, she is delighted to show it off at her celebrations. But that very night, the jewel is stolen from her bedroom. As suspicion falls on each member of the party, the curse of the diamond strikes - and ill-luck threatens to destroy them all.Will the noted detective Sergeant Cuff be able to solve the mystery? Or will the strange case of hypnotism, opium and Indian jugglers defeat even his brilliant mind?

About this title

Review:

"Perfect for long, cold, winter evenings" (The Times)

"A whodunit about a lost jewel with several different narrators 'the first English detective story' is so ingenious, so melodramatically rational, so druggy and glittery and cleverly elusive, that it triumphs over all its impersonators" (Observer)

"A great, bold, theatrical mystery story which never falters, written with huge confidence and style" (Joanna Trollope)

"Wilkie Collins, along with Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens is generally acknowledged to be the great-great-grandfather of the modern mystery, but it's hard to think of many modern mysteries as skillfully shaped and psychologically keen as this one. The story flirts with the conventions of Victorian melodrama, but the characters that people it are truly vivid" (Elizabeth Kostova)

"No wonder 21st-century novelists are influenced by the great Victorian serial writers with their rip-roaring plots. A twisting detective thriller" (Joanna Briscoe Independent)

From the Publisher:

Contains an 8-page plate section with long-unavailable pictures and drawings relating to Wilkie Collins and The Moonstone. Thoroughly edited and extensively annotated. Includes a 10,000-word section on Wilkie Collins's life and works, with a longer chapter on The Moonstone, anecdotes, critical perspectives, adaptations and spin-offs. Lavishly produced on natural, high-quality paper, and affordably priced.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0141191929
• ISBN 13: 9780141191928
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 640