The Moonstone

When Rachel Verinder is given the Moonstone for her birthday, its theft at her party triggers a series of increasingly h... (more)

When Rachel Verinder is given the Moonstone for her birthday, its theft at her party triggers a series of increasingly horrific events that seem set to ruin everyone and everything she loves. (less)

(more)

(more)

The novel that T. S. Eliot called “the first, the longest, and the best of the modern English detective novels&rdq... (more)

The novel that T. S. Eliot called “the first, the longest, and the best of the modern English detective novels” Guarded by three Brahmin priests, the Moonstone is a religious relic, the centerpiece in a sacred statue of the Hindu god of the moon. It is also a giant yellow diamond of enormous value, and its temptation is irresistible to the corrupt John Herncastle, a colonel in the British Army in India. After murdering the three guardian priests and bringing the diamond back to England with him, Herncastle bequeaths it to his niece, Rachel, knowing full well that danger will follow. True to its enigmatic nature, the Moonstone disappears from Rachel’s room on the night of her eighteenth birthday, igniting a mystery so intricate and thrilling it has set the standard for every crime novel of the past one hundred fifty years. Widely recognized, alongside the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, as establishing many of the most enduring conventions of detective fiction, The Moonstone is Wilkie Collins’s masterwork and one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. (less)

A stolen Hindu diamond, the Moonstone, works its curse after being stolen from it's shrine. Just before Rachel's birthda... (more)

A stolen Hindu diamond, the Moonstone, works its curse after being stolen from it's shrine. Just before Rachel's birthday, a man named Franklin Blake announces to Rachel that the Moonstone has been bequeathed to her by Herncastle. Blake gives her the jewel on her birthday and offers to mount the jewel for her to wear. The jewel goes missing and Rachel believes that Blake stole it. Determined to prove his innocence, Blake leaves in order to pursue the real truth behind the theft. (less)

Rachel Verinder finds herself inheriting a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday as a legacy from her uncle, a... (more)

Rachel Verinder finds herself inheriting a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday as a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond, associated with the Hindu moon god, is of great religious significance as well as being extremely valuable, and there are whispers of a curse placed upon it. Sure enough, the stone is stolen from Rachel's bedroom later that night. and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill-luck ensues. (less)