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The Moonstone was serialized from January 4, 1868 to August 8, 1868 in both the American Harper’s Magazine and the British All the Year Round, a weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens. The Moonstone is described by TS Eliot as “the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels,�� the epistolary narrative follows the disappearance and eventual recovery of a priceless stone given to Rachel Verinder on the evening of her eighteenth birthday. In addition to a detective story, there is the blend of drama throughout the tale that will hold one’s attention.

”The adventures of the Yellow Diamond begin with the eleventh century of the Christian era.��

�� “The Moonstone will have its vengeance yet on you and yours!�� He spoke those words, and fell dead on the floor.

“Lord bless us! It was a Diamond! As large, or nearly, as a plover’s egg! The light that streamed from it was like the light of the harvest moon. When you looked down into the stone, you looked into a yellow deep that drew your eyes into it so that they saw nothing else. It seemed unfathomable; this jewel, that you could hold between your finger and thumb, seemed unfathomable as the heavens themselves. We set it in the sun, and then shut the light out of the room, and it shown awfully out of the depths of its own brightness, with a moony gleam, in the dark.��

Rachel Verinder, a young Englishwoman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday as a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. Colonel John Herncastle is a professional soldier and the brother of Lady Verinder, a wealthy widow and the mother of the fiery and independent daughter, Rachel. Colonel Herncastle is suspected of foul deeds during the Seige of Seringapatum in India where he gained the Moonstone by murder and theft. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond. Rachel wears the Moonstone to her birthday celebration where that night the diamond disappears. Despite the efforts of renowned Scotland Yard detective, Sergeant Cuff, the house party ends with the mystery unsolved. Franklin Blake, Rachel’s cousin and suitor is chagrined to learn that she suspects him of the theft. Gabriel Betteredge is a venerable man and the Verinders�� head servant as well as his daughter Penelope, a servant in the household.

“You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express not opinion that such a book as Robinson Crusoe never was written, and never will be written again.I have tried that book for years—generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco—and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. When my spirits are bad—Robinson Crusoe. When I want advice—Robinson Crusoe. In past times, when I have had a drop too much—Robinson Crusoe.��

“I have worn out six stout Robinson Crusoe with hard work in my service. On my lady’s last birthday, she gave me a seventh. I took a drop too much on the strength of it; and Robinson Crusoe put me right again. Price four schillings and sixpence, bound in blue, with a picture into the bargain.��

While The Moonstone remains one of Wilkie Collins most acclaimed works, my heart is still with The Woman in White.