THE MOONSTONE

Παρουσίαση

Intrigue, investigations, thievery, drugs and murder all make an appearance in Collins's classic who-done-it, The Moonstone. Published in serial form in 1868, it was inspired in part by a spectacular murder case widely reported in the early 1860s.
Collins's story revolves around a diamond stolen from a Hindu holy place. On her eighteenth birthday, Rachel Verinder receives the diamond, but by the following morning the stone has been stolen again. As the story unravels through multiple eyewitness accounts, the elderly Sergeant Cuff - with a face "sharp as a hatchet" - looks for the culprit.
One of Collins's best-loved novels, with an exciting plot moved along by deftly-drawn characters and elegant pacing, The Moonstone was also turned into a play by Collins; the play appears as an appendix to this edition. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

Acknowledgments
Introduction
William Wilkie Collins: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Moonstone
Appendix A: Early Reviews of The Moonstone
Geraldine Jewsbury, The Athenaeum
The Spectator
Nation
The Times
Harper's New Monthly Magazine
Lippincott's Magazine
Appendix B: Excerpts from Newspaper Accounts of the Constance
Kent/Road-house Murder Case of 1860
The Times (July 3, 1860 to October 2, 1865)
The Sommerset and Wilts Journal (July 21, 1860)
Appendix C: Excerpts from The Times Accounts of the Major Murray/Northumberland Street Case of 1861
Appendix D: Collins on Indians
"A Sermon for Sepoys." Household Words
Appendix E: Letters by Collins Concerning The Moonstone (the Novel and the Play)
Appendix F: The Moonstone (the Play)
Appendix G: Reviews of the Olympic Theatre Performance of Collins's The Moonstone
The Times
The Illustrated London News
The Athenaeum
The Spirit of the Times, New York
Select Bibliography