22 h 13 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A yellow diamond vanishes from a birthday party, and the people closest to it can no longer trust one another.
In Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone, a diamond taken from an Indian shrine reaches a Yorkshire country house as Rachel Verinder's birthday gift. Then it disappears. Rachel retreats into silence, while Franklin Blake, who loves her, struggles to understand why she turns away from him.
Gabriel Betteredge, the loyal house steward, begins an account that passes from witness to witness. Each person knows only part of the story, and each brings firm opinions. As Sergeant Cuff studies small details and quiet behaviour, you must weigh their words against what they actually see.
What you’ll discover
- A house full of suspects Enter a country house where a missing jewel casts doubt on family, guests, and servants.
- Witnesses with blind spots Compare Betteredge's confidence with Miss Clack's certainty, and notice how conviction can cloud judgment.
- A detective who watches Meet Sergeant Cuff, whose love of roses sits beside his patient attention to small details.
- Love strained by silence Follow Franklin and Rachel as suspicion makes their closeness give way to painful distance.
- Truth beyond first impressions Piece together competing accounts while the mystery raises questions about truth, class, and empire.
Who will love it
For readers who love a country-house puzzle with a large cast, unreliable narrators and secrets that divide people in love. Lovers of Victorian fiction will enjoy its mystery, character and comedy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sacred diamond is stolen in India
- Betteredge opens the doors of the Verinder house
- A birthday dinner and a gift that glitters
- The morning the Moonstone is missing
- Sergeant Cuff arrives with roses on his mind
- Silence divides the people who love each other
- What the story says about truth, class and empire
- A mystery told by many hands
- Why the book still shapes detective fiction
Who’s who
- Gabriel BetteredgeThe Verinder family's old house steward, loyal and talkative, who trusts Robinson Crusoe for guidance and believes he understands everyone in the household.
- Rachel VerinderThe proud, independent young heiress who is given the diamond on her eighteenth birthday and then withdraws into a mysterious silence.
- Franklin BlakeA lively, educated cousin who brings the diamond to Yorkshire, falls in love with Rachel, and wants to learn why she turns from him.
- Sergeant CuffA celebrated London detective, calm and watchful, who loves growing roses and solves problems by studying small details and quiet behaviour.
- Rosanna SpearmanA housemaid with a criminal past, given a second chance by Lady Verinder, who keeps secrets and haunts the Shivering Sand.
- Miss Drusilla ClackA poor, strictly religious cousin who hands out tracts, admires Godfrey Ablewhite, and believes herself a model of virtue.
- Godfrey AblewhiteA charming, well-spoken cousin known for his charity work, who is admired by many women and has hopes of marrying Rachel.
- Mr BruffThe Verinder family's careful, dry-minded lawyer, who watches over Rachel's interests and gives a sober account of the affair.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 22 h 13 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La Pietra di Luna
by Wilkie Collins · 1868
A yellow diamond vanishes from a country house on a birthday night, and silence divides the people who love each other.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A sacred diamond is stolen in India
The story opens with a short account of events in 1799, at the siege of Seringapatam in southern India. A great yellow diamond, known as the Moonstone, has been set in the forehead of a Hindu moon god in a shrine at Somnauth. Priests have guarded it for centuries, and a tradition says that three guardians will watch over it through every age. During the fighting, a British soldier named John Herncastle takes it for himself, and he is believed to have killed to get it.
Herncastle brings the diamond home to England. His own family turns away from him, because rumours of how he got it follow him everywhere. He lives alone, in poor health and in disgrace, and he holds on to the stone with a kind of grim stubbornness. He keeps it safe, but he never seems to enjoy it, and he is said to have lived in fear of its former keepers.
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What is The Moonstone about?
It is about a huge yellow diamond, taken from an Indian shrine, that disappears from an English country house on the night of a birthday. Several narrators give their own accounts as the mystery unfolds.
Is The Moonstone the first detective novel?
Many critics call it the first full-length detective novel in English. Earlier detective tales existed, but Collins gave the form its main tools: the country house, the clever policeman, false suspects and a puzzle solved by reconstruction.
Who tells the story in The Moonstone?
The story is told by several people in turn. They include the steward Gabriel Betteredge, Miss Clack, the lawyer Mr Bruff, Franklin Blake, and others, each writing the part they know.
The author
Wilkie Collins
1824–1889 · English mystery novelist
Wilkie Collins was a British novelist and playwright born in London in 1824. He lived mainly in London and died there in 1889. His novels include The Woman in White (1859–1860), The Moonstone (1868), The Law and the Lady (1875), and The Black Robe (1881).
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