The Moonstone (1868) is a novel by Wilkie Collins about the theft of a sacred Indian diamond from a Yorkshire country house. Told by several narrators, with a detective, Sergeant Cuff, it is often considered the first full-length detective novel in English.
The story
The Moonstone, a yellow diamond taken from a Hindu shrine during the storming of Seringapatam in 1799, is left to Rachel Verinder for her eighteenth birthday. That very night it disappears from her room.
Three mysterious Indian men have been seen near the house, a housemaid behaves strangely, and Rachel refuses to speak to her cousin Franklin Blake, who loves her. Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard investigates, but the solution comes only a year later.
Many narrators
The story is told by a series of witnesses: the old house steward Gabriel Betteredge, who consults Robinson Crusoe like a Bible, the pious Miss Clack, the lawyer Mr Bruff, Franklin Blake, and others, each with a distinct voice.
This method, already used in The Woman in White, lets the reader piece together the truth like a detective.
Writing under opium
Collins wrote much of the novel while suffering from severe gout and grief at his mother's death, taking large doses of laudanum. He said he could not remember writing parts of it.
Serialised in Dickens's All the Year Round in 1868, it was a great success. T. S. Eliot later called it the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels.
Anecdotes
A real detective
Sergeant Cuff was partly modelled on Inspector Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard, famous for the Road Hill House murder case of 1860.
Betteredge's Bible
The steward Gabriel Betteredge opens Robinson Crusoe at random whenever he needs advice, and always finds an answer in it.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Sergeant Cuff?
The Scotland Yard detective who investigates the theft, a thin, grey man who loves roses.
What is the Moonstone?
A great yellow diamond stolen from an Indian shrine, said to bring misfortune to whoever holds it.
Who narrates The Moonstone?
Several characters in turn, beginning with the house steward Gabriel Betteredge.