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English Edition

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The Moonstone

English BooksWhale Edition by Wilkie Collins

A pioneering detective novel built around theft, suspicion, testimony, and hidden motive.

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The Moonstone

The Moonstone follows the mystery of a stolen diamond through shifting narrators, family secrets, and investigative puzzles. Collins’s novel is often treated as a foundational work of English detective fiction.

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This edition is based on a public domain text and has been prepared for digital reading by BooksWhale.

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Why this edition can be shared

Wilkie Collins died in 1889, and The Moonstone was first published in 1868; these dates support the public-domain basis for this English edition.

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The Moonstone

Wilkie Collins

Preview chapterPROLOGUEPreview

THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799):

(Extracted from a Family Paper.)

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I address these lines—written in India—to my relatives in England.

My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right hand of friendship to my cousin, John Herncastle. The reserve which I have hitherto maintained in this matter has been misinterpreted by members of my family whose good opinion I cannot consent to forfeit. I request them to suspend their decision until they have read my narrative. And I declare, on my word of honour, that what I am now about to write is, strictly and literally, the truth.

The private difference between my cousin and me took its rise in a great public event in which we were both concerned—the storming of Seringapatam, under General Baird, on the 4th of May, 1799.

In order that the circumstances may be clearly understood, I must revert for a moment to the period before the assault, and to the stories current in our camp of the treasure in jewels and gold stored up in the Palace of Seringapatam.

Table of contents

Inside this edition

  1. 01Full text
  2. 02PROLOGUE
  3. 03I
  4. 04II
  5. 05III
  6. 06IV
  7. 07THE STORY
  8. 08FIRST PERIOD
  9. 09CHAPTER I
  10. 10CHAPTER II
  11. 11CHAPTER III
  12. 12CHAPTER IV
  13. 13CHAPTER V
  14. 14CHAPTER VI
  15. 15CHAPTER VII
  16. 16CHAPTER VIII
  17. 17CHAPTER IX
  18. 18CHAPTER X
  19. 19CHAPTER XI
  20. 20CHAPTER XII
  21. 21CHAPTER XIII
  22. 22CHAPTER XIV
  23. 23CHAPTER XV
  24. 24CHAPTER XVI
  25. 25CHAPTER XVII
  26. 26CHAPTER XVIII
  27. 27CHAPTER XIX
  28. 28CHAPTER XX
  29. 29CHAPTER XXI
  30. 30CHAPTER XXII
  31. 31CHAPTER XXIII
  32. 32CHAPTER I
  33. 33CHAPTER II
  34. 34CHAPTER III
  35. 35CHAPTER IV
  36. 36CHAPTER V
  37. 37CHAPTER VI
  38. 38CHAPTER VII
  39. 39CHAPTER VIII
  40. 40CHAPTER I
  41. 41CHAPTER II
  42. 42CHAPTER III
  43. 43CHAPTER I
  44. 44CHAPTER II
  45. 45CHAPTER III
  46. 46CHAPTER IV
  47. 47CHAPTER V
  48. 48CHAPTER VI
  49. 49CHAPTER VII
  50. 50CHAPTER VIII
  51. 51CHAPTER IX
  52. 52CHAPTER X
  53. 53CHAPTER I
  54. 54I
  55. 55II
  56. 56III
  57. 57IV
  58. 58V
  59. 59I
  60. 60II
  61. 61III

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