Rachel wears the stone to her birthday party, but that night it disappears from her room.
Angry at his family, who shun him, he leaves it in his will as a birthday gift to his niece Rachel, thus exposing her to attack by the stone's hereditary guardians, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it.Ĭolonel Herncastle, an unpleasant former soldier, brings the Moonstone back with him from India where he acquired it by theft and murder during the Siege of Seringapatam. Later that night the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill luck ensues. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party at which the guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond or the Koh-i-Noor diamond). The diamond is of great religious significance and extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is protected by three hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and waxes and wanes in brilliance along with the light of the Moon. It has gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the Moon, Chandra. The Moonstone of the title is a diamond (not to be confused with the semi-precious moonstone gem).
Collins adapted The Moonstone for the stage in 1877. The story was serialised in Charles Dickens’s magazine All the Year Round.
It is an early example of the modern detective novel, and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel.
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