Wilkie Collins 'The Moonstone'

Wilkie Collins 'The Moonstone'. First Published 1868. First Narrative Ch I: Mr Godfrey seized and gagged in Northumberland Street by the three Indians. (Story of a huge yellow diamond (the moonstone)that was once stolen from the forehead of a statue of an Indian god. Rachel Verrinder receives the stone as a gift and does not realise that it has been passed to her in a sinister form of revenge by John Herncastle who acquired the moonstone by means of murder and theft. The jewel has a curse on it and brings bad luck. It disappears on the very night it is given to Rachel. The story covers the search for the culprit by Sergeant Cuff, a famous London detective. ) WC: English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories: 8 January 1824-23 September 1889. The Moonstone, New York, Doubleday, 1946 opp. P. 220