THE MOONSTONE - WILKIE COLLINS- USED CLASSIC

• Title: The Moonstone

• Author: Wilkie Collins

• Series: Great Illustrated Classics

• Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company, New York (originally added to this series in 1955)

• Editorial / Features: Biographical & historical introduction and descriptive captions by critic Basil Davenport; includes period photographic portraits and illustrations of the author and contemporary Victorian settings.

• Binding: Crimson textured buckram cloth with decorative gilt-ruled faux raised bands, gilt spine titles, and a central darkened title block.

Interesting Facts

• The "First Modern Detective Novel": Originally serialized in Charles Dickens’s journal All the Year Round in 1868, The Moonstone is widely credited by T. S. Eliot and Dorothy L. Sayers as the first, longest, and finest true modern detective novel in the English language. It established nearly every foundational trope of the mystery genre: a country house crime, a bungling local policeman, a brilliant outside investigator (Sergeant Cuff), red herrings, reconstruction of the crime scene, and a dramatic final twist.

• Close Ties to Dickens: Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens were intimate lifelong friends, creative rivals, and frequent collaborators. When Collins wrote The Moonstone, Dickens was mesmerized by its runaway commercial success, which directly inspired Dickens to write his own whodunit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

• The Dodd, Mead "Great Illustrated Classics" Legacy: Before the name was repurposed in the 1990s for condensed children's paperbacks, the original Dodd, Mead Great Illustrated Classics series (launched in the 1940s) was celebrated for using complete, unabridged texts paired with archival period prints, historical photographs, and serious scholarly introductions for high school and university libraries.

• Local School Provenance: The title page bears the ink stamp of the Zanesville Senior High School Library (marked "DISCARD"), providing a neat bit of nearby Southeastern/Central Ohio local provenance just down I-70 from Newark.