Folio Archives 298: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 1951
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1wcarter
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 1951
Written in 1868, Moonstone has been described as the first great detective novel. It a very sophisticated and fascinating story and actually reads as though it was written a century later. The moonstone is a huge diamond that is stolen from the forehead of a sacred Indian statue in 1799, and then fifty years later disappears again after being gifted to a young English woman on her 18th. birthday. The story revolves around the unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill luck that the diamond’s loss causes.
The story is told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters. The book is quite long and complex, but never-the-less a fast paced and entertaining book to read and one I would whole-heartedly recommend.
This early Folio Society edition was issued with a dark green pictorial dust-jacket and no slipcase. It had 9 pages of bound-in colour lithographs by Edwin La Dell and was bound in blue-grey cloth with a repeat pattern in blind and a gold spine title label. The page tops are stained brown, but the endpapers are plain white (normal for all early editions). There is a one page forward by “J.A.H”. The book has 417 pages and measures 22.8x15.2cm.
Moonstone was also published by the FS in 1992 as part of a four volume set of Collins works. This edition was introduced by P.D. James, and had twelve leaves of illustrations by Alexy Pendle.
1992 Edition
1951 Edition
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
Written in 1868, Moonstone has been described as the first great detective novel. It a very sophisticated and fascinating story and actually reads as though it was written a century later. The moonstone is a huge diamond that is stolen from the forehead of a sacred Indian statue in 1799, and then fifty years later disappears again after being gifted to a young English woman on her 18th. birthday. The story revolves around the unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill luck that the diamond’s loss causes.
The story is told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters. The book is quite long and complex, but never-the-less a fast paced and entertaining book to read and one I would whole-heartedly recommend.
This early Folio Society edition was issued with a dark green pictorial dust-jacket and no slipcase. It had 9 pages of bound-in colour lithographs by Edwin La Dell and was bound in blue-grey cloth with a repeat pattern in blind and a gold spine title label. The page tops are stained brown, but the endpapers are plain white (normal for all early editions). There is a one page forward by “J.A.H”. The book has 417 pages and measures 22.8x15.2cm.
Moonstone was also published by the FS in 1992 as part of a four volume set of Collins works. This edition was introduced by P.D. James, and had twelve leaves of illustrations by Alexy Pendle.
1992 Edition
1951 Edition
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
3mr.philistine
Some photos and an excerpt from Folio 21 here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/194055#5232764 from 'The Early Years' series.
