The Moonstone

William Wilkie Collins 1824-1889 ''THE Moonstone: A romance''
Legend tells us that a large, yellow diamond was removed from the forehead of the deity of the most honored of all deity's, the moon-god, and taken to a more well protected 'home,' where, day and night, generation after generation, it was watched over by three guardian priests and their descendants. After many, many generations of worship by the Indians, in fact, ''... until the first years of the 18th Christian century saw the reign of Aurungzebe, Emperor of the Moguls. At his command, havoc and rapine were let loose, ...'' The jewel was taken from them. '' ... The shrine of the four handed god was polluted .... the images of deity were broken in pieces; and the Moonstone was seized by an officer of rank in the army of Aurungzebe. Powerless to recover their lost treasure by open force, the three guardian priests followed and watched it in disguise.'' .... ''Time rolled on from the first to the last years of the 18th Christian century.'' Legend goes on to tell us that thereafter, any person to have ownership of this precious yellow Moonstone diamond, would soon meet with a violent, untimely death.
** ... and so continues the story of ''The [CURSED!] Moonstone,'' by William Wilkie Collins told by, and in the words of those who were either in possession of, knew someone who was in possession of, or had been hired to discover who had it and where it now was. This is my all-time favorite mystery novel! Each story teller involves the reader with their (teller's) thought process, and, as long and in depth as this story is, I could not put it down. I also soon discovered that the only way I could complete the book, was to concentrate on every single word written, to decipher what each person was attempting to relate to the reader of their (the relaters) section!! ENJOY this fabulous ''.. first British mystery'' novel.
** (LibraryThing: story-line of ''The Moonstone.'') https://www.librarything.com/work/30888


** (goodreads, about author) A close friend of Charles Dickens from their meeting in March 1851 until Dickens' death in June 1870, William Wilkie Collins was one of the best known, best loved, and, for a time, best paid of Victorian fiction writers. But after his death, his reputation declined as Dickens' bloomed.

Now, Collins is being given more critical and popular attention than he has received for 50 years. Most of his books are in print, and all are now in e-text. He is studied widely; new film, television, and radio versions of some of his books have been made; and all of his letters have been published. However, there is still much to be discovered about this superstar of Victorian fiction. ** MORE at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4012.Wilkie_Collins