The Moonstone / Wilkie Collins

Title: The Moonstone 

Author: Wilkie Collins

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Mystery

The Moonstone and The Woman in White are widely considered to be Collins's best novels. The Moonstone of the title is a diamond. 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. The moonstone considered to be the first detective novel, and it established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel. Very interesting read. 

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins

Title: The Woman in White 

Author: Wilkie Collins

Subjects: Classic; Fiction; Psychological 

The Observer listed The Woman in White number 23 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time". The book is an early example of one of the first and finest detective, mystery and sensation novel. There are multiple narrators of the story. It is about unequal position of married women in law at the time. 

The Dream Woman: A Mystery in Four Narratives / Wilkie Collins

The First Narrative

Introductory Statement of the Facts by Percy Fairbank

I

"Hullo, there! Hostler! Hullo-o-o!"

"My dear! why don't you look for the bell?"

"I have looked--there is no bell."

"And nobody in the yard. How very extraordinary! Call again, dear."

"Hostler! Hullo, there! Hostler-r-r!"

A Fair Penitent / Wilkie Collins

Charles Pineau Duclos was a French writer of biographies and novels, who lived and worked during the first half of the eighteenth century. He prospered sufficiently well, as a literary man, to be made secretary to the French Academy, and to be allowed to succeed Voltaire in the office of historiographer of France. He has left behind him, in his own country, the reputation of a lively writer of the second class, who addressed the public of his day with fair success, and who, since his death, has not troubled posterity to take any particular notice of him.

The Traveller's Story of a Terribly Strange Bed / Wilkie Collins

PROLOGUE TO THE FIRST STORY

Before I begin, by the aid of my wife's patient attention and ready pen, to relate any of the stories which I have heard at various times from persons whose likenesses I have been employed to take, it will not be amiss if I try to secure the reader's interest in the following pages by briefly explaining how I became possessed of the narrative matter which they contain.

Mr. Lismore and the Widow / Wilkie Collins

Late in the autumn, not many years since, a public meeting was held at the Mansion House, London, under the direction of the Lord Mayor.

The list of gentlemen invited to address the audience had been chosen with two objects in view. Speakers of celebrity, who would rouse public enthusiasm, were supported by speakers connected with commerce, who would be practically useful in explaining the purpose for which the meeting was convened. Money wisely spent in advertising had produced the customary result: every seat was occupied before the proceedings began.