FIRST EDITION OF THE MOONSTONE, CALLED "THE FIRST, THE LONGEST, AND THE BEST OF DETECTIVE NOVELS" BY T.S. ELIOT

COLLINS, Wilkie. The Moonstone. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1868. Three volumes. Octavo, late 19th-century full blue calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, red morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $15,000.

First edition of this acclaimed detective novel, widely regarded as one of the best ever written, handsomely bound by Riviere and Son.

"A good mystery with unforgettable characters and fine melodrama" (Barzun & Taylor 872). "The Moonstone has remained second only to The Woman in White in popularity among Collins's novels. Although not the first detective story, it is a classic of the genre, with many features repeatedly borrowed by later writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Collins's accomplishment was remarkable, for the novel was written while he was under great stress. His mother, ill from the beginning of 1868, died in March. Collins, suffering the worst attack of illness he had ever had to endure, called her death the bitterest affliction of his life. He was too ill to attend her funeral, and for the first time dictated a short section of his novel to Harriet Graves, later to become his regular amanuensis. His suffering, and the effects of the laudanum which relieved it, are reflected in the experiences of the character Ezra Jennings in The Moonstone" (DNB). Collins had "one of the longest and most distinctive literary careers of the nineteenth century… In the course of nearly half a century's writing [he] tried many new ways of reaching and expanding his audience. Dickensian Christmas books, short stories, three-decker novels, magazine and newspaper serializations flowed from his pen with a productivity unchecked" (Bowen 4-5). With all half titles. Volume III with bracket broken after "translation" on title page (Parrish & Miller, 72). Parrish & Miller, 72-73.

Small marginal closed tear to page 261 of Volume I, scattered foxing and soiling to interiors, light rubbing to spines. A near-fine copy.