In the matter of Jezebel's Daughter, my recollections begin with the deaths of two foreign gentlemen, in two different countries, on the same day of the same year. They were both men of some importance in their way, and both strangers to each other. Mr. Ephraim Wagner, merchant (formerly of Frankfort-on-the-Main), died in London on the third day of September, 1828. Doctor Fontaine-famous in his time for discoveries in experimental chemistry-died at Wurzburg on the third day of September, 1828. Both the merchant and the doctor left widows. The merchant's widow (an Englishwoman) was childless....

Rachel opened the box and lifted out the diamond. She held it up in a ray of sunlight that poured through the window, and cried out in amazement. When Rachel Verinder inherits the Moonstone from her uncle on her eighteenth birthday, the wonderful jewel is intended to make her rich and happy. So why is her mother so worried about this valuable gift? Rachel seems very fond of her cousin, Franklin Blake. When trouble strikes, why does she refuse his help? What has he done to offend her? Can Sergeant Cuff, the famous detective, solve the dangerous mystery of the Moonstone before it is too late?...

The four volumes of The Public Face of Wilkie Collins bring into one continuous chronological sequence nearly 3,000 letters by Wilkie Collins, one of the most successful Victorian writers. They range from the short letter to his mother written in 1831 when Collins was just 7 years old to the last note to his doctor scrawled almost illegibly two days before his death at 65 in 1889. His letters are an essential research tool for anyone studying Victorian fiction - whether from the point of view of its key role in literary development or its central place in publishing history, Victorian theatre...