The Moonstone (Penguin Classics)

T. S. Eliot famously described 'The Moonstone' as 'the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels', but, as Sandra Kemp discusses in her Introduction, it offers many other facets, which reveal Collins's sensibilities as untypical of his era. His women and servants - like the luckless Rosanna - are treated as individuals capable of anger and passion. He unmasks a restrictive society in his depiction of sexual and imperial domination. Finally through his manipulation of the narrative itself, facts, identities and memory become question marks. With constantly shifting perspectives, the marvellously intricate mystery of the Moonstone unfolds.