Wilkie Collins was born in London in 1824 and his first novel — a historical romance called Antonina — was published when he was 26. Shortly after this he met Charles Dickens, and they formed a close friendship that lasted for ten years and influenced both men's writing. Collins went on publishing 25 novels as well as many short stories, plays and works of nonfiction. However, he is most wellknown for the two mysteries (悬疑故事) The Woman in White and The Moonstone.
Collins published both mysteries as serials in All the Year Round. When it appeared in the magazine in 1860, The Woman in White was so popular that it became the subject of a song and a play. It even influenced fashion, and many women started to dress in white. Eight years later The Moonstone was published and earned Collins the title "the father of the modern English detective (侦探) novel". T. S. Elliot, another famous writer, said that The Moonstone was the "first and greatest of English detective novels", and it is still admired by modern crime writers today.
An author of many mysteries, Dorothy L. Sayers considered The Moonstone to be "probably the finest detective story ever written", and many people agree with her. There are several reasons why they think so. One is that Collins uses different characters to tell each section of the story. The characters have very different personalities and voices, which are interesting and often amusing. There are also several features of the plot which start trends (趋向) in mystery writing. For example, many detective stories are set in a country house, where the theft must have been committed by one of the people in the house. A number of modern films have also used the idea of a cursed (被诅咒的) jewel stolen from a religious statue. And of course, in The Moonstone and most other good mystery novels, the person who at first seems the least likely to be the criminal turns out to be guilty.
