"The Moonstone" (1868) is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, generally considered the first detective novel in the English language.
"The Moonstone" was originally serialized in Charles Dickens' magazine "All the Year Round". "The Moonstone" and "The Woman in White" are considered Wilkie Collins' best novels. Besides creating many of the ground rules for the detective novel, "The Moonstone" also reflected Collins' enlightened social views in his treatment of the Indians and the servants in the novel. Collins adapted "The Moonstone" for the stage in 1877, but the production ran only two months.