标题: 《The Moonstone 》作者：- Wilkie Collins【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2014-3-17 08:16 标题: 《The Moonstone 》作者：- Wilkie Collins【EPUB】 The Moonstone Collins, Wilkie Published: 1868 Type(s): Novels, Crime/Mystery Source: http://www.gutenberg.org 1 About Collins: William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and writer of short stories. He was hugely popular in his time, and wrote 27 novels, more than 50 short stories, at least 15 plays, and over 100 pieces of non-fiction work. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale and No Name. Source: Wikipedia 2 PROLOGUE: THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799) Extracted from a Family Paper I address these lines—written in India—to my relatives in England. My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right hand of friendship to my cousin, John Herncastle. The reserve which I have hitherto maintained in this matter has been misinterpreted by members of my family whose good opinion I cannot consent to for- feit. I request them to suspend their decision until they have read my narrative. And I declare, on my word of honour, that what I am now about to write is, strictly and literally, the truth. The private difference between my cousin and me took its rise in a great public event in which we were both concerned—the storming of Seringapatam, under General Baird, on the 4th of May, 1799. In order that the circumstances may be clearly understood, I must re- vert for a moment to the period before the assault, and to the stories cur- rent in our camp of the treasure in jewels and gold stored up in the Palace of Seringapatam. II One of the wildest of these stories related to a Yellow Diamond—a famous gem in the native annals of India. The earliest known traditions describe the stone as having been set in the forehead of the four-handed Indian god