Books

First edition. Three volumes. 8vo. Finely bound by Bayntun in full purple polished calf with double gilt rules to the boards, spine with raised bands, red leather title labels, gilt lettering and decorative gilt vignettes. Gilt dentelles with floral design. All page edges gilt. A handsome set. First editions of The Moonstone, often considered to be the godfather of the classic English detective story, are rare. T.S. Eliot, claiming that the genre of Detective Fiction was invented by Collins, declared this to be "the first, the longest and the best of modern English detective novels". Dorothy L Sayers echoed Eliot pronouncing it "probably the finest detective story ever written".