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The Moonstone
''The Moonstone: A Romance'' by Wilkie Collins is an 1868 British epistolary novel. It is an early example of the modern detective novel, and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. Its publication was started on 4 January 1868 and was completed on 8 August 1868. The story was serial (literature), serialised in Charles Dickens's magazine ''All the Year Round.'' Collins adapted ''The Moonstone'' for the stage in 1877. Etymology The Moonstone of the title is a diamond (not to be confused with the semi-precious Moonstone (gemstone), moonstone gem). It has gained its name from its association with the Hindu mythology, Hindu god of the Moon, Chandra. It is protected by three hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and waxes and wanes in brilliance along with the light of the Moon. Plot outline Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilkie Collins
William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonstone'' (1868), which established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is also perhaps the earliest clear example of the police procedural genre. Born to the London painter William Collins (painter), William Collins and his wife, Harriet Geddes, he moved with them to Italy when he was twelve, living there and in France for two years, learning both Italian language, Italian and French language, French. He worked initially as a tea merchant. After ''Antonina (Collins novel), Antonina'', his first novel, was published in 1850, Collins met Charles Dickens, who became his friend and mentor. Some of Collins' work appeared in Dickens' journals ''Household Words'' and ''All the Year Round''. They also collaborated on drama and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Company Rule In India
Company rule in India (also known as the Company Raj, from Hindi , ) refers to regions of the Indian subcontinent under the control of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC, founded in 1600, established its first trading post in India in 1612, and gradually expanded its presence in the region over the following decades. During the Seven Years' War, the East India Company began a process of rapid expansion in India, which resulted in most of the subcontinent falling under its rule by 1857, when the Indian Rebellion of 1857 broke out. After the rebellion was suppressed, the Government of India Act 1858 resulted in the EIC's territories in India being administered by the Crown instead. The India Office managed the EIC's former territories, which became known as the British Raj. The range of dates is taken to have commenced either in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal Siraj ud-Daulah was defeated and replaced with Mir Jafar, who had the support of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trust Fund
A trust is a legal relationship in which the owner of property, or any transferable right, gives it to another to manage and use solely for the benefit of a designated person. In the English common law, the party who entrusts the property is known as the "settlor", the party to whom it is entrusted is known as the "trustee", the party for whose benefit the property is entrusted is known as the "beneficiary", and the entrusted property is known as the "corpus" or "trust property". A ''testamentary trust'' is an irrevocable trust established and funded pursuant to the terms of a deceased person's will. An inter vivos trust is a trust created during the settlor's life. The trustee is the legal owner of the assets held in trust on behalf of the trust and its beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are equitable owners of the trust property. Trustees have a fiduciary duty to manage the trust for the benefit of the equitable owners. Trustees must provide regular accountings of trust incom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embezzled
Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking advantage of their position to steal funds or assets, most commonly over a period of time. Versus larceny Embezzlement is not always a form of theft or an act of stealing ''per se'', since those definitions specifically deal with taking something that does not belong to the perpetrators. Instead, embezzlement is, more generically, an act of deceitfully secreting assets by one or more persons that have been ''entrusted'' with such assets. The persons entrusted with such assets may or may not have an ownership stake in such assets. Embezzlement differs from larceny in three ways. First, in embezzlement, an actual ''conversion (law), conversion'' must occur; second, the original taking must not be trespassory, and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laudanum
Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum'') in alcohol (ethanol). Reddish-brown in color and extremely bitter, laudanum contains several opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine. Laudanum was historically used to treat a variety of conditions, but its principal use was as a pain medication and cough suppressant. Until the early 20th century, laudanum was sold without a prescription and was a constituent of many patent medicines. Laudanum has since been recognized as addictive and is strictly regulated and controlled as such throughout most of the world. The United States Controlled Substances Act, for example, lists it on Schedule II, the second strictest category. Laudanum is known as a "whole opium" preparation since it historically contained all the alkaloids found in the opium poppy, which are ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ezra Jennings
Ezra Jennings is a character, and part-narrator, in Wilkie Collins' 1868 novel ''The Moonstone''. Ill-favoured, and of ill repute, he is ultimately responsible for solving the mystery of the Moonstone's theft, and so for reuniting the hero with the heroine, Rachel Verinder. Origins Walking with Dickens in the Lake District, Collins sprained his ankle, and was much struck by the appearance of the doctor's assistant treating him: "a startling object to look at, with his colourless face, his sunken cheeks, his wild black eyes, and his long black hair". He used him as the basis for a series of characters, culminating in Ezra Jennings. Characteristics Where the whiter-than-white Godfrey Ablewhite conceals an evil core, the ugly Jennings hides by contrast a heart of gold. A liminal figure, spanning East and West, male and female - "some men are born with female constitutions - and I am one of them" - Jennings is able to use his creative sensitivity to bring the unconscious theft of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miss Verinder
Miss (pronounced ) is an English-language honorific typically used for a girl, for an unmarried woman (when not using another title such as "Doctor" or "Dame"), or for a married woman retaining her maiden name. Originating in the 17th century, it is a contraction of ''mistress''. The plural of ''Miss'' is ''Misses'' or occasionally ''Mses''. History Origins Like '' Ms'' and ''Mrs'', ''Miss'' has its roots in the title ''Mistress''. ''Miss'' was originally a title given primarily to children rather than adults. During the 1700s, its usage broadened to encompass adult women. The title emerged as a polite way to address women, reflecting changing societal norms and class distinctions. Prior to this, referring to an adult woman as a ''Miss'' might have carried connotations of prostitution. Evolution of meanings and usage The meanings of both ''Miss'' and ''Mrs'' underwent transformations over time. Historically, these titles did not solely indicate marital status. Even after t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godfrey Ablewhite
Godfrey Ablewhite is a character in Wilkie Collins' 1868 novel ''The Moonstone''. A vocal philanthropist, he is one of the rival suitors of Rachel Verinder, to whom he is briefly engaged before his mercenary motives are revealed. Religiosity challenged? Godfrey is explicitly and repeatedly linked to Exeter Hall, site of the most theatrical elements in evangelical preaching: "Exeter Hall again....the performance with the tongue". His unmasking as the villain of the piece has therefore been taken by some as a literal demonstration on the author's part of the hypocrisy inherent in sermonising - the gap between words preached and actual actions. Others, however, point out that Collins has softened his attack on Victorian morality Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of the middle class in 19th-century Britain, the Victorian era. Victorian values emerged in all social classes and reached all facets of Victorian living. The values of the period—which ... in at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had its main public entrance on the Westminster street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became the public entrance, and over time "Scotland Yard" came to be used not only as the common name of the headquarters building, but also as a metonym for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) itself and police officers, especially detectives, who serve in it. ''The New York Times'' wrote in 1964 that, just as Wall Street gave its name to New York's financial district, Scotland Yard became the name for police activity in London. The force moved from Great Scotland Yard in 1890, to a newly completed building on the Victoria Embankment, and the name "New Scotland Yard" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quicksand
Quicksand (also known as sinking sand) is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it creates a liquefied soil that loses strength and cannot support weight. Quicksand can form in standing water or in upward flowing water (as from an artesian spring). In the case of upward-flowing water, forces oppose the force of gravity and suspend the soil particle. The cushioning of water gives quicksand, and other liquefied sediments, a spongy, fluid-like texture. In accordance with Archimedes' principle, objects in liquefied sand sink to the level at which the weight of the object is equal to the weight of the displaced soil/water mix and the submerged object floats due to its buoyancy. Soil liquefaction may occur in partially saturated soil when it is shaken by an earthquake or similar forces. The movement combined with an increase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Seringapatam (1799)
The siege of Seringapatam (5 April – 4 May 1799) was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British, with the allied Nizam Ali Khan, Asaf Jah II, Nizam Ali Khan, 2nd Nizam of Hyderabad and Maratha Empire, Marathas, achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. The leader of the British troops was Major General Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet, David Baird, among the lesser known allies were the British rule in Portuguese India, Portuguese in Goa and Damaon. Tipu Sultan, the ruler after the death of Hyder Ali, his father, was killed in the action. The British restored the Wodeyar dynasty back to power after the victory through a treaty of subsidiary alliance and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III was crowned the King of Mysore. However, they retained indirect control (British paramountcy) of the kingdom's external affairs. Opposing fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koh-i-Noor
The ; ), also spelled Koh-e-Noor, Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing . It is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The diamond originated in the Kollur mine in present day Andhra Pradesh, India. According to the colonial administrator Theo Metcalfe, there is "very meagre and imperfect" evidence of the early history of the Koh-i-Noor before the 1740s. There is no record of its original weight, but the earliest attested weight is 186 old carats (191 metric carats or 38.2 g). The first verifiable record of the diamond comes from a history by Muhammad Kazim Marvi of the 1740s invasion of Northern India by Afsharid Iran under Nader Shah. Marvi notes the Koh-i-Noor as one of many stones on the Mughal Peacock Throne that Nader looted from Delhi. The diamond then changed hands between various empires in south and west Asia, until being given to Queen Victoria after the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the Bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
