Product Description

This novel includes illustrations by S.L. Fildes and Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). Dickens' final novel, left unfinished at his death in 1870, is a mystery story much influenced by the 'Sensation Novel' as written by his friend Wilkie Collins. The action takes place in an ancient cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in Victorian London. Drugs, disappearances, sexual obsession, disguise and a possible murder are among the themes and motifs. A sombre and menacing atmosphere, a fascinating range of characters and Dickens' usual command of language combine to make this an exciting and tantalising story. Also included in this volume are a number of unjustly neglected stories and sketches, with subjects as different as murder, guilt and childhood romance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9962 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

About the Author
Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has published many books and articles on Dickens.

Customer Reviews

Dickens's unfinished novel continues to intrigue.
Set in Cloisterham, a cathedral town, Dickens's final novel, unfinished, introduces two elements unusual for Dickens--opium-eating and the church. In the opening scene, John Jasper, music teacher and soloist in the cathedral choir, awakens from an opium trance in a flat with two other semi-conscious men and their supplier, an old woman named Puffer, and then hurries off to daily vespers.

Jasper, aged twenty-six, is the uncle and guardian of Edwin Drood, only a few years younger. Drood has been the fiancé of Rosa Bud for most of his life, an arrangement made by his and Rosa's deceased fathers to honor their friendship, and the wedding is expected within the year. Jasper, Rosa's music teacher, is secretly in love with her, though she finds him repellent.

When two orphans, Helena and Neville Landless, arrive in Cloisterham, Helena and Rosa become friends, and Neville finds himself strongly attracted to the lovely Rosa. Ultimately, the hot-tempered Neville and Drood have a terrible argument in which Neville threatens Drood before leaving town on a walking trip. Drood vanishes the same day. Apprehended on his trip, Neville is questioned about Drood's disappearance, and Jasper accuses him of murder.

Tightly organized to this point, the novel shows Jasper himself to be a prime suspect, someone who could have engineered the evidence against Neville, but Dickens unexpectedly introduces some new characters at this point--the mysterious Dick Datchery and Tartar, an old friend of Rev. Mr. Crisparkle, minor canon at the cathedral. Puffer, the opium woman, is reintroduced and appears set to play a greater role, since she solicits information from the semi-conscious Jasper and secretly follows him. This is the halfway point in the projected novel, and Dickens clearly planned to develop these new (or reintroduced) characters to deepen the mystery.

More modern in many ways than his previous novels, the characters here are not simple stereotypes--some are good people who have real flaws and make mistakes. Dickens's tying of Jasper to the church choir, where he was a soloist, suggests some examination of the theme of hypocrisy, in which the good Mr. Crisparkle would be Jasper's antithesis. The opium scenes, vividly drawn, carry the unusual suggestion that opium leads to a kind of intoxication similar to that of alcohol, and Dicken does not use these scenes to offer dire warnings about the drug--at least at this point. Especially intriguing because it is unfinished, this novel continues to fascinate mystery lovers and literary scholars more than a century after its first publication. Mary Whipple

An unfinished but an undoubtedly great novel!
Can you imagine Charles Dickens in the part of the detective-story writer? No? Read this book! It is splendid and reveals new sides of the author talent. I consider Dickens to be one of the world's greatest writers and I enjoy reading all his works. Dickens always uses mysterious and strange situations in his novels. We wonder who is the secret benefactor of Pip in Great Expectations; there are a number of detective elements in Our Mutual Friend, etc. Nevertheless The Mystery of Edwin Drood is peculiar. There are not so many characters and only one entangled line of story. Dickens creates a wonderful portrait of the murderer - obsessed with one dark passion to an innocent girl, jealous, crazed from opium, artful and inventive choirmaster John Jasper. Jasper commits an almost "ideal" murder. As the novel is unfinished we are free to imagine all the rest. By which means the murderer can be captured, who is the mysterious stranger Dick Datchary, what is the role of the old woman from the opium den, what destiny expects all the heroes? Dickens is true to himself in creating images of good, noble, strong and charming women and honest, worthy men. I can't do otherwise but admire positive characters of Dickens novels. Though the scenery is rather dark and unjoyful, we find some funny parts full of the author's brilliant humor. In a word, the book is an excellent reading for everyone who appreciates classical English literature.

what might have been.
It's impossible to forget when reading this that it is only half the size of what it should have been. Dickens died almost exactly halfway through finishing it, and it is easy to see that if he had lived it would have ranked as one of his truly great novels. There is also no denying that Dickens comes across as somewhat jaundiced with human nature in the closing months of his life. He has very little to say that is positive about the cathedral city of Cloisterham, and his anger at the hypocrisy and double-standards of the life there practically leaps off the page at you. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his creation of John Jasper, one of his darkest characters. Jasper is the leading memeber of the Cloisterham choir, but in his spare time he is an opium-addict who haunts the sleaziest dens in the pursuit of his fix. Not only that but he terrifies young Rosa Budd with his designs on her, and plots to do away with his nephew, the Edwin Drood of the title, in the most dastardly and cunning way .... or does he? The fact that "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" is unfinished leaves that question hanging resolutely in mid-air. We come away from the book none the wiser not only as to whether Edwin has been murdered by his wicked uncle, but even whether he really is alive or dead. It is the mystery of literature that has tantalised readers ever since Dickens wrote it in 1870. There are many reasons to bemoan the fact that the book was never finished, not only the obvious chief one that Dickens died, but that the book clearly had the makings of a first-rate murder mystery. Take for example the scene where Edwin goes to get his watch fixed at the jewellers, this was clearly meant to be important evidence at a later date, as is Jasper so clearly making a big issue out of his fake diary entries, but of course, it was never to be. Plus also we are introduced to a whole host of memorable characters (Billickins the landlady was a role made for Irene Handl!) who never got the chance to breathe as much as they should. None of this should stop you enjoying the book. Raymond Chandler is quoted in the Introduction as saying that the measure of a good mystery is that you want to read it even knowing that the end is missing. You really can't put it any better than that.