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The Mystery of Edwin Drood
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death and thus what happened to the titular character remains a real mystery. The novel is named after Edwin Drood but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fianc้e, and has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena.
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Encyclopedia
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death and thus what happened to the titular character remains a real mystery. The novel is named after Edwin Drood but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fianc้e, and has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena. Neville Landless and Drood take a dislike to one another the moment they meet.
The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly fictionalised Rochester, and feelingly evokes the atmosphere of the town as much as its streets and buildings.
Summary
The novel begins as a man, who we later learn is John Jasper, leaves a London opium den. The next evening, Edwin Drood visits Jasper, his uncle, who is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral. Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud. The next day, Edwin visits Rosa at the Nuns' House, the boarding school where she lives. They quarrel good-naturedly, which they apparently do frequently during his visits. Meanwhile, having an interest in the cathedral cemetery, Jasper seeks the company of Durdles, a man who knows more about the cemetery than anyone else.
Neville Landless and his twin sister Helena are sent to Cloisterham for their education. Neville will study with the minor canon, Rev. Crisparkle; Helena will live at the Nuns' House with Rosa. Neville confides to Rev. Crisparkle that he had hated his cruel stepfather, while Rosa confides to Helena that she loathes and fears her music-master, Jasper. Neville is immediately smitten with Rosa and is indignant that Edwin prizes his betrothal lightly. Edwin provokes him and he reacts violently, giving Jasper the opportunity to spread rumours about Neville's reputation of having a violent temper. Rev. Crisparkle tries to reconcile Edwin and Neville, who agrees to apologize to Edwin if the latter will forgive him. It is arranged that they will dine together for this purpose on Christmas Eve at Jasper's home.
Rosa's guardian, Mr. Grewgious, tells her that she has a substantial inheritance from her father. When she asks whether there would be any forfeiture if she did not marry Edwin, he replies that there would be none on either side. Back at his office in London, Mr. Grewgious gives Edwin a ring which Rosa's father had given to her mother, with the proviso that Edwin must either give the ring to Rosa as a sign of his irrevocable commitment to her, or return it to Mr. Grewgious. Mr. Bazzard, Mr. Grewgious's clerk, witnesses this transaction.
Rosa and Edwin amicably agree to end their betrothal. They decide to ask Mr. Grewgious to break the news to Jasper, and Edwin intends to return the ring to Mr. Grewgious. Meanwhile, Durdles takes Jasper into the cathedral crypt. On the way there Durdles points out a mound of quicklime. Jasper provides a bottle of wine to Durdles. The wine is mysteriously potent, and Durdles soon loses consciousness; while unconscious he dreams that Jasper goes off by himself in the crypt. As they return from the crypt, they encounter a boy called Deputy, and Jasper, thinking he was spying on them, takes him by the throat, but seeing that this will strangle him, lets him go.
On Christmas Eve, Neville buys himself a heavy walking stick; he plans to spend his Christmas break hiking around the countryside. Meanwhile, Edwin visits a jeweller in order to repair his pocket watch; it is mentioned that the only pieces of jewellery that he wears are the watch and chain and a shirt pin. By chance he meets a woman, who is an opium user from London. She asks Drood's Christian name, and he replies that it is 'Edwin'; she says he is fortunate it is not 'Ned,' for 'Ned' is in great danger. He thinks nothing of this, for the only person who calls him 'Ned' is Jasper. Meanwhile, Jasper buys himself a black scarf of strong silk, which is not seen again during the course of the novel. The reconciliation dinner is successful, and at midnight, Drood and Neville Landless leave together to go down to the river and look at a wind storm that rages that night.
The next morning Edwin is missing, and Jasper spreads suspicion that Neville has killed him. Neville leaves early in the morning for his hike; the townspeople overtake him and bring him back to the city. Rev. Crisparkle keeps Neville out of jail by taking responsibility for him: he will produce him anytime his presence is required. That night Jasper is grief stricken when Mr. Grewgious informs him that Edwin and Rosa had ended their betrothal; he reacts more strongly to this news than to the prospect that Edwin was dead. The next morning Rev. Crisparkle goes to the river weir and finds Edwin's watch and chain and his shirt pin; no other trace of him is found.
A half year later Neville is living in London near Mr. Grewgious's office. Mr. Tartar introduces himself and offers to share his garden with Landless; Mr. Tartar's chambers are adjacent to Neville's above a common courtyard. A stranger, who calls himself Dick Datchery, arrives in Cloisterham. He rents a room below Jasper and observes the comings and goings in the area. On his way to the lodging the first time, Mr. Datchery asks directions from Deputy. But Deputy will not go near there for fear that Jasper will choke him again.
Jasper visits Rosa at the Nuns' House and professes his love for her. She rejects him, but he persists; he says that if she gives him no hope, he will destroy Neville, the brother of her dear friend Helena. In fear of Jasper, Rosa goes to Mr. Grewgious in London.
The next day Rev. Crisparkle has followed Rosa to London. When he is with Mr. Grewgious and Rosa, Mr. Tartar calls on him and asks if he remembers him. Rev. Crisparkle remembers him as the one who years ago saved him from drowning. They do not dare let Rosa contact Neville and Helena directly for fear that Jasper may be watching Neville, but Mr. Tartar allows Rosa to visit his chambers in order to contact Helena above the courtyard. Mr. Grewgious arranges for Rosa to rent a place from Mrs. Billickin and arranges for Miss Twinkleton to live with her there so that she can live there respectably.
Jasper visits the London opium den again for the first time since Edwin's disappearance. When he leaves at dawn, the woman who runs the opium den follows him. She vows to herself that she will not lose his trail again as she did after his last visit. This time she follows him all the way to his home in Cloisterham; outside she meets Mr. Datchery, who tells her Jasper's name and that he will sing the next morning in the cathedral service. On inquiry Datchery learns she is called "Princess Puffer." The next morning she attends the service and shakes her fists at Jasper from behind a pillar.
Dickens's death leaves the rest of the story unknown.
Characters
- Edwin Drood an orphan. When he comes of age, he plans to marry Rosa Bud and go to Egypt, doing engineering with the firm where his father had been a partner.
- Rosa Bud an orphan and Edwin Drood's fianc้e. Their betrothal was arranged by their fathers.
- John Jasper the choirmaster of Cloisterham Cathedral, Edwin Drood's uncle and guardian, and Rosa Bud's music master. He secretly loves Rosa. He visits an opium den in London.
- Neville and Helena Landless twin orphans. They are from Ceylon, but it is not clear to what extent they are Ceylonese. In their childhood they were mistreated and deprived. Neville is immediately smitten by Rosa Bud. He is more proud than is good for him, and his integrity prevents him from making an insincere apology to Drood. Helena and Rosa become dear friends.
- Rev. Septimus Crisparkle minor canon of Cloisterham Cathedral and Neville Landless's mentor.
- Mr. (Hiram) Grewgious a London lawyer and Rosa Bud's guardian. He was a friend of her parents.
- Mr. Bazzard Mr. Grewgious's clerk. He is absent from that post when Datchery is in Cloisterham. He has written a play.
- (Stony) Durdles a stonemason. He knows more than anyone else about the Cloisterham Cathedral cemetery.
- Deputy a small boy. "Deputy" is not his name but rather a handle he uses for anonymity. If he catches Durdles out after 10 pm, he throws rocks at him until he goes home. Durdles pays him a halfpenny for doing so.
- Dick Datchery a stranger who takes lodging in Cloisterham for a month or two.
- Princess Puffer a haggard woman who runs a London opium den frequented by Jasper. She is unnamed in most of the book. "Princess Puffer" is the handle by which Deputy knows her.
- Mr. (Thomas) Sapsea a comically conceited auctioneer. By the time of Drood's disappearance he has become Mayor of Cloisterham.
- Mr. Tope the verger of Cloisterham Cathedral.
- Mrs. Tope the verger's wife. She cooks for Jasper and rents lodging to Datchery.
- Miss Twinkleton the mistress of the Nuns' House, the boarding school where Rosa lives.
- Mrs. Tisher Miss Twinkleton's assistant at the Nuns' House.
- Mrs. Crisparkle Rev. Crisparkle's widowed mother.
- Mr. Honeythunder a bullying London philanthropist. He is Neville and Helena Landless's guardian.
- Mr. Tartar a retired naval officer. He resigned his commission in his late twenties when an uncle left him some property, but he lives in London, being unaccustomed to the space of a large estate.
- Mrs. Billickin a widowed distant cousin of Mr. Bazzard. She rents lodging in London to Rosa and Miss Twinkleton.
Hints and Suspicions
The murderer
Although the killer is not revealed, the book gives multiple hints that John Jasper, Edwin's uncle, was the murderer.
- The book describes a nightly scene in which Jasper goes secretly with Durdles to the graveyard. Jasper sees quicklime, at that time believed to hasten the decomposition of bodies.
- A day before Edwin disappears, Edwin talks with Princess Puffer in the graveyard. She tells him "Ned" is in great danger. Later it turns out she has been following John Jasper from London, and he told her something in his state of intoxication. Furthermore, Jasper is the only one who refers to Edwin Drood as "Ned".
- On the day Edwin is reported missing, Jasper is informed by Grewgious, Rosa's guardian, that she and Edwin had broken off their engagement. Jasper collapses in a state of shock: could it be because of a murder that was unnecessary?
- Rosa Bud has always been afraid of John Jasper, and at a warm day in the afternoon, half a year after Edwin's disappearance, he tells her his love for her might be enough to even get his beloved nephew out of the way for that.
- Princess Puffer tries to follow Jasper, she suspects him of something because of what he said during his opium intoxication. Jasper says to Puffer at the end of the book: "Suppose you had something in your mind; something you were going to do... Should you do it in your fancy, when you were lying here doing this?... I did it over and over again. I have done it hundreds of thousands of times in this room." Is Mr Jasper here referring to the murder of Edwin? And maybe he told per accident what he was talking about in his sleep?
- The very first hint (Mr. Jasper being concerned about what he may say while in an opium stupor) occurs in the first pages when Mr. Jasper listens to other opium users and says "unintelligible!". Puffer says after his last opium trip of the book to him, when he sleeps: "'Unintelligible' I heard you say, of two more than me. But don't ye be too sure always; don't ye be too sure, beauty!"
- And then a strange last fact. On the day of the disappearance of Edwin, Jasper was in a great state of mind. He was outstanding in the choir, with great self command, and his temperament was remarkably positive all day. Is this because he knew the day he had been waiting for, had finally come?
Dick Datchery
Datchery appears some time after Edwin's disappearance and keeps a close eye on Jasper. There are hints that he is in disguise and this theme has been taken up in adaptations of the story which try to solve the mystery: in the 1935 movie production of the story, starring Claude Rains as Jasper, Datchery is Neville Landless in disguise. A BBC radio drama of 1990, starring Ian Holm as Jasper, had Datchery as a actor who investigates mysteries between performances.
There are plenty of proposals on the identity of Datchery:
Some readers believe Dick Datchery is Helena Landless. A hint for this is that at the beginning of the book Neville Landless tells Mr Crisparkle Helena used to dress up like a boy. Dick Datchery appears in Cloisterham almost at the same time Helena leaves. As Datchery lives very close to Jasper, it might be a move of Helena to find out more about the suspect Jasper, who accuses her own brother of the disappearance.
On the other hand, Helena goes to Neville and meets Rosa in London frequently before Rosa moves to her apartment of Mrs. Billickin. Although Dickens does not give many suggestions about the nature of the presence of Datchery during his stay in Cloisterham, it seems he is everpresent and not "disappearing" for more than one day. We are told of Datchery's first meal in Cloisterham, which consists of a fried sole, a veal cutlet, and a pint of sherry, which some people feel would show a side of Helena's character hitherto unsuspected.
Others suggest that Datchery is Mr Grewgious, who, like Helena, would be suspicious of Mr. Jasper.
A very strong contender for Mr. Datchery is Mr. Bazzard, who is absent from London during Datchery's stay in Cloisterham.
Other candidates are Neville Landless and Edwin Drood himself.
Original publication
The Mystery of Edwin Drood was scheduled to be published in twelve instalments (shorter than Dickens's usual twenty) from April 1870 to March 1871, each costing one shilling and illustrated by Luke Fildes. Only six of the instalments were completed before Dickens's death in 1870. It was therefore approximately half finished.
- I - April 1870 (chapters 1-4);
- II - May 1870 (chapters 5-9);
- III - June 1870 (chapters 10-12);
- IV - July 1870 (chapters 13-16);
- V - August 1870 (chapters 17-20);
- VI - September 1870 (chapters 21-23);
Planned instalments never published:
- VII - October 1870
- VIII - November 1870
- IX - December 1870
- X - January 1871
- XI - February 1871
- XII - March 1871
Continuations
Supplying a conclusion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood has occupied writers from the time of Dickens's death to the present day.
What was probably the earliest attempt at finishing the story was probably the most unusual. In 1873, a young Vermont printer, Thomas James, published a version which he claimed had been literally 'ghost-written' by him channelling Dickens' spirit. A sensation was created, with several critics, including Arthur Conan Doyle, a spiritualist himself, praising this version, calling it similar in style to Dicken's work and for several decades the 'James version' of Edwin Drood was common in America.
Two of the most recent of the posthumous collaborations are The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Leon Garfield (1980) and The Decoding of Edwin Drood (1980) by Charles Forsyte. There was also a humorous continuation by the Italian tandem Fruttero & Lucentini.
The Trial of John Jasper
In January 1914 John Jasper (played by Frederick T. Harry) stood trial for the murder of Edwin Drood in London. The "trial" was organised by the Dickens Fellowship. G. K. Chesterton, best known for the Father Brown mystery stories, was the judge while George Bernard Shaw was the foreman of the jury, made up of other authors. J. Cuming Walters, author of The Complete Edwin Drood led the prosecution, while Cecil Chesterton acted for the defence.
Proceedings were very light-hearted with Shaw in particular making wisecracks at the expense of others present. For instance, Shaw claimed that if the prosecution thought that producing evidence would influence the jury then "he little knows his functions".
The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, Shaw stating that it was a compromise on the grounds that there was not enough evidence to convict Jasper but that they did not want to run the risk of being murdered in their beds. Both sides protested and demanded that the jury be discharged. Shaw claimed that the jury would be only too pleased to be discharged. Chesterton had ruled that the mystery of Edwin Drood was insoluble and fined everyone, except himself, for contempt of court.
Adaptations
Films
To date, there have been four film adaptations of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The first two were silent pictures released in 1909 and 1914. They are unavailable to the general public and have been little-seen since they were released. These were followed by:
Radio
On 5 and 12 January, 1953, the Suspense radio program aired a two-part adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It depicts John Jasper (played by Herbert Marshall) as the killer, tricked into giving himself away.
Theatre
Almost immediately following Charles Dickens's death, playwrights and theatre companies have mounted versions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood with varying degrees of popularity, success, and faithfulness to the original work.
The first modern major theatrical adaptation was a musical comedy with book, music, and lyrics by Rupert Holmes. The production, originally known by the full name of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, but re-titled halfway through its original run to simply Drood, was first produced in 1985 by the New York Shakespeare Festival, and then transferred to Broadway, where it ran for 608 performances (and 24 previews). It won five 1986 Tonys, including Best Musical, as well as Drama Desk and Edgar awards. The musical has since played successfully in numerous regional and amateur productions.
Because Dickens's book was left unfinished, the musical hinges upon a novel idea: the audience decides by vote which of the characters is the murderer. Though it seems fairly clear that, barring a twist, John Jasper is Dickens's main suspect, the musical's suspect pool is broadened to include other characters such as Neville Landless, Rosa Bud, Helena Landless, Rev. Crisparkle, Princess Puffer, and Mr. Bazzard. Adding further interactivity, the audience also chooses one male and one female character to develop a romance together: Holmes wrote brief alternate endings for every possible voting outcome, even the most unlikely.
Pop culture references
- In 2005, Charles Dickens became, for one episode, a character in the science-fiction television series Doctor Who. In the episode "The Unquiet Dead", Dickens encounters the Doctor and helps the time traveller fight off a ghostly alien invasion on Christmas Eve, 1869. During this episode, Dickens is portrayed by Simon Callow as an abrupt, inflexible individual, who believes he has experienced all that the world has to offer and refutes all suggestions by the Doctor regarding the true nature of the Gelth. The episode ends with Dickens declaring that his adventure with the Doctor has given him a new outlook on life in that there is so much more than he originally thought, excitedly states his intention to incorporate his adventure with the Doctor into his work in progress, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and that the murderer would be revealed as one of the "blue elementals" that he'd encountered that night. The Doctor, upon departing 1869, sadly notes that Dickens would never get to finish his tale by saying "In a week's time, it will be 1870, and that's the year he dies".
- Edwin Drood also is the name of a fictional band from the TV series Jonathan Creek, possibly a parody of the band Uriah Heep, who also owe their name to Dickens.
- Edwin Drood is the name of the protagonist in the novel The Man With The Golden Torc by Simon R Green
- The 2009 novel Drood (novel) by Dan Simmons is a fictionalized account of the last five years of Dicken's life and the writing of and inspirations for his last novel.
External links
- - Searchable HTML version.
- - Free e-Book in PDF format.
- - Free audio book from Librivox.
- - An analysis explaining Edwin Drood's themes and allusions, and offering a solution to its mysteries.
- , via Internet Archive. A collection of 19th and early 20th century books exploring the mysteries and offering solutions.
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