Jasper, aged twenty-six, is the uncle and guardian of Edwin Drood, only a few years younger. Drood has been the fiance 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 novel and other miscellany   April 14, 2005
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is exactly half a novel, the first six of twelve planned instalments, Dickens dying before the second six were completed. It shares with Dickens's final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, a plot based around a marriage arranged in the wills of dead parents; one of the couple goes missing, the eponymous Drood, and is presumed dead. His young opium-addicted uncle, seemingly obsessed with Drood's fiancee, Rosa Budd, appears to be the prime suspect.
Edwin Drood was going to be a much shorter and leaner novel than its predecessor, with no subplots and fewer characters. The writing, too, is a little sparer than in earlier Dickens. However, the predilection for comic character names is continued - the best example being the bombastic philanthropist Mr. Honeythunder, who does indeed appear to shout and bully much of the time.
Is this half a novel, a mystery which is never resolved, worth reading? Yes, because it is entertaining throughout and shows that Dickens still had the potential to develop further as a writer. Much like Schubert's eighth unfinished Symphony, it is all the more enigmatic as an incomplete masterwork. Moreover, it exercises the imagination as the reader has to complete the story him- or herself, a quite deliberate literary device sometimes encountered in modern novels.
Also in this bargain edition is Master Humphrey's Clock, originally written to introduce The Old Curiousty Shop and Barnaby Rudge. Indeed, the mysterious narrator at the beginning of the former novel is none other than Master Humphrey telling the story to his group of friends, a club of elderly gentlemen meet to tell each other stories; and here later, Mr Pickwick joins this group, allowing Dickens to also involve the Wellers from The Pickwick Papers.
Two short stories, Hunted Down and George Silverman's Explanation, from 1859 and 1868 respectively, are included. The former is somewhat reminiscent of Wilkie Collins (a close friend of Dickens), the latter is an unusual portrait of misplaced guilt and humility. Finally, A Holiday Romance is four short interconnected fables written from the point of view of four children, friends relating their adventures. These three short pieces show the diversity and flexibility of Dickens's writing, and are so unlike most of his novels in style.


what might have been.   November 16, 2003
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

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.


An unfinished but an undoubtedly great novel!   October 1, 2001
 13 out of 15 found this review helpful

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.