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Title: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Oxford World's Classics) by Charles Dickens, Margaret Cardwell ISBN: 0-19-283660-9 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: More mysterious every time
Comment: I've read this several times and this time it seems even more haunting. It would have been a relatively short novel for Dickens even if he had finished it, and the fragment gives the impression of being very carefully planned. There are no unnecessary scenes. Every character seems to havea point. The cathedral town is vivid. I ince visted Rochester on acold day and it was quite eerie having lunch in a restaurant that was actually a house in the book.
But who did it? This time I have noticed more clues. I am sure the answer is something like "The Moonstone". A murder committed under her influence of opium. Jasper seems to try the drug on Durdles (in the crypt) and on Neville and Edwin - who feel very strange after having wine with him. My money is on Neville being the killer - but under the influence of opium - so he actually does it, but Jasper is responsible. I assume Edwin ended up in the quicklime, but he could easily have escaped. It would be a bit daring to kill of an ionnocent character in a family novel. Jasper had wasted his time as Edwin does not want marry Rosa, so in the end I suspect Jasper would confess - but what would happen to Neville? Legally he would still be guilty, so I imagine he would go back to Ceylon. That would leave Rosa to marry Tartar and Crisparkle to marry Helena. Very neat. Oh, and then Bazzard would be Datchery (the black eyebrows...)
But like some other good mysteries there is a strangeness about this book which is beyond the actual plot. Wonderful.
Rating: 5
Summary: Drood Is So Good
Comment: It is a tribute to Charles Dickens' reputation that to this day this unfinished novel, a mystery no less, still garners such speculation as to who allegedly murdered Edwin Drood. There are organizations created for the sole purpose of analyzing the novel and to theorizing whom the culprit may have been, if indeed there really was a culprit. After all, only Drood's watch and his shirt pin are produced, not his body.
As in all of Dickens' novels, the characterizations are the thing. You have the innocent young woman with the somewhat eccentric guardian and his Bob Cratchitlike assistant. There is the dark, possibly unfairly accused, but hot headed antagonist of Drood. Then there is Drood's brooding choirmaster uncle, John Jasper, who frequents opium dens, and who may or may not have ulterior motives in his seeking revenge. Durdles, the stone mason, and a somewhat weird character, provides some chilling comic relief in cemetery scenes with his stone throwing assistant. There are also the typical Dickensian characters, which includes a snooty older woman, a class conscious, spinsterish school mistress, and in a hilarious restaurant scene, an unappreciated, hard working "flying waiter" and a lazy, wise acre "stationary waiter."
It is a shame that Dickens died before he could complete "Edwin Drood." What is here are the beginnings of an exploration of man's dual nature, a journey into "the heart of darkness" so to speak.
Rating: 3
Summary: Inconclusive
Comment: It's extremely difficult to judge "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", the last of Charles Dickens's novels, merely due to the fact that it was left incomplete upon Dickens's death. Of course, this gives ample scope for useless speculation on how the novel might have ended - in particular what could have happened to Edwin Drood himself, who vanishes part way through what's left of the novel.
I couldn't find enough in "Drood" either to condemn it, or to praise it. I was struck by the fact that despite it being the last of Dickens's works, it still bore the hallmarks of much of his earlier stuff - for example, sharp social cirticism (such as that directed against the philanthropist Mr Honeythunder) was swamped by the usual charicatures, such as the urchin "Deputy" and the obligatory gaggle of two-dimensional female characters.
All this was achieved despite the plot being tighter than many of his other novels. Seemingly, Dickens was able to work to a narrower brief yet was unable to cast off completely the habits of his more voluminous novels. "Drood" might have promised much, but to expect another "Great Expectations" would be too much.
G Rodgers
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Title: The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Patricia Ingham ISBN: 0140436146 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Little Dorrit (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Stephen Wall, Helen Small ISBN: 0140434925 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Our Mutual Friend (Penquin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Adrian Poole ISBN: 0140434976 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, Andrew Sanders ISBN: 0140435468 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, John Bowen, Gordon Spence ISBN: 0140437282 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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