Title page of one of the six monthly instalments in which this novel was first published.
London
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood | |
Title page of one of the six monthly instalments in which this novel was first published. |
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| Author | Charles Dickens |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Chapman & Hall London |
| Publication date | 1870 |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | ISBN 0198124392 |
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens.[1][2] The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and readers have often speculated how it might have ended. The novel is named after Edwin Drood, one of the characters, 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 fiancée, 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.
Contents |
The novel begins as a man, who we later learn is John Jasper, leaves a London opium den.[3] 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.
Although it is not presented who is the killer, the book gives multiple hints on John Jasper, Edwin's uncle, to be the murderer.
1- The book describes a nightly scene in which Jasper goes secretly with Durdles to the graveyard. Jasper carries quicklime, at that time believed to hasten the decomposition of bodies.
2- 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.
3- A day before Edwin disappears, he 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. Further, Jasper is the only one referring to Edwin Drood as "Ned".
4- 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 on Mr. Jasper being concerned about what he may say while in an opium stupor occurs already at 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!"
5- And then a strange last fact. On the day of the disappearance of Edwin, Jasper is in a great state of mind. He was outstanding in the choir, with great self command and his temperament is remarkably positive all day. Is this because he knew the day he had been waiting for, had finally come?
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.[4]
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.
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.
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.
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".[5]
The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, Shaw stating that it was a compromise. Both sides protested and demanded that the jury be dischaged. 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.[6]
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:
According to Variety, director Guillermo Del Toro is planning on making Drood which will be his first project after the two Hobbit films.[7]
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.
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,[8] 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.
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