The Companion to the Mystery of Edwin Drood (Dickens Companions, No 2)

Book Description

This Charles Dickens novel was adapted for Broadway by Rupert Holmes in 1986, and went on to win 5 Tony Awards. 12 selections: There You Are * A Man Could Go Quite Mad * Two Kinsmen * Moonfall * The Wages of Sin * Both Sides of the Coin * Perfect Strangers * Never the Luck * Off to the Races * Don't Quit While You're Ahead * The Garden Path to Hell * The Writing on the Wall.

Customer Reviews:

"Diamond in the Rough....." -scary alladin guy.......2005-04-24

It is hard to get a copy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (TMOED). Really hard. Especially one that isnt ridiculously expensive. I searched for many years, and ended up paying $50 dollars for a copy. So if you see one cheap, GET IT!

TMOED is an interactive musical in which the audience finishes off the play by voting the ending. This came about since it was a Charles Dickens who-dunnit, and the author died before we learned who, precisely, dunnit. The plot is rather vague, introducing characters left and right with a convoluted story-line. But if you are looking to buy this CD, that is irrevelant.

Thats right. I am here to sell you the music. And the music is worth it. With about a billion songs on the CD, a few are fillers that are just sort of pleasant to listen to. But there are a few songs that make the CD extraordinary rather than the mundane. The reason why I bought the CD was because I had had one of the songs stuck in my head for about a year. Two Kinsman is a remarkable piece, and would be reason enough for purchasing the 25ish songs. The melodies are fresh, but the harmonies are what strike the listener as being new and bold. Other noteworthy tracks include Wages of Sin, Never the Luck, Dont Quite While Youre Ahead, and the rousing finale The Writing on the Wall. The recording is even generous, by providing most of the songs of the outcomes that the audience can vote for. So they dont just give us one ending. With an all star cast that is often forgetten, including Betty Buckly, Donna Murphy, and Cleo Laine, you cannot go wrong in buying this really wonderful recording of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

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Readers Left Stranded: Uninspired and Unfinished.
A true mystery
"I have been taking opium for a pain, an agony, that sometimes overcomes me."
A bit of a disappointment
Inconclusive

The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Charles Dickens , and Leon Garfield
Manufacturer: E P Dutton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0233972579

Book Description

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has produced some of the most memorable writings in the English language, including such well known works as "A Christmas Carol, Sketches by Boz, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Daivid Copperfield, Great Expectations, and The Pickwick Papers.

Dickens is famous for the characters he created and his descriptions. A man of tremendous energy, he spent hours a day walking the London streets from which his characters and scenes came.

Most of Dickens' work was in magazine serial form. Quiet Vision publishes not only Dickens' well known works but also many of his lesser known but still well crafted works.

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The main issue in the novel is the disappearance of Edwin Drood and the suspicion that he has been murdered. But as intriguing as this central plot are the startling innovations in Dicken's work and the troubled elements lurking within the novel: a dark opium underworld, the uneasy and violent fantasies of its inhabitants, the disquieting presence of old 'Princess Puffer', of the quiet cathedral town of Cloisterham from which people have to escape in order to save themselves--and, at the centre, the menacing figure of Jasper.

Customer Reviews:

Readers Left Stranded: Uninspired and Unfinished........2007-07-20

As a suggestion, avoid the Penguin Popular Classics with the plain green covers (I bought two). They fall apart and do not stand up to a read, especially books over 500 pages - and they have no illustrations. The Regular Penguin Classics with the illustration on the front are excellent, and have maps, illustrations, and extensive analysis - sometimes 100 pages. The Wordsworth Classics are not as good.

I finished Edwin Drood by Dickens and was left scratching my head and wondering why this book is so terrible. After all it is written by Dickens. How can it be so bad?

Dickens has many works and this is down at the bottom of the pile. That is not just my opinion or crazy idea. Currently it ranks below rank #120 for Dickens books, over 110 spots below, for example, Oliver Twist and collections of short stories. That is, there are 120 Dickens novels, DVDs, and collections of stories ahead of it.

Edwin Drood is different. It was written about five years after all the others. It is his last novel. All the sympathetic children are missing here and the story is unfinished, maybe only half written. It is a dark novel in both plot and setting. The characters are mostly around 20 to 30 years in age and relatively lifeless or not fully developed since the novel is half finished. The children - made famous in Dickens novels - are replaced by two drug addicts. Even the villain John Jasper lacks any attraction, nor is he as interesting as other famous Dickens villains such as Uriah Heap in David Copperfield.

Edwin Drood and his fiancée, Rosa Bud, make rather weak appearances, and seem two dimensional. The story, which is set near a large cathedral, seems very gray and somber. The ending - as such as it is - is abrupt and ends in the middle of a page with everything left hanging - and too many questions are simply left unresolved and up in the air.

So, this is an unfinished story and not a very attractive story by comparison to Great Expectations or David Copperfield, or any of the great novels by Dickens. Clearly, the writing is a good in Edwin Drood - since it is Dickens doing the writing - but you need characters and a plot to make it interesting, and most of that is missing.

This is a slow and a mostly dreadful read.

A true mystery.......2006-05-15

This is a deep and sordid tale, a tale of love and hate and indifference, of drugs and desire and (just possibly) murder. Edwin Drood feels trapped in a betrothal that was engineered by his dead father. Drood's uncle, John Jaspar, secretly loves Drood's fianc?e, Rosa Bud. The newly arrived Neville Landless has also fallen in love with Rosa, and hates Edwin for his indifference to her. And when Edwin disappears under strange and suspicious circumstances, it begins to look like murder. But, there is more here than meets the eye. Who has done what and why? It's a mystery.

And, to make matter worse, it will remain a mystery! This book was Charles Dickens' (1812-1870) last novel, and the great author died when the book was still only half finished. It has been the source of a great deal of speculation, and even a movie and a musical comedy. (Believe it or not!)

So, if you are a fan of mysteries, and want to read one that is truly a mystery - a you-decide-who-did-it - then this is the book for you. It is a very interesting read, and no doubt would have been considered another great Dickens book, if it had been finished. But, the sad fact is that it wasn't. So, if you are intrigued with the book, as I was, then be prepared to be disappointed with the lack of ending.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and am glad I read it. But, without an ending, there is no way that I can give this book 5 stars. So, let me just say that this is a good book, and I give it a guarded recommendation.

"I have been taking opium for a pain, an agony, that sometimes overcomes me.".......2005-10-11

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. n Mary Whipple

A bit of a disappointment.......2005-03-30

At the risk of sounding like a philistine, I really wanted to like _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, but was disappointed by it. The plot was convoluted, made all the more difficult as the many loose ends are never tied up; many of the characters are, as a previous reviewer mentioned, a bit two-dimensional; and Dickens' social commentary of Victorian class inequities didn't strike a chord with me.

While I can understand the potential of the novel, and appreciate the appeal of the author, _Edwin Drood_ is not a book I would recommend for those wanting to read some Dickens.

Inconclusive.......2003-09-30

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.

Book Description

Charles Dickens’s final, unfinished novel is in many ways his most intriguing. A highly atmospheric tale of murder, The Mystery of Edwin Drood foreshadows both the detective stories of Conan Doyle and the nightmarish novels of Kafka.

As in many of Dickens’s greatest novels, the gulf between appearance and reality drives the action. Set in the seemingly innocuous cathedral town of Cloisterham, the story rapidly darkens with a sense of impending evil. Central to the plot is John Jasper: in public he is a man of integrity and benevolence; in private he is an opium addict. And while seeming to smile on the engagement of his nephew, Edwin Drood, he is, in fact, consumed by jealousy, driven to terrify the boy’s fiancée and to plot the murder of Edwin himself. Though The Mystery of Edwin Drood is one of its author’s darkest books, it also bustles with a vast roster of memorable–and delightfully named–minor characters: Mrs. Billikins, the landlady; the foolish Mr. Sapsea; the domineering philanthropist, Mr. Honeythunder; and the mysterious Datchery. Several attempts have been made over the years to complete the novel and solve the mystery, but even in its unfinished state it is a gripping and haunting masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

The Mystery of Edwin Drood.......2007-01-04

This is the ultimate mystery story. The writing is Dickens at his best. He clearly was enjoying contructing a true mystery plot, strewn with red herrings, and...he died when the book was half finished, leaving behind no hint of "who did it." Indeed, it's not even clear that "it" has actually been done. A mystery indeed!
A good word for the edition also. The binding is handsome, the text clear and easy to read.

Wonderfully written, but I wish it had been completed...........2006-05-23

There are so many things to like about this novel- there are quite a few very well-drawn characters, and many that are incredibly sympathetic (like the Landlesses and Mr. Crisparkle) without being irritatingly perfect. Besides this, the villain is not only terrifying, but not as obvious as in some of Dickens' other novels.
For the most part, it is quite convincing as well. The only thing that I could not quite figure out was why so many men would fall in love with Rosa Bud. To me, Rosa was very silly and childish and really had nothing going for her except being young and pretty. I would think that Helena Landless is infinitely more appealing- she is not only brave, but compassionate and devoted to her brother. Despite this, I would definitely recommend it- I give it 4 stars only because it is unfinished!

Dickens's unfinished novel continues to intrigue its readers........2006-01-08

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Thrift Edition)

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Dickens's Dying Words.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Thrift Edition)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486444996

Book Description

Dickens' marvelous tale of murder was left unfinished at his death in 1870. The novel has been all the more tantalizing for its lack of an ending to a mystifying puzzle that avid readers, over the years, have tried to solve. A gem for lovers of mysteries and the legions of Dickens fans.

Customer Reviews:

Dickens's Dying Words. .......2006-07-26

If Charles Dickens had lived to finish this, this book would probably have been a phenomenal masterpiece. (Sadly, it was not to be.) The material that he did manage to write displays some of his best abilities. We meet John Jasper who does a lot of good work at the cathedral. He also instructs the young Rosa in music. Edwin Drood (John Jasper's nephew who is 20 and only 6 years younger than his uncle) and Rosa are to marry. But they start to get cold feet when they realize that it is at least possible that they are getting married because everyone expects them to. We also meet Durdles who is a grave stone maker who ironically lives in a: "...little antiquated hole of a house that was never finished." He and John Jasper start to become friends. (Interesting.) We then meet Helena and Neville Landless. By his own confession, Neville is: "...false and mean." Later, Rosa confesses she is afraid of John Jasper. (He seems to be paying too much attention to her during her music lessons.) In an interesting scene Neville and Edwin start to fight, and Jasper alternates between trying to provoke it and cease it. We then meet the eccentric, but virtuous lawyer Mr. Grewgious. He has come to see Rosa to discuss the terms of her father's will. And again, Rosa is starting to realize the wedding is somewhat prearranged: "My poor papa and Eddy's father made their agreement together." The final straw is when Edwin realizes that he is to use the same wedding ring that Rosa's deceased mother wore. Interestingly, many scenes of graveyards are presented in this final and unfinished work of Dickens. Durdles in fact talks of a disturbing dream. Well, Rosa and Edwin agree to put things on hold and think about the decision more carefully. With good symbolism, Dickens presents us with a storm to foreshadow some bad events. Edwin disappears and John Jasper blames or at least makes a show that he blames Neville. Did John Jasper murder Edwin and set Neville up to take the fall? We don't know, and we never will. Though it does seem just a bit too obvious. (Only 2 novels earlier, in his "Great Expectations" Dickens did a great job of misleading us into thinking Miss Havisham was Pip's benefactor when it turned out to be Magwitch.) Interestingly, Jasper seems to grow upset when he hears that Rosa and Edwin had put their wedding plans on hold. (Again, this would lead us to believe that Jasper is thinking he could have had Rosa without foul play, but we don't know and we never will.) Interestingly, Jasper himself admits that Edwin disappeared and may still be alive. (But we never see him again.) We can only speculate that Dickens may have intended to bring Edwin back. (Somewhat like he did to Walter in "Dombey and Son." Walter was presumed drowned, but he did survive and live to marry Dombey's daughter and be part of the happy ending.) Well, later the Reverend Crisparkle finds Edwin's watch at the bottom of the icy river. (So we at least know that Edwin was probably assaulted, but we will never know if he is alive or dead. We can only speculate.) Neville is released, but he is suffering the damage of a ruined reputation. (Even when one is judged innocent of murder, suspicion still lingers in people's minds.) Jasper again meets with Durdles. We can not help but wonder why Jasper seems so close to a man who makes grave stones. (The obvious reason is of course that if he were to perform murder, it may be of use to have a friend who can provide a few graveyard favors.) Jasper then admits his feelings for Rosa, and she is of course horrified. Naturally, this leads Rosa to suspect that Jasper murdered Edwin to get to her. But again, there are questions. If he was guilty of murdering Edwin, why does he risk revealing a motive when the heat from Edwin's disappearance is still hot? And especially when Neville has just been released? In terror, Rosa runs to the eccentric, but virtuous lawyer Mr. Grewgious. (Why not? If he is a lawyer who has served her family well, Rosa knows everything she tells him is confidential.) The benevolent Grewgious offers her sanctuary and then puts her up in an apartment at least until he can figure out more about the situation. Grewgious begins to dislike Jasper. So, Jasper has a motive, indications of a murder have been shown (the finding of the watch), and the hero Mr. Grewgious starts to suspect Jasper. Cut and dry case? Not on your life! A new character enters just as the book ends. And it is impossible to doubt this new character would have had some major influence in the events of this story. Sadly, we never will know how this was to end. But if we can get past this, the material that WAS written does show some of Dickens's strongest work. Enjoy your everlasting peace Mr. Dickens.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood: An Unfinished Novel by Charles Dickens

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The Mystery of Edwin Drood: An Unfinished Novel by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Blackstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0786171774

Book Description

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Charles Dickens's brilliant contribution to the field of crime and detection. In fact, the novel is even more of a mystery than Dickens himself intended, for he died before completing it, making it a favorite of literary detectives.

Book Description

A study in the methods of Dickens. Includes chapters on The Text of Edwin Drood, External Testimonies, Notes for the Novel, The Illustration on the Wrapper, Was Edwin Drood Murdered? Who Was Datchery? Other Theories, How Was "Edwin Drood" to End? A valuable bibliography is included in the book.

Book Description

The authors combine the text of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, literary scholarship, the detective genre, and their knowledge of Rome to produce a hilarious, offbeat satire. Translated by Gregory Dowling. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Customer Reviews:

A chance to re-read Edwin Drood.......2007-09-24

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Dickens' last (unfinished) novel and his best, excepting Pickwick Papers. With a wonderful array of characters, including the minor ones like Honeythunder and the incomparable (outside of Dickens' works) Deputy it is a pleasure to read and re-read. By itself of course a 5-star book! The D case has fictional detectives gathered in Rome, attending a conference where the aim is to "finish" the mystery story. The authors' solution is witty and interesting. However, much of the story is dated because it is poking fun at whizz-bang Japanese technology. Furthermore most of the detectives are not well portrayed (at least in the English translation). All in all an enjoyable book, by itself 3-star.

What the Dickens!?!?.......2005-09-12

In this book, a group of fictional detectives (mostly famous, but with a few obscure ones) are assembled in Rome to solve "The Mystery of Edwin Dood". "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" was Charles Dickens' last book, which he died before completing. This book reprints "Drood" in it's unfinished entirety, interupted periodically by the detectives discussing the "case". I found the book (both "Drood" and the new bits with Sherlock Holmes and company) to be quite entertaining. Does the book provide a "definitive" sollution to "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"? No, but it's an imaginative sollution that is plausible. Dickens fans should enjoy this book.

3 stars for the Dickens, 4 stars for the Fruttero/Lucentini.......2001-12-13

A rather interesting book, "The D Case" contains the incomplete manuscript of Charles Dickens' "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" interleaved with Fruttero & Lucentini's fictionalized examination of what the solution to the unsolved mystery is. "Edwin Drood" was Dickens' last, and probably weakest novel. It just isn't a very interesting read. Read it alone, and you probably won't care what happened to Edwin Drood. What F & L do is cover all the various ideas scholars have had over 'whodunnit', by putting the arguments in the mouths of all the great fictional sleuths of the last 100 years+ working as a team. A much more interesting way to follow the discussion about the book than reading formal articles in Lit Journals. In the end, F & L's detectives present a new and interesting solution to the title crime, and in addition, reveal a new crime no one suspected, the murder of Dickens himself, along with the culprit! Sound farfetched? Try it, you'll like it.

The reason I don't give this 5 stars is the poor depiction of the fictional dectectives. With the exception of Hercule Poirot, none of them talk like they did in the orginal works they appeared in. Whether this is the fault of F & L, or the fault of the translator, I don't know. Regardless, it weakens the book.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood.......2000-10-01

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a wonderful book. The last book of Charles Dickens' work. He wrote this book before he died but never ended it because he died before he did. This book is a very educational, and hard book to read, but it's really worth it. I strongly recommend you to read this.

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