Who killed Edwin Drood? Was he, in fact, murdered at all? And who
is the very white-haired (and black-eyebrowed) Datchery? Those were
the major questions left in mystery when Dickens died after writing
only about half of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. And Garfield's
attempt at completing the book - hardly the first such - wisely
chooses to solve the murder mystery in the most generally accepted
manner, the manner clearly indicated by Dickens' notes and
conversations: opium addict Jasper is the killer, and he deposited
his nephew's body in the quicklime beneath the Cathedral. On other
counts, however, the plot turns here are somewhat disappointing.
Datchery is not the lawyer Grewgious in disguise nor Helena
Landless . . . but an actor-turned-detective working for Grewgious:
an awfully mundane explanation. A second murder - of Neville
Landless - seems arbitrary, And Jasper's death-cell confession -
though based (perhaps too literally) on Dickens' own stated
intentions - seems rather more akin to Tony Perkins' schizoid
Psycho revelation than to anything that Dickens would have written.
As for Garfield's style in the concluding 100 pages - it's an
agreeable enough compromise: a modern equivalent of a Dickensian
style instead of an imitation. But it must be said that Dickens'
other-worldly aura collapses almost immediately in Garfield's
chapters: the dark themes are not picked up on; the pace is too
hurried (Dickens' own finale would probably have been at least
half-again as long); the shifts between past and present tense
become noticeably jarring (with Dickens, they're invisible);
there's a contemporary flatness to the similes and digressions. All
in all, then, this is a tasteful, talented, cautious job of work -
good enough to give lucky readers an excuse to read (or re-read)
the original, but not (how could it be?) the much-missed second
half of a minor masterpiece. (Kirkus Reviews)
With an Introduction and Notes by Peter Preston, University of
Nottingham. Illustrations by S.L. Fildes and Hablot K. Browne
(Phiz). Dickens's final novel, left unfinished at his death, is a
tale of mystery whose fast-paced action takes place in an ancient
cathedral city and in some of the darkest places in
nineteenth-century London. Drugs, sexual obsession, colonial
adventuring and puzzles about identity are among the novel's
themes. At the centre of the plot lie the baffling disappearance of
Edwin Drood and the many explanations of his whereabouts. A sombre
and menacing atmosphere, a fascinating range of characters and
Dickens's usual superb command of language combine to make this an
exciting and tantalising story. Also included in this volume are a
number of unjustly neglected stories and sketches, with subjects as
different as murder and guilt and childhood romance. This unusual
selection illustrates Dickens's immense creativity and versatility.
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