SeniorLearn

Following are questions asked by participants in SeniorLearn's discussion of The Last Dickens and the author's responses (September - October 2009).

---

SeniorLearn: I'd really like to know what has caused the recent renewed interest in Drood.

M. Pearl: You know, I'm not sure there's any reason for renewal of interest in The Mystery of Edwin Drood now. It might just be cyclical. For me, I came to my decision to write a Dickens novel while writing my novel about Poe, The Poe Shadow, and researching Poe's one meeting with Dickens.

SeniorLearn: Matthew, were you surprised to learn of the other books on the subject of Edwin Drood that came out around the same time your book was published? Not that they are anything alike, but did you know they were in the works while you were writing yours?

M. Pearl: No clue! Since most books take years to write, and don't really get spoken about during the writing process for many reasons, you don't hear about them until publication is announced (and the book is already finished). The same thing has happened to me before, but it can help to create the feeling of a "trend" or "pattern" which can bring more attention to the book.

SeniorLearn: Notes! Wonderful! May I ask who provided the notes for the new Modern Library edition of Dickens' "Mystery of Edwin Drood," Matthew?

M. Pearl: A woman named Deborah Lutz compiled the notes at the back of the book for Modern Library. I read through them and approved of her excellent work.

SeniorLearn: Your mention of the mock trial sent me off looking. Quite a group of illustrious performers there -- G.K. Chesterton as judge and George Bernard Shaw as foreman of the jury. is the mock trial with Shaw and Chesterton the same thing that Matthew is talking about?

M. Pearl: Yes, the mock trial is my favorite "continuation" of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and a fun read for anyone who has read Dickens's novel.

SeniorLearn: Before I panic I have but one question-- Is that all there is [to Dickens' novel]? XXIII chapters?

M. Pearl: That's all there is! Though the chapter numbers themselves can vary depending on the edition (the reason for this is after Dickens's death, the sixth and final installment was reorganized by John Forster, Dickens's literary executor, and one of the chapters split into two). Some publishers try to fatten up their editions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood by including other ancillary writing or shorter stories, since I think people expect a bit of heft when picking up a Dickens novel.

SeniorLearn: I read somewhere that Dickens himself went to an opium den to research the effects of smoking opium firsthand. Wouldn't you think that as part of his research he tried it? Was there ever any talk that Dickens himself was a user? Matthew, did your research go this?

M. Pearl:Ah, this will come into play, so I'm going to stay quiet on it for now! But yes, Dickens did do firsthand research for his books.

SeniorLearn: How can you spend time and talent on such a character as Sylvanus Bendall, Matthew - and then sacrifice him in the very next chapter to someone like Herman? Was this difficult to do?

M. Pearl:Part of the fun of being the author is playing God with the characters, I guess! Actually, from a strategic angle, sacrificing a character is part of increasing the sense of danger for your primary characters. Bendall actually serves lots of purposes in the plot before and after his death. And you might not have seen the last of him--I'm thinking of using him in the book I'm writing now, which takes place a few years earlier.

SeniorLearn: Did your research take you to the hotels, churches, theaters mentioned in your book, or did you rely on the Internet? (It feels as if you actually visited these sites.)

M. Pearl:Oh, never rely on the internet! It is becoming more and more a good starting point for research, but nothing substitutes for getting out there when it comes to seeing the sites. You'll read lots about the Parker House in Boston, where Dickens. This was mentioned earlier, but I gave an NPR show a tour of the Parker House vis a vis my novel. I can't swear there are no spoilers that *they* put in (I wouldn't ever say anything to give away a part of the plot), because I can't listen to my own voice. Maybe someone who has read ahead can listen and tell us if it's spoiler-free. Scroll down on this page for the interview..http://www.hereandnow.org/2009/06/rundown-61/

SeniorLearn: Did you know that the Tremont Temple was the first integrated church in America. Could this be the reason Dickens chose the site for his first public reading in Boston?

M. Pearl:Dickens's manager Dolby, whom you're all meeting in the Second Installment, chose Tremont Temple after being showed some other choices, because he liked the seating arrangements. But who knows, Dickens certainly would have enjoyed hearing its history, which I'm sure he did since he did lots of readings there. If any of you ever visit Boston, stop by the Parker House and check out the mirror they have from Dickens's room!

SeniorLearn: The portrayal of Forster as a less than sympathetic character might be a subtle hint that Forster might not have been in on Dickens' confidence, as he claimed he was. Matthew, can you tell us if this is a documented description of Mr. Forster or is it fiction? M. Pearl:Yes, Forster as I show him is as close as I was able to recreate Forster himself. What a character he was! If he seems like something Dickens would create you're right. Those who have read, or plan to read, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens will notice a similarity between Forster and the character of Podsnap, which was obvious to everyone who knew Forster. And Forster and Dolby did not get along at all.

SeniorLearn: Did Dickens often did dabble in the supernatural? Did he learn his hypnotic lessons by the reading of these books that were found on his shelves?

M. Pearl:In my research, I was actually able to get an inventory of Dickens's books that were in his library when he died. That's the kind of thing you hope for! Dickens's family later auctioned off the books, which is why they did the inventory. So every book title you find in my novel was actually in the library. And yes, Dickens did study mesmerism and other spiritual topics, and often practiced mesmerism, to the point where it became a factor in his estrangement from his wife (who was upset that he was hypnotizing other women--there is something intimate about the practice, one could argue)

SeniorLearn: Am I right in presuming that the incident of rescuing the animals on the train actually happened?

M. Pearl:Yes indeed, this really happened. I love moments like that, and wish someone would do an illustration portraying that scene!

SeniorLearn: And what about Mrs. Barton? I presume she was a real person, but how much of what she does here really happened?

M. Pearl:Barton is a fictionalized/composite character--there were several stalker-ish people Dickens encountered in his two visits to the U.S., and I've incorporated elements from them, but I've also crafted the character from my imagination (thus giving her a new name). If anyone wants to read about the real female stalker, see the article I posted above.

SeniorLearn: Matthew, is it a fact that this is how William Godwin wrote his novel, second half first? And is it a fact that Dickens spoke to Poe about this - or is this part of your storytelling?

M. Pearl:Yes, what they talk about Godwin was true (at least it is what Godwin claimed), and, though we do not know exactly what was said in Dickens and Poe's private meeting, I strongly suspect they really spoke about it because of a letter between Dickens and Poe before their meeting. I can't remember if I already posted my blog post on Red Room about Dickens and Poe meeting?

SeniorLearn: I'm wondering whether any of this conversation with Holmes is fact - and if Holmes really did accompany Dickens to the basement of the Medical College

M. Pearl:Holmes did indeed bring Dickens to the site of Parkman's murder, and through my research I compiled as much as possible of their actual conversation and used it in the scene. For those who read The Dante Club, you might remember Holmes taking about the Parkman case in that novel, too.

SeniorLearn: Matthew, I'm betting the abandonned Thames Tunnel is no longer there - nor the opium dens for your research. Can you speak to Dickens' visit to an opium den as part of his research for writing his MED?

M. Pearl: Yeah, those places are definitely not there anymore! Dickens wrote several letters describing his visit to the opium den, so I had details. Plus, other journalists and writers visited the same dens--there were only two main ones--around the same time, so I was able to get tons of details, and they also stayed very close to what you read in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

SeniorLearn: I wonder if Matthew read "I Sailed with Chinese Pirates" by Aleko Lilius.

M. Pearl: I didn't read that -- that's an account of experiences with pirates in the early 1900s. I did read several account from the mid-19th century, though, of sailors who were captured by pirates. Can't ask for research that's more fun than that!

SeniorLearn: Did Dickens really say John Forster's name at the very last or is this part of the fiction?

M. Pearl: I didn't read that -- that's an account of experiences with pirates in the early 1900s. I did read several account from the mid-19th century, though, of sailors who were captured by pirates. Can't ask for research that's more fun than that!

SeniorLearn: Matthew, did your research reveal what motivated Dickens to focus on the disastrous, addictive effects of opium on those who did not seem to be using it for medicinal or healing purposes in this, his last novel? Was it personal, or was he addressing what he saw as another of the major problems confronting the poorer classes?

M. Pearl: Great question, and I think the answer is both. Dickens was increasingly reliant on opiate medicines as he became ill in various ways in those last few years, and also he observed the way opium use was becoming an escape in an increasingly wild urbanized enviroment. We see both things crop up in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, of course, and in different forms in The Last Dickens.

Publishing was learning how to create a market for escapism, and so were the burgeoning drug dealers. And the mystery --of an unfnished book or an exotic drug -- was too much for many people to resist getting hooked on.

SeniorLearn: Do you have a personal opinion about where Dickens might have been going with his novel, Matthew? I read somewhere in an interview, I think it was - that you thought that Dickens did not know how he would end it at the time of his death.

M. Pearl: Personally I do believe Dickens would not have had a settled plan for an ending--from looking at the evidence of his writing process for his other novels and also for MED. That's not to say I think he was flying blind. I'd bet he had several paths he had ready to follow, but was taking it piece by piece as he usually did. I think that either Edwin Drood or Edwin Drood's father, who had the same name, would have come into play in the second half. There is conflicting "evidence," of course, for everything--which is part of the fun.

SeniorLearn: From the tale you've told in the Last Dickens, I sense that you believe there might be other explanations of what happened to Edwin Drood...including the idea that he may not have been murdered at all - Eddie Trood LIVES! Do you think it is reasonable to believe that Dickens has an idea, perhaps not thought out in detail yet, but an idea of whether or not Edwin Drood had been murdered by his Uncle Jasper?

M. Pearl: Here is some of what I say in my introduction to the Modern Library edition to MED:
Quote The longstanding assumption that Dickens knew how the novel would end – and the vague suspicion that it is our own deficiency that we haven't deduced his conclusion yet – emanates from two primary sources. First, there seems to be an unspoken fantasy about Dickens, because of his great mastery and consistency as a storyteller, that the novels emerged more or less complete from his head. Second, despite some excellent scholarship on the subject, the process of writing in the serial-novel format of the nineteenth century is still not widely appreciated.

More of what I say in my introduction:
Quote Sending along Drood's first installment to Buckingham Palace in the spring of 1870, Dickens did offer to tell the Queen of England ‘a little more of it in advance of her subjects’. The novelist was more tight-lipped in two other remembered exchanges about Drood that took place as the novel was being published. Here is an account by son Charley:

Charles Dickens, Jr.: ‘Of course, Edwin Drood was murdered?’ Charles Dickens: ‘Of course; what else do you suppose?’

And another, from a separate conversation, recounted by Georgina Hogarth, Dickens's sister-in-law and confidante:

Georgina Hogarth: ‘I hope you haven't really killed poor Edwin Drood?’ Charles Dickens: ‘I call my book the Mystery, not the History, of Edwin Drood.’

The first exchange calls to mind the phrase ‘The Loss of Edwin Drude’ one of Dickens's early scribbled title choices, and the second evokes another title in the same list, ‘Edwin Drood in Hiding’. What these flashes of reflected memories give us are not answers but important indications that, in whatever detail Dickens had worked out his story, he wanted it to be a surprise even to those close to him. That he had offered a preview to Queen Victoria – though in language suitably gradual (‘a little more of it in advance’), rather than suggesting a full revelation of the ending – should remind us what a commodity surprise was to Dickens.

As for the name Drood, Edward Trood really was the son of the innkeeper across from Gadshill. That's one possibility. Here is another, from 1930s Dickens biographer Thomas Wright (who also mentions Trood): “The title of it was most likely taken from the name of a young man, Edwin Drew ( a correspondent of the writer of this book), who at the time the story was in hand happened to be in communication with Dickens. Mr. Drew, who was later well-known in journalistic and musical circles in London, was engaged on the Hampshire Chronicle; and, recollecting Dickens's early struggles and ultimate success, he had written to Dickens to ask respecting the possibility of gaining a livelihood by the pen in London, by one without money or friends. In reply, Dickens said, 'On no account try literary life here. Such an attempt must lead to the bitterest disappointment.' Like most other advice, however, it was not taken... It has also been pointed out that the landlord of the Sir John Falstaff inn just opposite Gad's Hill Place was named Trood. It was not Edwin Trood, however, but William Stocker Trood." Wright apparently didn't know the name of Trood's son (William Trood's brother, too, was Edward Trood, I believe).

But the name also might have been a process of experimenting for Dickens. We see that in his list of titles where he plays around with Edwin Brood--although that also could have evolved from Trood--and Drude.

Here is a bit about the local legend in Rochester that may have inspired MED... from Walters “Clues to Dickens's Mystery of Edwin Drood”: “A well-to-do person, a bachelor, was the guardian and trustee of a nephew (a minor), who was the inheritor of a large property. The nephew went to the West Indies and returned unexpectedly. He suddenly disappeared, and was thought to have gone on another voyage. The uncle's house was near the site of the Savings Bank in High Street, and when excavations were made years later the skeleton of a young man was discovered. The local tradition is that the uncle murdered the nephew, and thus concealed the body. Here is the germ of the plot of 'Edwin Drood,' and the mystery is not so much the nature of the crime as its concealment and eventual detection”

And of course I latch onto that for The Last Dickens A writer couldn't ask for material that's more fun than that!



SeniorLearn: Did Harper & Brothers office building really burn to the ground in 1853- six buildings were left in ruins?

M. Pearl:Yes, the Harper buildings did burn down in the 1850s, and the Harbers really did rip off their authors. I know, people don't believe me about the Harpers!

SeniorLearn: I enjoyed reading of Dickens' response to young Mr. Drew's question regarding the possibility of gaining a livelihood by the pen. 'On no account try literary life here. Such an attempt must lead to the bitterest disappointment.' I wonder what Mr. Pearl's advice would be to a similar question today?

M. Pearl:Well, being a writer is a bit more realistic today than in the 19th century--but still a tough path to take! The great thing today is there are so many forums for sharing one's writing, from traditional publishing to emailing short stories.

SeniorLearn: About the Historical note - my eyes flew open when I saw that Falstaff really was named William Trood! Together with PatH's post #310 containing Dickens' musings for names for his title character...he was rhyming with Trood! Remember Pat found the name James Wakefield on the list too. When you brought back Edwin Trood as Marcus Wakefield, did research on a James Wakefield lead to your decision on using his name?

M. Pearl: Dickens may have taken the name Wakefield from a Hawthorne short story about a man who reinvents himself and his identity--I thought I'd wink at that by combining Wakefield-Trood as a character.

SeniorLearn: I too think that the ending of the book is appropriate and would love to know if Matthew ever thought of ending it with more revelations about what happened to Edwin Drood.

M. Pearl: From the beginning, I wanted to do something a bit different than the speculation of how Mystery of Edwin Drood would end--which is interesting but has been done before. In a way, I wanted The Last Dickens to rewrite a new ending for MED rather than guess its ending. That is why my book has six installments--sort of a substitute or alternate to the missing six installments of the ending. Glad you enjoyed it!