Welcome, Joan Grimes--delighted to have you with us! Please have any reaction you want and tell us. We're interested in what everyone has to say here.
Has anyone thought about how Dickens' readers here in the States must have longed for the ship to arrive with the latest installments? Reading aloud was evening entertainment for whole families--no worries about the material being "family friendly" here. I suspect that the younger children would have nodded off after hearing Chapter 1, perhaps with visions of elephants, sultans, a Chinaman and a Lascar. But said young child would have missed the opium dream completely--as I did upon first reading. It took me a second reading to catch on.
If my hypothetical child had stayed awake until the end of the chapter, perhaps she would have trembled when she heard the words about the "wicked man" at the end.
Joan P--Thanks so much for condensing some of the information on opium use in the 19th century for us! Opium was widely available, in one form or another, including cough medicines for children. It was an important drug in the days before antibiotics when all one could do with the seriously ill was to make them feel better, to ease their pain.
It seems though that John (Jack) Jasper's pain is more psychological than physical. Did you all notice how he treated the other inhabitants of the shabby room in London? He assumes that what the others say in their dreams is "unintelligible," concluding that people's dreams must somehow be aligned with their station in life, that educated folks will have one kind of dream, and poor sailors quite another. And yet, if you think about it, the Chinaman may have been mumbling in Chinese. Makes me wonder what Jasper's mumbling sounded like to others.
Thanks, Pat H, for the lines from the evening service. Dickens' readers would surely have recognized the invocation from evening prayer, especially the English readers. Nowadays we (I) need a footnote. At any rate, the suggesting is that this man, the one whom we have followed from London, may in fact be a wicked man. (I'm so sorry that your perfumed book gets to you. Be careful to hold it well away!)
Marcie--thank you for making a separate page of links for a reader's guide, just the sort of preparation that I admire--and seldom think of doing.
Mrs. Sherlock--Good to hear that you have made it to Chapter 3. There is a story here, after all. Thank heaven it's not all an opium dream or we would all have to throw the book at a wall! Don't let the notes bother you--they are not required and you can always read them later.
Pedln and Joan K--I really hope that books make it to you, one way or another. I don't like reading novels online either. There's just something about turning pages and marking passages that I enjoy + the smell of paper (much better than perfume).
OK, folks, what are your first impressions of Jasper and the other clerics? Actually I should simply say of Jasper and the clerics since he himself is not ordained. He's the choir/ music director, but not a minister.
And Edwin Drood? Does he impress you? Are you taken with this young man or with his slightly older uncle Jack?
Over to you, our night-tripping fairy Gum. Expecting to see you've been here when I log in tomorrow.
Poll