Mystery of Edwin Drood ~ Dickens ~ September Book Club Online

[PatH]

The Mystery of Edwin Drood - by Charles Dickens

Had Dickens lived to complete "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," his 15th novel would have been one of his major accomplishments, say many of his critics. The novel was scheduled to be published in twelve installments  from April 1870 to March 1871. Only six of the installments were completed before Dickens's death in 1870, which left the mystery half finished. "The ideal mystery is one you would read if the end was missing," writes Richard Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe. Reading and discussing an unfinished mystery is a unique experience, especially when shared with a group. Will we agree with the critics, or go mad trying to figure out what he intended for the young engaged couple introduced at the start of the book?  And what has become of young Edwin Drood? Help us track down clues as we read along ... and then we'll each propose our own ending during the last few days of the discussion.

Chapter discussion schedule September 1-6: 1-6 September 7-13: 7-12 September 14-20: 13-18 September 21-27: 19-23 This unfinished mystery is available in several places on the Internet at no cost but you might want to purchase the book or borrow it from your library, in order to read one of the editions, such as the Penguin Classics, that has useful footnotes.

Participate in the poll, above, on the fate of Edwin Drood. Also vote in our poll on the identity of Datchery.


See the previous questions and related links.

Discussion Leaders: Deems, Marcie

[PatH]

Wow!  Wait until they all drag their mattresses back to their own dorms and give it to the remaining students.  I hope "District 9" is an overstatement of conditions (don't know if you've seen the movie).

[ANNIE]

Deems,  I am hoping that "the powers that be" are wrong at your school.  How do they test for H1N1?We have had several students in both the elementary and high school down with it but I still don't know how to identify it.  In my son's family who attend both schools, there were four infected out of six family members and they all had so many different symptoms, it was awful and the dr were saying this could last as long as 10 days and then return!!! Ugh!!  I too had some kind of bug at the same time.  Who knows???  None of us had H1N1.
I am still reading the last chapter and am completely confused as to who the murderer is.  I do remember reading in the Penguin book, reading that Dickens knew what the ending would be as the final chapters are all written with the murderer, in jail and up for hanging, telling of his devious plan.  No hint as to who that might be.  Hmmmm, I must read my other book to see what those brilliant detectives have deduced.  They do get wordy though.  Will return after reading their ideas.

[Deems]

Anne--There's a blood test that identifies H1N1.  It looks like they are putting anyone with cough, sneeze etc. in what I am now thinking of as Lockdown.  

Pat H--Yes, it sounds like exactly the wrong thing to do, doesn't it.  Our secretary (who is a good friend and also from Maine where practical people are raised) was outraged about conditions yesterday morning.  Apparently the situation has gotten worse.  I just got a four page memo on guidance for how to take leave in the event of a "pandemic shutdown." I didn't see "District 9."  Could you give me a brief plot summary?

I need to get more information so I can figure out what to do with next week's plans.  

Anne--Not to worry--the book just stops at the end of the final installment.  Remember that it is HALF what it was intended to be.

[PatH]

I didn't see "District 9."  Could you give me a brief plot summary?

It's a Sci-Fi action movie.  The relevant point is that a bunch of aliens, captured over Johannesburg, has been subjected to a sort of apartheid, being confined to the infamous "District 9".  An actual slum of Johannesburg, slated to be torn down, was used as the set for District 9, and it's overcrowded, ramshackle, shabby, falling down, full of filth and animal carcasses, etc.

Here's what I said about the movie in the Sci-Fi discussion:
As a birthday treat, my SIL took me to see "District 9"  We both agreed it's the best Science Fiction movie we'd seen in years--an incredibly good job.  BUT it is also extremely bloody, gross, and violent.  I have a strong stomach for these things, and it was about at my upper limit.

That said, it's an extremely well done combination of social commentary and shoot-em-up chases, with a plot that keeps you guessing and action so fast-paced that you are on the edge of your seat most of the time.  The special effects are really good, and so is the acting.

[JoanP]

How many single men live as Tartar does - wonders this mother of four boys...  The title of Chapter 22--"A Gritty State of Things" - and yet we find Tartar on the ready to host the meeting of the two young ladies, without advance notice so he could do a major clearnup.  So clean, a toothpick would be noted as being out of order.  The bathroom - "like a dairy."  I loved that!

So Helena and Rosa Bud meet in this ship-shape quarters - Rosa tells Helena she can never go back to Cloisterham, to Miss Twinkleton's - and it turns out that she will be staying in London BUT Neville is not to know this - not even that Rosa has been talking to Helena.  This is Helena's idea.  Is it because of Neville's feelings for Rosa?  What had Dickens'  been planning?  Everyone loves Rosa - Jasper, Neville, Tartar, Mr. Grewgious...Edwin?  I suppose this is where we must leave them now.

 What is the Gritty State of Things of the title? That chapter seemed so light in tone, comical, even -  I thought the REAL "gritty" state was the next chapter...and final chapter.  Perhaps John Forster arranged Chapter 22 and 23 into these two chapters - perhaps he even titled the chapter himself!  Matthew Pearl tells us that some reorganization was needed in preparing the 6th installment for printing.

 

"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)." M. Pearl

[Deems]

Joan P--I laughed at the mother of four sons' comment on the ship-shapeness of Tartar's digs.  Having seen a few bachelor pads myself, I agree.  But surely the chapter title reflects the end of the chapter with Rosa's comment on London, "'Cannot people get through life without gritty stages, I wonder,' Rosa thought next day, when the town was very gritty again, and everything had a strange and an uncomfortable appearance on it of seeming to wait for something that wouldn't come."  The day before Rosa was having her river jaunt with Tartar, having escaped the city.

Gritty old London, especially the area around Grewgious's office/chambers is wonderfully described at the very beginning of Chapter 11:  In an ancient part of London there is "a little nook composed of two irregular quadrangles, called Staple Inn. . . .It is one of those nooks where a few smoky sparrows twitter in smoky trees, as though they called to one another, 'Let us play at country,' and where a few feet of garden mould and a few yards of gravel enable them to do that refreshing violence to their tiny understandings."

Have you ever watched sparrows take dirt baths?  I think that's what's going on here.  Sparrows can enjoy themselves in any kind of situation and they always seem to make a life for themselves by adjusting.   

[JoanK]

"we find Tartar on the ready to host the meeting of the two young ladies, without advance notice so he could do a major clearnup.  So clearn, a toothpick would be noted as being out of order".

Don't forgetthat Tartar had been a sailor. The stereotype of sailors (whether true or not) was that they learned to keep everything "shipshape": clean, tidy, a place for everything, everything in its place.

No doubt that Rosa and Tartar are attracted to each other. Yet the tone of Dickens writing about Tartar is wrong for someone who will marry a heroine. 

[Deems]

JoanK--Please give me some examples of what you mean about the tone being wrong for Tartar to be a match for Rosa?  I'm missing it.  Perhaps the problem is that we haven't had any time to get used to them together?  Rosa has a wonderful time on the boat with him, and she even thinks what an observer might see watching her crossing the street with Tartar.  He's very good to her and he's a "man of the world" who is modest enough to start small.  He has inherited money (after he agreed to give up the navy) and he is starting small by having his window box garden to get used to living on land.  And he's neat.   And most likely he's a good cook.  What's not to love?

You're right about being in the navy.  One thing that is dangerous aboard ship is to have anyone who is not organized with belongings.  It is important that ropes be arranged in exactly the same way so that everyone will know where they are.  There can't be any unsecured items when rough water comes or lives are at risk.  It's one very organized life.  Neatness and having everything squared away is stressed!

[Deems]

Pat H--I forgot to thank you for the summary of "District 9."  It turns out that the movie is still playing.  I had assumed it was from last year (don't know why).  And somehow I had it in my mind that it was about zombies--again, no idea why.  It sounds like a movie I might even want to see, a different take on aliens.  I did love the original Alien movie, the one where the creature was born out of a man's chest, shrieking and then scuttling away at an incredible speed.  I've never forgotten that scene.  Sigourney Weaver was the star.

[PatH]

No doubt that Rosa and Tartar are attracted to each other. Yet the tone of Dickens writing about Tartar is wrong for someone who will marry a heroine. 

JoanK--Please give me some examples of what you mean about the tone being wrong for Tartar to be a match for Rosa?  I'm missing it.

I see it too, and at the moment I can't find the passages; I'll look further later.  It boils down to Tartar being a little too quirky.  Rosa is certainly attracted; she gets all a-flutter when she talks of him.  He's certainly eligible enough.

[Deems]

PatH--How was the Book Fair?  I thought of you and Joan when it began to rain.  Hope you had fun anyway--and took an umbrella.

[ANNIE]

Has anyone wondered why Nevile and Helena and their mentor are in this story??  Reminds me of a Poirot mystery where the brother and sister were actually husband and wife???  And why are they in Cloisterham??
I love the idea of Lisa and Datcher being a couple but they probably won't.  I am assuming that Dick Datcher is actually the aide to Grewgious, Bazzer?  Is that his name?  Why is  Datcher in Cloisterham talking to the opium Lady about Edwin having given her money to pay for a room on Christmas Eve before he disappeared?  So was she the last to see Edwin alive??? Maybe......

Does anyone remember reading the opium lady's remarks about Jasper talking to himself and saying that he was going to prevent someone from hurting his nephew???  By throwing him out a window???

[JoanP]

We had a great time at the National Book festival - Kirstin Downey is a doll.  We'll get our thoughts - and some photos up tomorrow.  Both Pat and I agree it was an exhausting day - but well worth it.  We left before the rain began in earnest, had lunch together at Jaleo (some of you will remember that tapas restaurant) and then made our way home on overcrowded Metro trains.

Annie, I have a hard time understanding why Princess Puffer is in Cloisterham - and more than that - why  she is so angry with Jasper,  a paying client during hard times.  She seems to be stalking him...coming up from London and then hiding during the service in the cathedral, shaking her fist in anger at him from behind a column - with Datchery watching the whole performance - keeping some sort of record on his chalkboard.  Does she know that Jasper has murdered his nephew?  

She feels gratitude towards Edwin who freely gave her three and sixpence on Christmas Eve  when she needed it - does she know from her session with Jasper, that he has done something terrible.  I remember reading that scene in the opium den - when Jasper tells her that he actually enjoyed doing it.  Does she want revenge?  Do you think that Dickens was planning to have the Princess point the finger at Jasper?

[ANNIE]

Joan
I didn't even consider Puffer's appearance odd but I should have. (The author's license?) I guess that when she told Datcher that Edwin had given her money for a ride or bed on that Christmas Eve, I was only thinking about her being the last person to see Edwin that night.
Are you also not wondering why Datcher is slinking around at the same time Puffer is hiding behind the pillar waving her fists at Jasper?  Is he doing some detective work for Grewgious???  Assuming that I am right in identifying him as "Bazzard",  Grewgious's aide de camp.
The book, "D Case"  that Marcie and I have both been perusing has a completely different perspective on this and quite a surprise solution at the end.  Poirot, Holmes and DePeau solve the case, I believe.

[Deems]

Such an intriguing--and maddening--last chapter.  When Jasper goes again to London to smoke opium with the Princess Puffer, she mentions that she thought he was dead because he has been away six months and she thought he couldn't go that long without the drug.  He admits that he has been taking it in his own way. 

But it's the part about the opium dreams Jasper has had before where he dreamed over and over again of doing the same thing.  He asks the Princess if she has done so and she has.  Jasper, in the closest we get to a confession tells her:  "I did it millions and billions of times.  I did it so often, and through such vast expanses of time, that when it was really done, it seemed not worth the doing, it was done so soon."  [footnote in Penguin cites the line from Macbeth "If it were done when 'tis done, them 'twere well/ It were done quickly."  But there's no gloss on the quote which suggests in the first part that a murder is not done when it's done, that something always follows.] 

In the drugged conversation Jasper admits to Princess that he has dreamed of doing "it" in exactly the same way every time he has dreamed it (all those previous opium dreams he had including the one from Chapter 1 where he attempts to strangle the Chinese man:  "Then he comes back, pounces on the Chinaman, and, seizing him with both hands by the throat, turns him violently on the bed.")

When Jasper finally lapses into sleep, Princess reveals, "I heard ye say once, when I was lying where you're lying, and you were making your speculations upon me, 'Unintelligible!'  I heard you say so, of two more than me.  But don't ye be too sure always; don't ye be too sure, beauty."

So we know that she heard what Jasper said (Chapter 1) and that she has become curious.  I think she intends to blackmail him--better money that way--and in order to do so, she needs to find out who he is.  Surely she can tell from his clothing that he is a "respectable" man, not like the sailors and others she serves.  And so she follows him to Cloisterham.

That's just speculation, of course.  But we know that she has heard him use the name "Ned" in previous dreams and that he was threatening him.  Pieces are there for her to put together if she can just get more information.

[JoanP]

Here's  a photocopy of the last page Dickens wrote  - in his own hand -
The very last image he's left us  -  

"Before sitting down to it, he [Datchery] opens his corner- cupboard door; takes his bit of chalk from its shelf; adds one thick line to the score, extending from the top of the cupboard door to the bottom..."

Datchery is surely a detective, Annie - but WHO is he?  He's got to be someone in disguise.  We'll never really know, will we?

 We've come full circle -   Dawn Again  - back in the opium den with the two characters we started out with - Princess Puffer and Uncle Jasper, worried about what he has said in his opium-induced dreams.  I'm thinking Dickens couldn't have planned it better...the symmetry.

Did you notice - in that last "maddening"  chapter -   when Princess P asks Jasper as she prepares him for his last "trip" - she notices he is dressed in mourning and asks who died:  

"Who was they as died, deary?
'A relation.l'
'Died of what, lovey?'
'Probably, Death.'

Can't you see Dickens sitting at his writing table, penning those lines on his last day?  PROBABLY, DEATH  Always that suggestion that Edwin is not necessarily dead!

No, what I really found chilling was Jasper's remark following the lines you quoted, Maryal,

"I did it millions and billions of times.  I did it so often, and through such vast expanses of time, that when it was really done, it seemed not worth the doing, it was done so soon."

 -

"It was pleasant to do so."

Pleasant!!!  

[Deems]

Thank you, Joan P, for the photocopy of the last page and the transcript.  So happy to see the transcript--I'm pretty good at deciphering handwriting, but a smallish hand with a dip pen--I'd rather not, thank you.

It looks like I did manage to catch some sort of flu--coughing, tight chest, low temperature (just over 100), painful tummy-- but we have been instructed to take leave if ill and I am happy to do so.  It's good to be home when my head is as scrambled as it is today. 

I find it interesting that Deputy has been brought back into the story.  I wonder what Dickens might have had in mind for him.  The boy is very observant, not to mention up at all hours keeping watch over Durdles in order to stone him home.  And here he is on this last page, watching. . . . .

[marcie]

I'm sorry that you're not feeling well, Deems. Thanks for the photocopy of that page, JoanP.

I'm changing my mind about who Datchery might be. I think that his suntanned face and hands and blue eyes wouldn't make Tartar a good candidate for the disguised Datchery. I thought, at first, that it wasn't Grewgious' assistant, Bazzard, because Bazzard seemed to have so odd a speech pattern when talking with Grewgious. But he's a play writer and would, I think, have access to costumes. Even though he's not successful putting his play on stage, I think he'd have some imagination. He also might come alive taking on a new role. He's one person who would not be known in Cloisterdam.

Good point, Joan, about Deputy taking on a bigger role now. I wish we knew what Dickens would have happen to all of the characters. They were all interesting to me.

[JoanK]

Oh, DEEMS, do take care of yourself. I'm sending you virtual chicken soup through the internet

JoanP: that page is fascinating. So glad I don't have to read his writing -- wwhoever did should get a medal.

The beginning sounds a bit confused, but the end is good. I'll bet Deputy wind up observing something that is key.I loved Dickens' comparing the choir robes to nightgowns. That's how I felt about them as a child in the choir. And the picture of the church, with everyone peeping and Jasper,oblivious! If this book had been finished, it surely would have ranked among his best.

This mysterious line that Datchery is making! Obviously the line of what happened. Modern mystery writers sometimes have their detectives marking patterns on papers on the wall: wonder if this is where they got it.

(I don't remember that scene from what I read. Have to go back and look).

[PatH]

I'm really glad we have as much of the last chapter as we do.  That's a remarkable scene in the opium den.  Jasper has certainly killed Edwin, or at least believes he has, and now he's starting to fall apart before our eyes.  I bet by the end of the book he's pretty raving.  Something odd happens, too.  Jasper is starting to relive his dream but his vision is disappointingly poor:

"...No struggle, no consciousness of peril, no entreaty--and yet I never saw that before."  With a start.
  "Saw what, deary?"
  "Look at it!  Look what a poor, mean, miserable thing it is!  That must be real.  It's over."

He then turns stuporous.  What did he see? Did something different happen during the actual attempt at murder?

[marcie]

Pat, yes, I too am wondering what Jasper saw in his latest vision. Did he finally see Edwin's dead body? Did he see himself punished for the crime?

JoanP, I also am wondering about Princess Puffer. She seems pretty sharp. She DID hear Jasper (in the very first pages of the book) say "indecipherable" when trying to listen to the others to see if they betrayed their opium dreams. It also appears that she has heard Jasper say some things during his opium stupors (including some foul play regarding 'Ned'). Why does she follow him and shake her fist at him? Is she somehow related to Jasper or Drood? I wouldn't put it past Dickens to make her a lost relative.

[marcie]

We've added a poll to the top of the discussion pages here. Vote (once) on what you think happened to Edwin Drood.

[Deems]

Pat H--I'm glad we have as much as we do too.  I think that Jasper might be thinking of how disappointing the dream fulfilled (murdering Edwin) was to all the anticipation he had of it in opium dreams.  Apparently Edwin did not cry out or struggle much or beg for his life, and it was quickly over.  It--the murder--just didn't live up to all that Jasper had anticipated: 

"...No struggle, no consciousness of peril, no entreaty--and yet I never saw that before."  With a start.
  "Saw what, deary?"
  "Look at it!  Look what a poor, mean, miserable thing it is!  That must be real.  It's over."

I think what Jasper never saw before was Death and that it turned out to be a "poor, mean, miserable thing" instead of the grand triumph--or whatever--he must have dreamed under the influence of opium.

Marcie--Given that this IS Dickens and he certainly is fond of intertwining characters and finding long-lost relatives--I think you might really be on to something.  Perhaps Princess Puffer had an interesting life before she became addicted to opium and maybe she was related to someone we already know. 

The possibilities are endless!

[Deems]

Everybody--Please go and vote for what you think happened.  Marcie has added a poll in the header.  Thank heaven Mr. Grewgious is not one of the candidates.

[PatH]

At any rate, a lot of details of Princess Puffer's actions are cleared up.  At the beginning of the book, she had heard Jasper plotting murder.  At that time she didn't know who he was.  She followed him, but lost him when he got on the omnibus.  Presumably she then took the next omnibus, but couldn't find him.  Probably she meant to blackmail him, before or after the murder, and maybe get money out of the proposed victim, too, if she could find him.  I wonder what she would have done if Edwin's answers had been less misleading.

[PatH]

OK, I voted, but none of the choices matched what I think exactly.

[JoanP]

I'm so curious to hear what you are thinking, PatH!    Imagine had Dickens died BEFORE he wrote this last chapter, Dawn Again!  It's in this chapter that we begin to see Dickens' plot unfold.   It's dawn in Cloisterham:

"Drowsy Cloisterham, when...was pretty equally divided in opinion whether John Jasper's beloved nephew had been killed by his passionate rival treacherously, or in an open struggle, or had, for his own purposes, spirited himself away."

Of course we know  it wasn't Neville.  Dickens has left us with the belief that Jasper must be a murderer, whether clouded by opium or no.  It is so obvious, there seems to be no other answer to what happened to Edwin.  Does this sound like Dickens?  Does this sound like a mystery, or rather a study of a murder, a murderer?  And yet Dickens on many occasions went out his way to stress that this is not the Murder of Edwin Drood, but rather the Mystery of Edwin Drood.  

I admit that everything is pointing to the fact that Edwin must be dead.  We know he had planned to wait for Mr. Grewgious to return the ring.  He wouldn't leave with that ring, would he?  He wants Rosa to have it someday.  If something happened that night between himself and Jasper, would he have left town without alerting Rosa, leaving her unprotected?  PatH, it is quite possible that the  "poor, mean, miserable thing"  Jasper saw - was Death - Edwin - who put up no fight, did not plead for his life...it was all like a dream, a dream he dreamed often under an opium cloud.  Could not this be yet another dream?

 I've no answer as to what has happened to Edwin - it's a mystery.  Still, this is Dickens.  He may have had an explanation planned. Perhaps  Edwin gave the ring to someone that night to give to Mr. Grewgious...

There are two key people who grew in importance in the last chapter.  Why is Princess Puffer so intent on Jasper's ramblings in the opium den?  As you say, maybe she is planning extortion - but why is she so angry with Jasper?  Why did she come from London to Cloisterham that Christmas Eve when she met Edwin? Did she come to Cloisterham  to warn him?
Then there's   Datchery.  Now isn't he a mystery himself!  Who is Datchery, really?   JoanK, there was previous reference to the chalk board Datchery keeps in the pantry -
"...he rises, throws open the door of a corner cupboard, and refers to a few uncouth chalked strokes on its inner side.
'I like the  old tavern way of keeping scores.  Illegible except to the scorer.

...Takes a bit of chalk from the shelf and puts up a moderate stroke...this after he learns where Princess Puffer lives in London - or that in the morning she's going to "the KIN-FREEE-DER-EL!"   this is Deputy's pronunciation.  But after seeing Puffer shake her fist - twice - at Jasper, Datchery decides that this action merits a thick broad chalk line on his scoreboard.  
Do you really think he's working for Mr. Grewgious?  Maybe we should have a poll - Who is Datchery?

Bottom line, I don't know what happened to Edwin...except I really don't think Dickens wanted to do away with the boy in the end.

[Deems]

Joan P, could it be possible that you are overly optimistic?  Dickens killed characters in other novels.  He let Little Nell die even though many of his readers wrote to him and begged for her life.  Silly Dora dies in David Copperfield.  And that's just a couple.  Of course neither Nell nor Dora was murdered, but hey, why not Edwin?

It's been six months since we've seen or heard from Edwin.  If he were alive, would he not have contacted someone?  Why would he simply wander off somewhere.  What about Egypt and his engineering job?  He was looking forward to that.  Wouldn't Jasper have checked with his employer to see if he turned up there?

He's dead.  I am convinced that he is dead.  Why would Durdles have been introduced as so prominent a minor character as well as Deputy?  Dickens must have had something in mind for both of them.  And now we have Princess Puffer shaking her fists at Jasper, in anger, one supposes.  Surely the reason for her anger would have been given in subsequent chapters. 

Where do you think Edwin is? 

And Pat H, I'm really curious to see what you think that there was no available button for in the poll.  Please do tell us.

[JoanP]

Hmmm, those are girls you mention - vulnerable little girls, much like Mary Howarth, his SIL who died at a young age.  It is said that her death hovered over him for the rest of his life.  He wore her ring always.  
 I think Dickens relates to his boys - boys who try to do the right thing, which Edwin was doing.  I haven't any idea where Edwin might be, if not dead.  But as I see it, there's not much plot if the killer  is so obvious to everyone... Can you imagine six more episodes waiting for Edwin?  The readers would have been stirred to a frenzy by the 12th episode.

[marcie]

Yes, I'm very interested to hear what you think, Pat. And anyone else, let us know where you think Drood could be if he is not dead.

Good suggestion, Joan, about a poll about Datchery. I can't put another poll in this discussion. I'll have to create a new one. Here is the poll for Datchery's identity: http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=839.0

[JoanK]

DEEMS: this book has converted me to a Dickens fan -- but partly because it lacks the treacly sentimentality I associate with other books of his I'vbe read. What are somme of his books with this tone? (I've read David Copperfield and Oliver Twist)

[Deems]

Joan K, you made my poor afflicted heart skip a beat!  I'm so glad you like Dickens in this mood.  I think that Bleak House is his greatest novel and it lasts a long time--very thick.  I haven't yet read Our Mutual Friend, also a late novel, but am planning to at some point.  Great Expectations is also wonderful. 

[marcie]

JoanK, I am with you in enjoying Dickens through this work. I may have been introduced to him too early in school and didn't appreciate him before.

[PatH]

I'm with you, Marcie.  Not counting Drood, I've read at least 6 Dickens novels, but the only one of those I've reread as a real adult is "David Copperfield", which I reread in 1992.  I was surprised at a lot of stuff I hadn't noticed before, and I bet if I read it now I'd see even more, because I'm still evolving as a fiction reader.

Deems, I rather liked Dickens, but would have asked the same question if JoanK hadn't.  "Bleak House" goes on my TBR list, pretty high up.

[marcie]

If it works into our reading schedules, maybe some of us can read Bleak House together.

[JoanP]

I would like to do Bleak House with this group, Marcie - but personally,  not for a while.  
I have tried to respond to the Datchery question a number of times - but must admit, I'm stumped!  He is surely in disguise, but whether it is someone we know already or have yet to meet in installments 7-12, I can't say.   Maybe it is someone we haven't met yet.  I have the feeling it's someone we've met before.  He seems to know so many personal things about Jasper that only his nephew would know.  Do you remember Edwin telling anyone - Crispsparkle for example, or Rosa - that his uncle was using opium?  How would Datchery know that?  I think knowing Datchery's identity is key to where Dickens was going with his tale.

Is this a case of - what if we held a poll - and no one posted an answer?

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to Matthew Pearl's Last Dickens- AND his participation in that discussion!  He's researched this book for the last three years - not only the book, but the peripherals - the  letters, illustrations, conversations, interviewsetc.  I'm interested in learning if he reached any conclusions of his own on the subject.  (And if he has, will he tell?)  

[PatH]

What I meant by no appropriate button: I think Jasper is the murderer, but we don't know if he succeeded (he thinks he did).  Edwin may still be alive.

[marcie]

Oh, that's a good thought, Pat.

JoanP, I'm looking forward to The Last Dickens discussion too. I'm sure we'll get more insights into Dickens and his writing of Drood.

[Deems]

Dear All,

Thank you for a most interesting discussion of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.  I have enjoyed it enormously and hope that some time in the future we can get together to tackle another Dickens (the others all have endings!)

Tomorrow we have the beginning of Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens.  I hope to see you all there!  I hope that Joan P is right, and we can get Matthew to divulge some of his thinking about Drood.  He must have done a lot of reading and thinking in preparation for his novel, and he has been wonderfully available and helpful in the past.

Maryal/Deems