Last Dickens, The ~ Matthew Pearl ~ October Book Club Online

[Ella Gibbons]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome to join in.

Click register at the top of the page to create a username and password so that you can post messages in the discussions here on SeniorLearn.

 

Welcome! Everyone is invited! 

We are happy to announce that the author, Matthew Pearl, is joining us in the discussion of his  latest novel, "The Last Dickens," as he did with his "Poe Story"  and "The Dante Club.  Matthew's literary fiction picks up where Dickens left off in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."  The story of the fate of Edwin Drood is a mystery within a mystery. When young Edwin disappears after dinner on Christmas Eve and his watch and chain are later found in the nearby river, everyone suspects foul play. Could one of Edwin’s acquaintances have murdered him – and, if so, what could their motive be?  Tragically, the mystery is destined never to be truly solved, as Dickens died before he could finish this novel – all that is left are the clues that can be found in the completed chapters. Pearl  sends a partner of Dickens’ American publisher, James Osgood, to the Dickens' estate in England where we meet the "fugitives"  from the characters of Dickens' novel.  Is Edwin Drood dead or alive? Was he killed by his uncle, John Jasper? Or did he somehow escape that fate, possibly to return later?  We are anticipating more intrigue as Pearl's fictional characters search for answers in the author's well-researched fiction.

Chapter discussion schedule October 1-6:     First Installment ~ Chapters 1-10 ~ June, 1870 October 7-10:   Second Installment ~  Chapters 11-17 ~ November, 1867 October 11-13: :    Third Installment ~  Chapters  18-22 ~ June, 1870 October 15-17: Fourth Installment ~ Chapters 23-26 October 18-23: Fifth Installment ~ Chapters 27-29 Oct. 24-28:  Fifth Installment cont. -  Chapters 30 - 39 *October 29-31:  Sixth Installment ~ Chapter 40/Historical note Discussion Leaders: JoanP, Andy

Some topics for discussion  Oct. 29-31: Chapter 40/Historical Note ~ 

1. Why would Osgood confide his doubts that  Chapman lost the final pages of Dickens' novel in  Longfellow ? Do you agree with Longfellow,  that it was for the best that the end of Dickens' story is not available?

2 .What did Longfellow mean when he said that "all proper books are unfinished"?  "An unfinished Dickens novel is a mystery in itself."  Do you agree?

3.  If you could ask Dickens one question about his unfinished novel, what would it be?

4. Why would Chapman  not come forward with the final chapters if he had been able to transcribe them? 

5. Do you believe that Dickens did write the ending first and that the pages are waiting somewhere to be found?  Were you expecting to hear more from Frank Dickens - who also knew  the Gurney shorthand ?

6.  When all is said and done, do you believe that Edwin Drood was murdered by his uncle?


7. Which bit of factual information  caught you attention  in the Historical Notes ?

8. Are there questions you would like us all to consider or put to Matthew while he is still in our midst?
Readers' Guide Questions from FIRST  - FIFTH INSTALLMENTS
Related Links : SeniorLearn's Q & A with Author, Matthew Pearl; 19th century Boston publishing houses ; check out Mr. Osgood here; James R. Osgood Co. closes,  May, 1885 - NY Times ,    Listen to Matthew's Interview at the Parker House in Boston;  Dickens in America - by Matthew Pearl

Some Recent Questions for Matthew:http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/lastdickens/lastdickens_q_a.html

We are posting at the same time, Joan!

I forget the particulars about Mrs. Barton also, but it will all be made clear to us in the end.

Relative to the "opium theme" of this book, we find that Frank Dickens, son of Charles Dickens and chief police office in India, states this when arresting another policeman:

"it is our responsibility to ensure that the opim trade moves freely and safely through Bengal and to China.  In contributing to its disruption, you contribute to those who wish the European success around the world to fail.  You leave room for smugglers and traders far less reputable than those our government chooses to make partners in these endeavors-those harming not only the English, but the natives in India, in China, around the globe.  It is Bengal's right to share in the prosperity of civilization."

Wow! The world econmy depends upon the success of trading in opium!

[pedln]

Mymemory doesn't always serve me well, but I think it was from Rogers, when Tom Branigan caught him, that Osgood learned that Mrs. Barton was still alive.  And assumably in a mental institution.

There probably weren't too many of those for the "upper class"" -- isn'
t that what Mrs. Barton, was, and am I getting her confused with her real-life counterpart, so they could do some qucik eliminating.

Anyway, Osgood and Rebecca make haste to the McLean Asylum -- coming right from the ship.

[JoanP]

But Ella, we're at the end - these are the final chapters - everything has been revealed - but things are happening so fast, I forget some of the threads that hold the story together.  Aha - Pedln, thank you! - they learned from Jack Rogers that Mrs. Barton was alive?  (How would Jack know that?)  I thought it was curious that from Mrs. Barton's words, Rebecca knew exactly where Dickens had been going that night?  How did she recognize that address?

[Ella Gibbons]

Doesn't Rebecca recognize the address that Louise said -North Grove Street?  She probably knew somehow that the Medical College was there?  It would have been in the news wouldn't it?  A place where Dr. Webster murdered Mr. Parkman?  Surely she recognized the place.

[JoanP]

Yes, and now that I think about it - Rebecca lived in Boston - I can see how she knew about the murder and where it took place.
OK, but how did Jack Rogers know that Mrs. Barton was alive and living in the asylum in NY?  That was such an important bit of information - because it led right to the Medical College basement!

[marcie]

In Chapter 29, after Tom Branagan confronts "Datchery"/Jack Rogers, he tells Osgood and Rebecca that Mrs. Barton didn't die: "But the truth is that few women attempting suicide in that fashion ever possess the strength to cut their own skin  deep enough after they begin."

I didn't find a place in the book where it says how they knew that Mrs. Barton was in McLean Asylum in Somerville. I'm sure that "Constable Tom" could have located her. It may have been the only institution of its kind in the Boston area for the upper class.

I agree with Ella, that Rebecca would have recognized the infamous address, especially since there was talk earlier about the side trip that Dickens made to the medical college.

[marcie]

Back to the Latin motto on the original Harper logo: On the second page of Chapter 30, it says that the Major would say to each of his nephews and their grandsons as they came to work at Harpers:
"When my flame expires, let true hands pass on an unextinguished torch from sire to son." It goes on to say "This saying was also roughly the translation of the publishing house's Latin motto on the insignia of a flaming torch."

[marcie]

SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THROUGH CHAPTER 37

I think we needed to see the background chapters about the economy around opium in the India settings, and the addiction of Jack Rogers in the foreground, to understand the motivation of "Wakefield" to go to such lengths to kill people in order to keep the secrets around his opium business.

[ALF43]

Wow! The world econmy depends upon the success of trading in opium!

History reepeats itself.
Read about the shenanigans going on in the realm of the Columbian drug-trafficers.

[ALF43]

Wakefield "erased little Edward Trood" when he began enjoying opium with his uncle Nathan.  (A parallel here to Drood).  He understood the "unavoidable power of the drug-the need to oversee its arrangements not through a doctor or druggist but in the shadows and the cover of night."
Lord, how I hate that statement.  We haven't come very far, have we, from Wakefield's abhorrent and illegal drug lord practices?
This chapter shows what a couple of sociopaths he and Herman were.  Oh leet us not forget Iman the Turk who colluded with the likes of those two.

He went way out, didn't he Marcie?  He had his own secure line of ships to provide storage for the illegal drugs as he safely sailed into the harbors bribing and murdering whenever necessary.  Poor Daniel became one of his victims as he was bludgeoned, injected and ultimately run down by the omnibus.

[marcie]

Andy, wasn't Daniel heroic in trying to fulfill his responsibilities to Osgood? Wakefield recognized that he wouldn't be able to bribe, scare or torture the information about the manuscript out of Daniel.

[JoanK]

I admit to being very confused as to where we're supposed to have read in the book. I've been holding off comments on the next-to-last section, not sure people had read it. Now were on the last section?

[marcie]

JoanK, we're discussing the next to last installment (five)-- chapters 30-39--  now through October 28.

[JoanP]

Wakefield!  A drug lord!  He runs the whole operation!  You know what I think is curious?  
The guys involved with the opium ring - the smugglers, Turner, Herman...Wakefield.  None of them seem to be addicted to the drug.  I guess they might be - but we get no indication of that.
But Jack Rogers - he is not involved in the drug trade, but the guy is addicted. He's a victim.  I count him as one of the good guys.  He tried to talk others out of using opium. I'm wondering when it was that people became aware of the addictive nature of this wonder drug that cured whatever ailed you. 

I think that would be my one question for Dickens - if I only had one.  What were your plans for Dick Datchery in MED?  What was his background before he came to Rochester (to Cloisterham) - Why did he come to Cloisterham at this time, acting very much like an investigator.  (Let's put that question in the heading.)

  So, how long did it take you to figure out Wakefield was not the beneficent tea merchant who only meant well to Rebecca - and Osgood too, of course!  Matthew has served up a double whammy with this character, hasn't he?

JoanK - don't hold back - keep an eye on the schedule in the header and you won't get behind.  We want to hear from you before this discussion is over!

[PatH]

I forget exactly where it appears (somewhere before the end of chapter 39, since that's how far I am) but Wakefield was, in fact addicted to opium at one time, but managed to kick the habit.

[JoanP]

Good for him - I think.  It's difficult to congratulate him for anything!  I'm going to go back and read Chapter 39 again, PatH!  Thanks for that!

[ALF43]

I admit to being very confused as to where we're supposed to have read in the book. I've been holding off comments on the next-to-last section, not sure people had read it. Now were on the last section?

JoanK, we are up to chapter 39. You are welcome to exchange any information up to the end of that chapter .
Everyone shoud have completed the assignmnet by now!

[PatH]

SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE CURRENT SECTION:

Matthew gave us a tremendous clue in the name Wakefield.  I'm proud to say I spotted it (post 301) but he still fooled me somewhat.  Wakefield was the first name on Dickens' scribbled list working out possible names for Drood.  I saw this, but thought Wakefield couldn't actually be Trood, because of the club foot, not knowing that at that time they had braces that could restore relative normality.

Having read to the end of this section, and presumably knowing most of the answers, though I don't trust Matthew not to spring a few more surprises, I have to say I'm overwhelmed by the ingenuity of it all.  Starting with the unsolved mystery of MED, Pearl has thrown in a large number of facts about Dickens' life, plus a number of his possessions and the politics of opium, and constructed a really satisfying and consistent mystery and solution, with a huge number of details that turn out to be relevant.  Most satisfying.

I've just gotten back from the west coast, have loads more to say, but will defer it until tomorrow.

[PatH]

By the way, while I was in Portland, OR, of course I went to the magnificent Powells Books.  Matthew's edition of MED was the only one they had on their shelves.  I picked up my copy there, having not had a chance to get it before.

[marcie]

Pat, you are so right. Matthew's plotting is ingenious. All of these relationships are coming out in the end.

[ALF43]

Well, I for one must hang my head in shame.  I MISSED IT- totally!  I was very surprized to learn of the Wakefield identity and missed that reference Pat.  Rest up from your trip.

[ANNIE]

Is this what you were linking us to when it came to Opium Licking??  My gosh, they used it for all kinds of medical treatments.   What a shock!  When I read this I was amazed!

http://books.google.com/books?id=KwEAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA201&dq=opium+licking#v=onepage&q=opium%20licking&f=false

[Ella Gibbons]

What a chase, up and down the stairs, up and down in that fabulous elevator!  What a movie that would make!  Imagine that elevator, a moving parlor it was called, with a chandelier, couches, mirrors, carpeting!  Could Hollywood duplicate that?  Of course!

All I could find on that Sears Building in Boston, was this:

http://www.midtowncommunityworks.org/sears/scale.html

Matthew probably had a whale of a time writing that chapter!  All the characters in the book almost were in this chapter, Chapter 38.

Now, I am confused or have forgotten!  I can understand why Harper, and his minions, wanted the Dickens chapers, but why does Wakefield and Herman?

And we know after reading Chapter 39 that we may never know the ending of Dickens' tale, but I am waiting until tomorrow to finish the book - the Sixth Installment.

[matthewpearl]

Hi there!

Yesterday was spent mostly in Old Greenwich, CT for a luncheon event talking about The Last Dickens, and in traffic to and from there back home.

"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? "

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.

[JoanP]

Ella, at least we know that the Harpers and his Bookaneers were not desperate enough to kill to get their hands on whatever information James has found.  Remember that they don't know what it is that James is after.  I'm wondering how far Molasses would have gone to wrest the pages away from James, once he realized what they were?  

When I first began to suspect Wakefield was up to something other than selling tea, wooing Rebecca and being kind to James whenever he got in trouble, I thought he too  wanted Dickens'  pages, for profit, perhaps - maybe to publish them before Osgood had the chance.  And then we learned that Herman worked for him!  I guess we always knew Herman was intersted in the Dickens'  installments, from the opening chapters - when he killed Daniel.  So there is a tie-in between Wakefield, the  drug smugglers and the Dickens'  papers.

 
Pat H I NEVER put 2+2 together - that the NAME WAKEFIELD on Dickens list of names = Edward Trood.  I just now went back and read your post #310 -  and there it is!  How long have you known - how long did you sit on this information with your lips zipped tight? When I posted the other day about the drug smugglers not suffering from opium addicition - and YOU said that Wakefield was at one time - you were thinking of young Edward Trood's addiction, right!  Such restraint!

Was the list you published a real list from Dickens'  own papers - or part of Matthew's fiction?  I'm thinking perhaps that it is Dickens list - and Matthew's fiction created Marcus Wakefield?  There's something else about that list you posted - but I'll wait till we begin the SIXTH INSTALLMENT and the Historical Note - TOMORROW.

Ella , it appears that the smugglers, expecially Marcus Wakefield, formerly known as Edward Trood - feared that Dickens pages would contain incriminating evidence against the Drug cartel.   Edward Trood is also interested to see what Dickens had to say about the death of Edwin Drood - IF he revealed that Edwin Drood was NOT killed, then perhaps people would begin to question the death of little Edward - and reveal his identity.  

So, the Harpers and the Bookaneers want to steal whatever it is that James finds - The smugglers are afraid of what is Dickens'  work - and intend to kill James  and destroy the pages once they get their hands on them.

[JoanP]

Hello, there, Matthew!  Thanks so much for your response!  See, Annie, even Dickens had a growing addiction to opium!  It's a wonder that everyone at that period wasn't addicted one way or another - even colicky babies!  How long was it before the cause of the addiction was made public - and opium was no longer as readily available as aspirin? Did it go on into the 20th century - for some reason, I thought that the end of the 19th it had reached its peak.  But I'm not sure about that.

Now that we are nearing the end, Matthew, I hope you are prepared to be peppered with questions!

Can we talk today about Herman? Wasn't he the result of an abusive, traumatic childhood?  Somehow he fit the description of the sort of boy Dickens would have reached out to help, don't you think?  Was he too far gone, beyond help?  He had such loyalty to Wakefied - and Wakefield could not have cared less.  I guess I was waiting for Matthew to find a way to touch his heart - to give him one moment to repent - before he fell into the inferno. Did you ever once consider taking pity on this lost soul, Matthew?  Or was he to you, the personification of evil, rather than a lost boy...

[ALF43]

I've renamed your book Matthew.  I will call it Drugs and Thugs.
the drugs are rampant throughout the glove ; the Suez Canal gapping hither to yon for supplies to travel.

What a sad commentary this is but ever so true.
" America is the land of experimentation- a new religion, a new medicine, a new invention- if there is something to transform, Americans will throw away all constraints with the freedom of self-indulgence.  Alcohol makes man into beast, but opium makes him divine."

What does everyone think of Wakefield's obnoxious offer to Rebecca?

Joan- could Herman (as well as Matthew) be toying with us?

[JoanK]

Before I dash off to read the last installment, I must admit I'm fascinated by that elevator.

MATTHEW: you've done a great job of incorporatting interesting facts of the period into your story. Now this elevator. Can youtell us it's real sttory? (I assume it's real). How was it put in? How long did it run? Did it catch on fire? Were there others like it?

[matthewpearl]

This has nothing to do with the novel specifically -- it's interesting material but I simply didn't have room for it.

Still, some might be intrigued to know why Dickens might have skipped Chicago on his book tour.

Read my post on Dickens and Chicago.

[ALF43]

whoa Matthew, could it be possible that the nefarious Uncle is truly "Uncle Augustus?"  I feel sorry for Dickens, the guy was damned if he did, such as support the abandoned wife(s) and damned if he didn't (continue his tour in Chicago.)
The guy seems pulled at every end and much like today';s papparazzi the press has entirely too much freedom when it comes to common courtesy. 

[JoanP]

Andy, I think Wakefield's "proposal" to Rebecca indicated that he knew nothing about her - except that she had a pretty face.  I particularly liked it when she told him that she could have loved Eddie Trood, but not the fraud that he was.  (The exact words escape me.)

Despite the title, the true subject of the novel is not Edwin Drood but John Jasper, the nefarious uncle of young Edwin who seeks to steal away Edwin's presumed lover by doing away with his nephew. Edwin appears to be inspired by Dickens's own sons. If Edwin is a surrogate son of Dickens, could Edwin's famous uncle Jasper be... Chicago's own Augustus Dickens?

The media attention to Augustus's case brought about by Dickens's American tour would have forced Dickens to at least think long and hard about a brother he had tried to forget. The character of John Jasper has a dual persona—publicly respectable and family-oriented, while secretly sordid and twisted. Matthew's Dickens in Chicago.

Gosh,  I'd almost forgotten John Jasper!  In Matthew's tale, Uncle Nathan got out the way early - killed someone else - who turned out NOT to be his nephew after all.  Could Dickens' Uncle Jasper have killed someone other than Edwin Drood - thinking that he did?

If you  could ask Dickens just one question about his MED, what would it be?

[marcie]

Edward Trood's uncle Nathan didn't actually kill anyone, did he?  I think Wakefield said that they found a dead body and put that body in the wall of the uncle's house to mislead others.

It is possible that Jasper could have killed someone else, instead of Edwin Drood. That would be complex plotting too!

Definitely, I would ask Dickens what happened to Edwin Drood!!

JoanP, earlier you asked whether we thought that Herman had any redeeming qualities and I don't think so. In Chapter 29, Yahee says that the other captives on the pirate ship were horrified at the brutality of the pirates but young Hormazd "seemed to absorb rather than repel the grotesque lessons of the pirates... he did not seem to cherish any particular notions of right and wrong." After his terrible upbringing (and, perhaps, malfunction of his brain--genetic or opium induced), I don't think that he could be changed.

[marcie]

Matthew, thank you for that article about Dickens' brother. I hadn't heard about him and his abandoning of his blind wife and moving to America to live with another woman.

 Charles banished his own wife, and supported Nelly (and her mother!) but I assume he still supported his wife also.

[PatH]

The elevator in the Sears Building fascinates me, too.  It says something about its speed that it would be worth the bother of sitting down on a couch while going up a 7 story building.  I couldn't find a picture of it, but I did find one of the Sears Building.

Sears Building

Scroll down a page to figure 188.  It seems to be the building to the left of the tallest building in the picture of several buildings.

[PatH]

Marcie, I agree that Herman isn't redeemable.  On page 348 (early in chapter 28) , Rebecca says "It's Mr. Wakefield who has made you what you are, Herman!  He made you into a pirate."

"I was born one, lassie."

JoanP, yes, the list of possible names and titles was found among Dickens' papers.

On p. 340, Wakefield himself describes kicking the opium habit via a long sea voyage.

[PatH]

Wakefield/Trood had several reasons for needing to destroy the ending of "Drood".  It was thought that Trood was killed because he knew too much about the opium smuggling.  Wakefield was already losing business because rumors were circulating, as a result of the book, that Trood was alive.  Presumably he could expose the business.  If people were certain, they would probably stop trading with Wakefield altogether.  Also, once Trood was known to be alive, the Wakefield disguise would be less secure, and someone might figure out who he was.

[PatH]

I really like the touch of saving the last chapter and finding it unreadable.  Chapman, Dickens' English publisher, shows up, and vows to try to get the old practitioners of the outdated shorthand to try to read it.

BUT, he's going to pull a fast one.  He says: "I have no doubt that for the right price their success in 'translating' this text will be assured.  Then he inquires carefully to be sure that no copy has been made.  He can safely produce anything he wants as the end.

[serenesheila]

I just finished Matthew's book.  I am both frustrated, and dissappointed.  Of course no one promised the solution to the "Mystery of Edwin Drood", would be forth coming.  However, I expected to have the mystery solved by the end of Installment 6.  Sighhhhhhhhh

A part of what I am feeling, is tired of reading.  I think the two books, one right after another, were too much at one time, for me.  I feel as if I have been living with Edwin, and his mystery, for months.  Actually, it has only been two months.  I do not plan on reading an unfinished mystery, again.  Nor, two books with the same topic.

I enjoyed both James Osgood, and Rebecca.  The rest of the characters, in both books, confused me.   Too many for me to keep track of.  My memory is like a sieve, at this stage of my life.  LOL

Sheila

[matthewpearl]

Hi everyone

"1. MATTHEW: you've done a great job of incorporatting interesting facts of the period into your story. Now this elevator. Can you tell us its real story? (I assume it's real). How was it put in? How long did it run? Did it catch on fire? Were there others like it? "

That is the first elevator in Boston, and certainly others followed. I had a vision very early on in planning the story that I'd have a climactic scene using the first elevator, though I didn't know exactly what the scene would be (sometimes you start with a setting, sometimes the setting comes later). All the details about the elevator are real. Here is a scene that I cut out with the elevator that would have appeared early on in the novel. Later, although I don't have the year in front of me, the whole building burned down.

"2. Did the sale and addiction to opium continue into the 20th century? For some reason, I thought that by the end of the 19th it had reached its peak. "

In The Last Dickens we witness it making a transition as opiates started to be labeled as poison and be restricted from the market. This created a whole new drug dealing trade in the West (as opposed to the drug trade that had already existed in the East). By the end of the 19th century (over the thirty years following The Last Dickens) other drugs would be introduced including heroin and cocaine to the trade, but it was opium that established the structures of the trade for many years to come.

"3. Did you ever once consider taking pity on Herman and give him a heart, Matthew? Or was he to you, the personification of evil, rather than a lost boy? "

That's a bit of an interpretation question that I'll leave to you, whether or not Herman has a heart--but we could say he has a job to do, and does it very well, no? I certainly see him as someone who was forged into who he was at a young age and manipulated.

[matthewpearl]

This is on my website, but for those who haven't had a chance to explore there, here is an actual image of Charles Dickens's special type of (unreadable!) shorthand: