The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

10 – Smoothing the Way

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. It is a mystery indeed; the serial novel was just half completed at the time of Dickens’ death – leading to much speculation how it might have ended.The novel is named after Edwin Drood, one of the characters, but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood’s fiancée, and has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless! Landless comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena. Neville Landless and Edwin Drood take a dislike to one another the moment they meet.The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly fictionalised Rochester (in Kent, England). Rochester is close to Dicken’s country house Gad’s Hill Place, where the final chapter was written and where Dickens died.Adapted by Alan Chant from the Edwin Drood entry in Wikipedia.

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The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens