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This page refers to the 1870 novel by Charles Dickens.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Title page of one of the six monthly instalments in which this novel was first published.
Author	Charles Dickens
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Chapman & Hall, London
Publication date	1870
ISBN	0198124392
Preceded by	Our Mutual Friend

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and readers have often speculated what the ending might have been. The novel is named after Edwin Drood, but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a hypocritical choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fiancée, and has caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon) with his twin sister, Helena, and immediately makes an enemy of Drood. It is hinted strongly that Jasper is the murderer of Drood, who is missing at the end of the extant text, but it is not known whether Dickens had a surprise in mind.

The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly fictionalised Rochester, and feelingly evokes the atmosphere of the town as much as its streets and buildings.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Characters 3 Original publication 4 Continuations 5 Adaptations 5.1 Films 5.2 Theater 6 Pop culture references 7 References 8 External links

The novel begins as a man, who we later learn is John Jasper, leaves a London opium den. The next evening, Edwin Drood visits Jasper, his uncle, who is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral. Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud. The next day, Edwin visits Rosa at the Nuns’ House, the boarding school where she lives. They quarrel good-naturedly, which they apparently do frequently during his visits. Meanwhile, having an interest in the cathedral cemetery, Jasper seeks the company of Durdles, a man who knows more about the cemetery than anyone else.

Neville Landless and his twin sister Helena are sent to Cloisterham for their education. Neville will study with the minor canon, Rev. Crisparkle; Helena will live at the Nuns’ House with Rosa. Neville confides to Rev. Crisparkle that he had hated his cruel stepfather, while Rosa confides to Helena that she loathes and fears her music-master, Jasper. Neville is immediately smitten with Rosa and is indignant that Edwin prizes his betrothal lightly. Edwin provokes him and he reacts violently, giving Jasper the opportunity to spread rumours about Neville's reputation of having a violent temper. Rev. Crisparkle tries to reconcile Edwin and Neville, who agrees to apologize to Edwin if the latter will forgive him. It is arranged that they will dine together for this purpose on Christmas Eve at Jasper’s home.

Rosa’s guardian, Mr. Grewgious, tells her that she has a substantial inheritance from her father. When she asks whether there would be any forfeiture if she did not marry Edwin, he replies that there would be none on either side. Back at his office in London, Mr. Grewgious gives Edwin a ring which Rosa’s father had given to her mother, with the proviso that Edwin must either give the ring to Rosa as a sign of his irrevocable commitment to her, or return it to Mr. Grewgious. Mr. Bazzard, Mr. Grewgious’s clerk, witnesses this transaction.

Rosa and Edwin amicably agree to end their betrothal. They decide to ask Mr. Grewgious to break the news to Jasper, and Edwin intends to return the ring to Mr. Grewgious. Meanwhile, Durdles takes Jasper into the cathedral crypt. On the way there Durdles points out a mound of quicklime. Jasper provides a bottle of wine to Durdles- the wine is mysteriously potent, and Durdles soon loses consciousness; while unconscious he dreams that Jasper goes off by himself in the crypt. As they return from the crypt, they encounter a boy called Deputy, and Jasper, thinking he was spying on them, tries to strangle him.

On Christmas Eve, Neville buys himself a heavy walking stick; he plans to spend his Christmas break hiking around the countryside. Meanwhile, Edwin visits a jeweller in order to repair his pocket watch; it is mentioned that the only pieces of jewellery that he wears are the watch and chain and a shirt pin. By chance he meets a woman, who is an opium user from London. She asks Drood's Christian name, and he replies that it is ‘Edwin’; she says he is fortunate it is not ‘Ned,’ for ‘Ned’ is in great danger. He thinks nothing of this, for the only person who calls him ‘Ned’ is Jasper. Meanwhile, Jasper buys himself a black scarf of strong silk, which is not seen again during the course of the novel. The reconciliation dinner is successful, and at midnight, Drood and Neville Landless leave together to go down to the river and look at a wind storm that rages that night.

The next morning Edwin is missing, and Jasper spreads suspicion that Neville has killed him. Neville leaves early in the morning for his hike; the townspeople overtake him and bring him back to the city. Rev. Crisparkle keeps Neville out of jail by taking responsibility for him: he will produce him anytime his presence is required. That night Jasper is grief stricken when Mr. Grewgious informs him that Edwin and Rosa had ended their betrothal; he reacts more strongly to this news than to the prospect that Edwin was dead. The next morning Rev. Crisparkle goes to the river weir and finds Edwin’s watch and chain and his shirt pin; no other trace of him is found.

A half year later Neville is living in London near Mr. Grewgious’s office. Mr. Tartar introduces himself and offers to share his garden with Landless; Mr. Tartar’s chambers are adjacent to Neville’s above a common courtyard. A stranger, who calls himself Dick Datchery, arrives in Cloisterham. He rents a room below Jasper and observes the comings and goings in the area. On his way to the lodging the first time, Mr. Datchery asks directions from Deputy. But Deputy will not go near there for fear that Jasper will choke him again.

Jasper visits Rosa at the Nuns’ House and professes his love for her. She rejects him, but he persists; he says that if she gives him no hope, he will destroy Neville, the brother of her dear friend Helena. In fear of Jasper, Rosa goes to Mr. Grewgious in London.

The next day Rev. Crisparkle has followed Rosa to London. When he is with Mr. Grewgious and Rosa, Mr. Tartar calls on him and asks if he remembers him. Rev. Crisparkle remembers him as the one who years ago saved him from drowning. They do not dare let Rosa contact Neville and Helena directly for fear that Jasper may be watching Neville, but Mr. Tartar allows Rosa to visit his chambers in order to contact Helena above the courtyard. Mr. Grewgious arranges for Rosa to rent a place from Mrs. Billickin and arranges for Miss Twinkleton to live with her there so that she can live there respectably.

Jasper visits the London opium den again for the first time since Edwin’s disappearance. When he leaves at dawn, the woman who runs the opium den follows him. She vows to herself that she will not lose his trail again as she did after his last visit. This time she follows him all the way to his home in Cloisterham; outside she meets Mr. Datchery, who tells her Jasper’s name and that he will sing the next morning in the cathedral service. On inquiry Datchery learns she is called “Princess Puffer.” The next morning she attends the service and shakes her fists at Jasper from behind a pillar.

Dickens's death leaves the rest of the story unknown.

• Edwin Drood – an orphan. When he comes of age, he plans to marry Rosa Bud and go to Egypt, doing engineering with the firm where his father had been a partner.
• Rosa Bud – an orphan and Edwin Drood’s fiancée. Their betrothal was arranged by their fathers.
• John Jasper – the choirmaster of Cloisterham Cathedral, Edwin Drood’s uncle and guardian, and Rosa Bud’s music master. He secretly loves Rosa. He visits an opium den in London.
• Neville and Helena Landless – twin orphans. They are from Ceylon, but it is not clear to what extent they are Ceylonese. In their childhood they were mistreated and deprived. Neville is immediately smitten by Rosa Bud. He is more proud than is good for him, and his integrity prevents him from making an insincere apology to Drood. Helena and Rosa become dear friends.
• Rev. Septimus Crisparkle – minor canon of Cloisterham Cathedral and Neville Landless’s mentor.
• Mr. (Hiram) Grewgious – a London lawyer and Rosa Bud’s guardian. He was a friend of her parents.
• Mr. Bazzard – Mr. Grewgious’s clerk. He is absent from that post when Datchery is in Cloisterham. He has written a play.
• (Stony) Durdles – a stonemason. He knows more than anyone else about the Cloisterham Cathedral cemetery.
• Deputy – a small boy. “Deputy” is not his name but rather a handle he uses for anonymity. If he catches Durdles out after 10 pm, he throws rocks at him until he goes home. Durdles pays him a halfpenny for doing so.
• Dick Datchery – a stranger who takes lodging in Cloisterham for a month or two.
• Princess Puffer – a haggard woman who runs a London opium den frequented by Jasper. She is unnamed in most of the book. “Princess Puffer” is the handle by which Deputy knows her.
• Mr. (Thomas) Sapsea – a comically conceited auctioneer. By the time of Drood’s disappearance he has become Mayor of Cloisterham.
• Mr. Tope – the verger of Cloisterham Cathedral.
• Mrs. Tope – the verger’s wife. She cook’s for Jasper and rents lodging to Datchery.
• Miss Twinkleton – the mistress of the Nuns’ House, the boarding school where Rosa lives.
• Mrs. Tisher – Miss Twinkleton’s assistant at the Nuns’ House.
• Mrs. Crisparkle – Rev. Crisparkle’s widowed mother.
• Mr. Honeythunder – a bullying London philanthropist. He is Neville and Helena Landless’s guardian.
• Mr. Tartar – a retired naval officer. He resigned his commission in his late twentys when an uncle left him some property, but he lives in London, being unaccostomed to the space of a large estate.
• Mrs. Billickin – a widowed distant cousin of Mr. Bazzard. She rents lodging in London to Rosa and Miss Twinkleton.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood was scheduled to be published in twelve installments (shorter than Dickens's usual twenty) from April 1870 to March 1871, each costing one shilling and illustrated by Luke Fildes. Only six of the installments were completed before Dickens's death in 1870. It was therefore approximately half finished.

• I - April 1870 (chapters 1-4);
• II - May 1870 (chapters 5-9);
• III - June 1870 (chapters 10-12);
• IV - July 1870 (chapters 13-16);
• V - August 1870 (chapters 17-20);
• VI - September 1870 (chapters 21-23);
• VII - October 1870 (planned);
• VIII - November 1870 (planned);
• IX - December 1870 (planned);
• X - January 1871 (planned);
• XI - February 1871 (planned);
• XII - March 1871 (planned).

Supplying a conclusion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood has occupied writers from the time of Dickens's death to the present day, even involving some trying to get into spirit contact with the dead author. Two of the most recent of these posthumous collaborations are The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens and Leon Garfield (1980) and The Decoding of Edwin Drood (1980) by Dickens and Charles Forsyte. There was also a humorous continuation by the Italian tandem Fruttero & Lucentini.

To date, there have been four film adaptations of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The first two were silent pictures released in 1909 and 1914. They are unavailable to the general public and have been little-seen since they were released. These were followed by:

• The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) released by Universal Pictures and directed by Stuart Walker, starring Claude Rains, Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel, Valerie Hobson, and David Manners.
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993).

See also: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (musical)

Almost immediately following Charles Dickens's death, playwrights and theater companies have mounted versions of The Mystery of Edwin Drood with varying degrees of popularity, success, and faithfulness to the original work.

The first modern major theatrical adaptation was a musical comedy with book, music, and lyrics by Rupert Holmes. The production, originally known by the full name of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, but re-titled halfway through its original run to simply Drood,^[1] was first produced in 1985 by the New York Shakespeare Festival, and then transferred to Broadway, where it ran for 608 performances (and 24 previews). It won five 1986 Tonys, including Best Musical, as well as Drama Desk and Edgar awards. The musical has since played successfully in numerous regional and amateur productions.

Because Dickens's book was left unfinished, the musical hinges upon a novel idea: the audience decides by vote which of the characters is the murderer. Though it seems fairly clear that, barring a twist, John Jasper is Dickens's main suspect, the musical's suspect pool is broadened to include other characters such as Neville Landless, Rosa Bud, Helena Landless, Rev. Crisparkle, Princess Puffer, and Mr. Bazzard. Adding further interactivity, the audience also chooses one male and one female character to develop a romance together: Holmes wrote brief alternate endings for every possible voting outcome, even the most unlikely.

• In 2005, Charles Dickens became, for one episode, a character in the science-fiction television series Doctor Who. In the episode "The Unquiet Dead", Dickens encounters the Doctor and helps the time traveller fight off a ghostly alien invasion on Christmas Eve, 1869. During this episode, Dickens is portrayed by Simon Callow as an abrupt, inflexible individual, who believes he has experienced all that the world has to offer and refutes all suggestions by the Doctor regarding the true nature of the Gelth. The episode ends with Dickens declaring that his adventure with the Doctor has given him a new outlook on life in that there is so much more than he originally thought, excitedly states his intention to incorporate his adventure with the Doctor into his work in progress, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and that the murderer would be revealed as one of the "blue elementals" that he'd encountered that night. The Doctor, upon departing 1869, sadly notes that Dickens would never get to finish his tale by saying "In a week's time, it will be 1870, and that's the year he dies".
• Edwin Drood also is the name of a fictional band from the TV series Jonathan Creek, possibly a parody of the band Uriah Heep, who also owe their name to Dickens.

• The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Searchable HTML version.
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood - An analysis explaining Edwin Drood's themes and allusions, and offering a solution to its mysteries, including the identity of Datchery and Jasper's split personality.

v • d • e Works by Charles Dickens
Novels:	The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837)  · Oliver Twist (1837–1839)  · The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1838–1839)  · The Old Curiosity Shop (1840–1841)  · Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty (1841)  · A Christmas Carol (1843)  · Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–1844)  · The Chimes (1844)  · The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)  · The Battle of Life (1846)  · Dombey and Son (1846–1848)  · The Haunted Man (1848)  · David Copperfield (1849–1850)  · Bleak House (1852–1853)  · Hard Times (1854)  · Little Dorrit (1855–1857)  · A Tale of Two Cities (1859)  · Great Expectations (1860–1861)  · Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865)  · The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished) (1870)
Short stories:	"A Child's Dream of a Star" (1850)  · "Captain Murderer"  · "A Christmas Tree" (1850)  · "What Christmas is, as We Grow Older" (1851)  · "The Poor Relation's Story" (1852)  · "The Child's Story" (1852)  · "The Schoolboy's Story" (1853)  · "Nobody's Story" (1853)  · "The Seven Poor Travellers" (1854)  · "The Holly-tree Inn" (1855)  · "The Wreck of the Golden Mary" (1856)  · "The Perils of Certain English Prisoners" (1857)  · "Going into Society" (1858)  · "The Haunted House" (1859)  · "A Message from the Sea" (1860)  · "Tom Tiddler's Ground" (1861)  · "Somebody's Luggage" (1862)  · "Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings" (1863)  · "Mrs Lirriper's Legacy" (1864)  · "Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions" (1865)  · "Mugby Junction" (1866)  · "No Thoroughfare" (1867)  · "George Silverman's Explanation"  · "Holiday Romance"  · "Hunted Down"  · "The Lamplighter"  · "The Signal-Man" (1866)  · "Sunday Under Three Heads"  · "The Trial for Murder"  · "A House to Let" (1858)  · "The Long Voyage" (1853)
Other works	Sketches by Boz (1836)  · Master Humphrey's Clock (1840–1841)  · American Notes (1842)  · Pictures from Italy (1844–1845)  · The Life of Our Lord (1846, published in 1934)  · A Child's History of England (1851–1853)  · The Uncommercial Traveller (1860–1869)  · In Memoriam W. M. Thackeray the first!  · A Coal Miner's Evidence