The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood’s uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium addict, who is lusting after his pupil, Rosa Bud.
Miss Bud, Edwin Drood’s fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless. Landless and Edwin Drood take an instant dislike to each other. Later Drood disappears under mysterious circumstances. The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly disguised Rochester.
Upon the death of Dickens on 9 June 1870, the novel was left unfinished, only six of a planned twelve instalments having been written. He left no detailed plan for the remaining instalments or solution to the novel’s mystery, and many later adaptations and continuations by other writers have attempted to complete the story.
The novel begins as John Jasper leaves a London opium den. The next evening, Edwin Drood visits Jasper, who is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral and also his uncle.
Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud, which had been previously arranged by their respective fathers. 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, Jasper, having an interest in the cathedral crypt, seeks the company of Durdles, a man who knows more about the crypt than anyone else.
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