Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #235468 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review

Check out these other great works (hundreds of volumes):

Ultimate Handheld
Bible Library
(121 volumes, 1 Million + Links)

Ultimate Handheld
Classic Library
(more than 1000 works)

Ultimate Bible
Study Suite
(8 volumes, 1 Million + Links)

Customer Reviews

Dickens's Dying Words.
If Charles Dickens had lived to finish this, this book would probably have been a phenomenal masterpiece. (Sadly, it was not to be.) The material that he did manage to write displays some of his best abilities. We meet John Jasper who does a lot of good work at the cathedral. He also instructs the young Rosa in music. Edwin Drood (John Jasper's nephew who is 20 and only 6 years younger than his uncle) and Rosa are to marry. But they start to get cold feet when they realize that it is at least possible that they are getting married because everyone expects them to. We also meet Durdles who is a grave stone maker who ironically lives in a: "...little antiquated hole of a house that was never finished." He and John Jasper start to become friends. (Interesting.) We then meet Helena and Neville Landless. By his own confession, Neville is: "...false and mean." Later, Rosa confesses she is afraid of John Jasper. (He seems to be paying too much attention to her during her music lessons.) In an interesting scene Neville and Edwin start to fight, and Jasper alternates between trying to provoke it and cease it. We then meet the eccentric, but virtuous lawyer Mr. Grewgious. He has come to see Rosa to discuss the terms of her father's will. And again, Rosa is starting to realize the wedding is somewhat prearranged: "My poor papa and Eddy's father made their agreement together." The final straw is when Edwin realizes that he is to use the same wedding ring that Rosa's deceased mother wore. Interestingly, many scenes of graveyards are presented in this final and unfinished work of Dickens. Durdles in fact talks of a disturbing dream. Well, Rosa and Edwin agree to put things on hold and think about the decision more carefully. With good symbolism, Dickens presents us with a storm to foreshadow some bad events. Edwin disappears and John Jasper blames or at least makes a show that he blames Neville. Did John Jasper murder Edwin and set Neville up to take the fall? We don't know, and we never will. Though it does seem just a bit too obvious. (Only 2 novels earlier, in his "Great Expectations" Dickens did a great job of misleading us into thinking Miss Havisham was Pip's benefactor when it turned out to be Magwitch.) Interestingly, Jasper seems to grow upset when he hears that Rosa and Edwin had put their wedding plans on hold. (Again, this would lead us to believe that Jasper is thinking he could have had Rosa without foul play, but we don't know and we never will.) Interestingly, Jasper himself admits that Edwin disappeared and may still be alive. (But we never see him again.) We can only speculate that Dickens may have intended to bring Edwin back. (Somewhat like he did to Walter in "Dombey and Son." Walter was presumed drowned, but he did survive and live to marry Dombey's daughter and be part of the happy ending.) Well, later the Reverend Crisparkle finds Edwin's watch at the bottom of the icy river. (So we at least know that Edwin was probably assaulted, but we will never know if he is alive or dead. We can only speculate.) Neville is released, but he is suffering the damage of a ruined reputation. (Even when one is judged innocent of murder, suspicion still lingers in people's minds.) Jasper again meets with Durdles. We can not help but wonder why Jasper seems so close to a man who makes grave stones. (The obvious reason is of course that if he were to perform murder, it may be of use to have a friend who can provide a few graveyard favors.) Jasper then admits his feelings for Rosa, and she is of course horrified. Naturally, this leads Rosa to suspect that Jasper murdered Edwin to get to her. But again, there are questions. If he was guilty of murdering Edwin, why does he risk revealing a motive when the heat from Edwin's disappearance is still hot? And especially when Neville has just been released? In terror, Rosa runs to the eccentric, but virtuous lawyer Mr. Grewgious. (Why not? If he is a lawyer who has served her family well, Rosa knows everything she tells him is confidential.) The benevolent Grewgious offers her sanctuary and then puts her up in an apartment at least until he can figure out more about the situation. Grewgious begins to dislike Jasper. So, Jasper has a motive, indications of a murder have been shown (the finding of the watch), and the hero Mr. Grewgious starts to suspect Jasper. Cut and dry case? Not on your life! A new character enters just as the book ends. And it is impossible to doubt this new character would have had some major influence in the events of this story. Sadly, we never will know how this was to end. But if we can get past this, the material that WAS written does show some of Dickens's strongest work. Enjoy your everlasting peace Mr. Dickens.

"I have been taking opium for a pain, an agony that sometimes overcomes me."
Set in Cloisterham, a cathedral town, Dickens's final novel, unfinished, introduces two elements unusual for Dickens--opium-eating and the church. In the opening scene, John Jasper, music teacher and soloist in the cathedral choir, awakens from an opium trance in a flat with two other semi-conscious men and their supplier, an old woman named Puffer, and then hurries off to daily vespers.

Jasper, aged twenty-six, is the uncle and guardian of Edwin Drood, only a few years younger. Drood has been the fiancé of Rosa Bud for most of his life, an arrangement made by his and Rosa's deceased fathers to honor their friendship, and the wedding is expected within the year. Jasper, Rosa's music teacher, is secretly in love with her, though she finds him repellent.

When two orphans, Helena and Neville Landless, arrive in Cloisterham, Helena and Rosa become friends, and Neville finds himself strongly attracted to the lovely Rosa. Ultimately, the hot-tempered Neville and Drood have a terrible argument in which Neville threatens Drood before leaving town on a walking trip. Drood vanishes the same day. Apprehended on his trip, Neville is questioned about Drood's disappearance, and Jasper accuses him of murder.

Tightly organized to this point, the novel shows Jasper himself to be a prime suspect, someone who could have engineered the evidence against Neville, but Dickens unexpectedly introduces some new characters at this point--the mysterious Dick Datchery and Tartar, an old friend of Rev. Mr. Crisparkle, minor canon at the cathedral. Puffer, the opium woman, is reintroduced and appears set to play a greater role, since she solicits information from the semi-conscious Jasper and secretly follows him. This is the halfway point in the projected novel, and Dickens clearly planned to develop these new (or reintroduced) characters to deepen the mystery.

More modern in many ways than his previous novels, the characters here are not simple stereotypes--some are good people who have real flaws and make mistakes. Dickens's tying of Jasper to the church choir, where he was a soloist, suggests some examination of the theme of hypocrisy, in which the good Mr. Crisparkle would be Jasper's antithesis. The opium scenes, vividly drawn, carry the unusual suggestion that opium leads to a kind of intoxication similar to that of alcohol, and Dicken does not use these scenes to offer dire warnings about the drug--at least at this point. Especially intriguing because it is unfinished, this novel continues to fascinate mystery lovers and literary scholars more than a century after its first publication. Mary Whipple

Bleak House (Signet Classics)
Barnaby Rudge (Penguin Classics)
Hard Times

FOR LOVE OF ROSEBUD
What men will do to woo this pampered heroine! Published as a real mystery Dicken's last novel--the more tantalizing because it remains unfinished--offers readers the case of young Edwin Drood. Vanishing
from the world of men on a stormy Christmas Eve his body was never found (at least not in the 270 pages of the extent novel). Foul play seems evident when his watch and shirt pin are discovered by the weir. Set in the fictitious cathedral town of Cloisterham the story opens in a shabby London opium den; in fact, the opium hag makes odd appearances during the novel--possibly holding the key to the mystery of the "dear boy's fate.

Dickens' scholars concur that the character of the John Jasper is villainous right at the outset--cruelly capable of devious schemes, patient planning for an obsessive goal, and precise execution of his dark intent. Snakelike he can mesmerize his helpless victims with his stare and intense mental powers. John Jasper's external persona is one of musical talent and benign avuncular affection; as the cathedral's soloist and choir master he is respected and praised. Very few people realize that he possesses a dark side which runs viciously deep.

Most of the novel is set is Cloisterham, but six months after Edwin's scandalous disappearance many of the characters travel to London for various purposes. It is amazing that so many men fall for the charms of a young, spoiled girl-woman who lives at Nun's House to complete her education: her fiancé, Edwin, naturally, his brooding uncle, John Jasper, newcomer Neville Landless, bronzed sailor Mr. Tartar and even her middle aged guardian, Mr. Grewgious. These male characters turn their lives upside down to impress/court/protect Rosebud, as she is nicknamed.

No one knows how Dickens planned to resolve the mystery and punish the guilty or reward/exonerate the innocent, though speculation among scholars and mystery writers may prove a delightful and a scholarly occupation. Dickens apparently desired to present an in-depth study of the criminal mind, in all its complexities and moods.
NB: Jasper, not a gemstone though sometimes perceived as such, is
very hard, appears variously as green, red or brown; it also possesses an opaque quality. Despite John Jasper's penchant for evil he occasionally evinces a few streaks of tenderness. Perhaps the author deliberately chose this name for this refined antagonist, to slyly indicate his complex nature.