The Mystery of Edwin Drood

By: Charles Dickens

Libby audiobook

Read by: David Thorn

Published: 1870 (this version 2006)

Genre: mystery, romance, adventure

I had not heard of this title before and I really like Dickens! As I was listening, I saw why this was not on a par with Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, etc. Then I got to the end and was confused. 

Wikipedia informed me that this book was not finished during Dickens' lifetime! No wonder it was not a well-known book! 

Half of the book was just introducing characters and scenarios . . . then the mystery happens just past the halfway point (of this book . . . knowing Dickens, it was going to go on for far longer). Edwin Drood disappears. Of course Neville Landless is suspected, but why did the guys on the road attack him and bloody him . . . who hired them?

I confess that I didn't listen as closely as usual because it was more jumpy and convoluted than usual. But getting to find out that Dickens didn't finish writing his story just leads to speculation. Was it the creepy John Jasper? Why would such a devoted uncle murder his beloved nephew? Did he do it just to fulfill his obsession with Rosa? What happened to the ring? Who else had a motive to get rid of Edwin Drood? 

My notes are messy . . .

• Rosa / Rosebud / Pussy . . . (Did Edwin call her Pussy as a form of endearment or to tease her? I know that word has different connotations now than 150 years ago, but it clearly irked her.)
• "love-making" - again . . . in the book's context this would be flirting, not sex.
• "hideous small boy" / this kid was a psychopath in training . . . 
• "I'm an angular man" - Mr. Grewgious says this over and over. What the heck does he mean?

 

Basically, I didn't like it and may or may not read it in print some day. It may be more interesting to read scholars' points of view on what Dickens was going for in this story. The vocal work was quite good.