The Problem of 'Edwin Drood': A Study in the Methods of Dickens

We now proceed to give such external testimony as exists of the plans and intentions of Dickens. The chief authority is, of course, the _Life_ by Forster. We have in addition th...

1. The external testimonies as given in a previous chapter are all explicit as far as they go in their testimony that in the intention of Dickens Edwin Drood was murdered. There...

In discussing this problem we have no aid from external evidence. It seems that the question was not raised by the critics of the time. We are thrown upon internal evidence, and...

How _Edwin Drood_ was to end is a problem which can only be solved to a certain extent. We find we are left in the middle, and as much mystery remains as fully justifies the tit...

company till we get to the middle. After that there is an abrupt cessation. There are not more than half a dozen new characters named in the second part, and all of them are who...

Much attention has been given to the illustrations on the wrapper and their significance. So far as I can find, the question was first raised in the _Spectator_. On 1st October...

The materials for the solution of the ‘Edwin Drood’ problems must first of all be found in the text of the unfinished volume. Hitherto it has not been observed that the book we...

The first serious discussion of _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ came from the pen of the astronomer, Mr. R. A. Proctor. Mr. Proctor wrote various essays on the subject. One appears...

One opposing theory is that Datchery was Drood. With all respect for the scholars who have propounded it, this appears to me a purely comic notion. It is the most fantastical of...

sister-in-law that he was afraid the Datchery assumption in the fifth number was premature. Dr. Jackson gives us a full and valuable examination of the manuscript so far as its...

Mrs. Chadband; chapter xx., Young Smallweed and Jobling, _alias_ Weevle; in chapter xxi., the Grandfather and Grandmother Smallweed, Judith Smallweed, Mr. George, trooper (Uncle...

Dickens has left us one-half of his last story. It was to be completed in twelve parts, and six parts were published. We can only infer and guess at the way in which the author...

rewritten and pasted on. Chapter xxiii. is also a good deal corrected. Near the beginning we have the following: ‘The Cathedral doors have closed for the night; and the Choir-ma...

husbands of Mrs. Badger are recalled. Chapter xiv. brings Mr. Turveydrop and his son, also Allan Woodcourt, the young surgeon, and we have mentioned the ‘old lady with a censori...