Rochester, Kent, which becomes the fictional town of Cloisterham in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was well known to Dickens. He spent the happiest days of his childhood here when his father's job at the Navy Pay Office moved the family to Chatham from 1817 to 1822. At the time Drood was being written Dickens lived at Gad's Hill Place, two miles outside of Rochester. Dickens also used the area as a setting for parts of Pickwick and Great Expectations.
Staple Inn, one of the Inns of Court, dates from the 16th century and is the last example of Elizabethan architecture in London. Mr Grewgious has chambers at Staple Inn and finds Neville Landless rooms here. Furnival's Inn, another former Inn of Court, was adjacent to Staple Inn across Holborn, Charles Dickens lived here from 1834-37. Furnival's Inn was torn down in the late 19th century and the site now houses the Prudential Assurance Company where a bust of Dickens commemorates the author.
Possible Solutions
Possible solutions to The Mystery of Edwin Drood began to appear almost as soon as Dickens death was announced. Although Dickens' friend, John Forster, reported that Dickens had told him when planning the book that he had an idea for a new book where a nephew would be murdered by his uncle, many of the initial solutionist theories centered on Drood being alive and in hiding.
Attention was focused on the book's cover design, initially worked up by Dickens' son-in-law Charles Collins and redesigned by artist Luke Fildes, for clues as to the end of the mystery. Dickens had worked closely with his artists on the covers for the monthly parts of his works, foreshadowing events that would take place in the novels without really giving anything away. Nothing conclusive could be discerned from the Drood cover although later Fildes reported that Dickens had told him that Drood's uncle would strangle his nephew with his scarf.
Possible solutions to the book continue to this day in books such as Felix Aylmer's The Drood Case (1965) and John Thacker's Edwin Drood: Antichrist in the Cathedral (1990). Modern solutionist lean toward the guilt of Jasper who is experiencing some sort of split personality disorder.
While writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood Dickens had a private interview with Queen Victoria on March 9, 1870, less than three months before his death. Dickens reported to a friend that he told the Queen that if she were interested to know a little more of the mystery in advance of her subjects he would be happy to divulge his plans. The Queen never took him up on the offer.
Dickens' Death
Dickens' wished to be buried without pomp "in the small graveyard under Rochester Castle wall". These wishes went unheeded as the mourning nation buried him with honor in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Dickens left an estate valued at 93,000 pounds at a time when the average working man earned about 50 pounds per year.
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Published in monthly parts Apr 1870 - Sep 1870 Read it online | Buy it at Amazon.com 
Dickens' fifteenth novel, illustrated
by Luke Fildes, was his last
and was never completed. The story is a murder mystery in which Edwin
Drood is supposedly murdered and suspicion is cast on his uncle. Dickens
left exactly half of the monthly installments unfinished when, after
a day of working on the completion of chapter 22, he suffered a stroke
on June 8, 1870 and died the next day. Although early in planning
the novel Dickens told his friend John
Forster that he had an idea for a novel in which a nephew would
be murdered by his uncle, Dickens guarded the mystery very closely
while writing the story. Much conjecture about the actual outcome
of the novel has taken place and The Mystery of Edwin Drood
remains a mystery to this day.
The story is set in the Cathedral town of Cloisterham. Edwin Drood and Rosa Bud, both orphaned, had been promised to each other in marriage by their parents. Their attachment, made in early childhood, has cooled as they are reaching adulthood. Edwin's uncle and guardian, John Jasper, choirmaster and opium addict, is Rosa's music teacher and is secretly in love with her. Helena and Neville Landless, orphans from Ceylon, are brought to Cloisterham by their guardian, the 
pompous Luke Honeythunder, Neville to be tutored by the Cathedral's
Minor Canon, Septimus Crisparkle, and Helena is housed at the Nun's
House where Rosa lives, run by Miss Twinkleton. Neville is attracted to Rosa and quarrels with Edwin over his indifferent treatment of his future wife. The quarrel later turns violent at Jasper's residence, fueled in part by strong drink supplied by Jasper. A reconciliation is sought by Reverend Crisparkle and the two agree to meet at Jasper's on Christmas Eve. Drood meets with Rosa's guardian, Hiram Grewgious, at his chambers at Staple Inn in London. Grewgious gives Drood a ring, taken from the finger of Rosa's dead mother, with instructions to give the ring to Rosa on the date of their betrothal, and cautions him that if he has doubts of his love for Rosa that he will return the ring to Grewgious. Drood journeys to Cloisterham from London for Christmas and meets with Rosa. They mutually agree to end their relationship as lovers and cancel their marriage plans. They also agree not to tell Jasper of their decision as Drood feels the cancellation of their impending marriage will be a shock to his uncle. They agree that Grewgious will inform Jasper of their decision. 
Jasper goes with Durdles, the sexton, on a mysterious tour of the
Cathedral. Durdles has the ability to tap on the tombs and determine
the contents and Jasper, plying Durdles with liquor as they go, is
interested in this ability. On Christmas Eve Neville plans for a two week walking tour during the holidays. That evening Neville and Edwin meet at Jasper's for the reconciliation as a terrible storm hits the area. The two leave together to walk down to the river to observe the effect of the storm. Next morning, Christmas Day, as the townspeople observe the damage done by the storm, Jasper informs them that Edward Drood is missing. Suspicion is cast upon Neville and he, having left early in the morning on his walking tour, is brought back to town by a group of townspeople. Neville angrily declares his innocence and, lacking hard evidence, is released by Mayor Sapsea to Reverend Crisparkle. Foul play in Drood's disappearance is confirmed when Crisparkle finds Drood's watch and shirt-pin in the river. Grewgious informs Jasper of Edwin and Rosa's decision to break off their engagement and Jasper is deeply upset. Jasper vows to find the killer of his nephew. Six months pass and Neville, shunned by the town, has been spirited away to London by Crisparkle in chambers near Grewgious in Staple Inn. He befriends a neighbor, Mr. Tarter, a former member of the Royal Navy and old friend of Crisparkle. Grewgious spots Jasper lurking nearby apparently watching Neville. 
Back in Cloisterham, Jasper meets Rosa, declares his love for her,
and swears revenge against Neville for the death of Edwin. Rosa, terrified
of Jasper, flees to London and confides her fears to Grewgious. Grewgious
finds her lodging with Mrs. Billickin. Miss Twinkleton comes to London
as Rosa's chaperone and Helena comes to live with Neville. A mysterious visitor appears in Cloisterham, Dick Datchery, a man of indeterminate age with an unusually thick shock of white hair and a military bearing. He seems to take covert interest in John Jasper and takes lodging near Jasper's. He hires the boy, Deputy, to watch Jasper and keeps a log of his findings in chalk on his cupboard. Jasper, meanwhile, has visited Puffer, the opium woman in London and in an opium trance he relates information of a strange, metaphorical journey that he has taken many times. Puffer listens attentively to these revelations and, hearing that Jasper will go back to Cloisterham that evening, goes there before him where she meets Datchery and finds out that Jasper sings in the Cathedral. Next morning Datchery observes her there watching Jasper. ...at this point the novel suddenly stops. |
| Principal Characters: Edwin Drood Rosa Bud John Jasper Neville Landless Helena Landless Canon Crisparkle Hiram Grewgious Bazzard Miss Twinkleton Mrs. Tisher Thomas Sapsea Luke Honeythunder Durdles Deputy Mrs. Billickin Datchery Tartar |
The Mystery of Edwin Drood Links: The Dickens Page The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Gaslight Possible Conclusions Datchery, The Enigma The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Frederic G. Kitton Luke Fildes - Illustrator for Edwin Drood Wikipedia - Edwin Drood Edwin Drood - The Last Page
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Cloisterham
An ancient city, Cloisterham, and no meet dwelling-place for any one with hankerings after the noisy world. A monotonous, silent city, deriving an earthy flavour throughout from its Cathedral crypt, and so abounding in vestiges of monastic graves, that the Cloisterham children grow small salad in the dust of abbots and abbesses, and make dirt-pies of nuns and friars; while every ploughman in its outlying fields renders to once puissant Lord Treasurers, Archbishops, Bishops, and such-like, the attention which the Ogre in the story-book desired to render to his unbidden visitor, and grinds their bones to make his bread.
A drowsy city, Cloisterham, whose inhabitants seem to suppose, with an inconsistency more strange than rare, that all its changes lie behind it, and that there are no more to come. A queer moral to derive from antiquity, yet older than any traceable antiquity. So silent are the streets of Cloisterham (though prone to echo on the smallest provocation), that of a summer-day the sunblinds of its shops scarce dare to flap in the south wind; while the sun-browned tramps, who pass along and stare, quicken their limp a little, that they may the sooner get beyond the confines of its oppressive respectability. This is a feat not difficult of achievement, seeing that the streets of Cloisterham city are little more than one narrow street by which you get into it and get out of it: the rest being mostly disappointing yards with pumps in them and no thoroughfare - exception made of the Cathedral-close, and a paved Quaker settlement, in colour and general confirmation very like a Quakeress's bonnet, up in a shady corner.
 April 1870 Dickens is in poor health and has been ordered by his doctors to abandon the very popular reading tours as the new novel begins publication. Sales of the early monthly parts were very good, reaching 50,000 per month. Death of friend, artist Daniel Maclise. May 1870 Death of friend, Punch editor Mark Lemon. June 1870 On June 8th Dickens worked on Edwin Drood at Gad's Hill Place, completing the 6th (of a scheduled 12) monthly part (3 months ahead of publication). At dinner that evening he suffered a stroke and died the next day. July 1870 The first of three final monthly parts of the novel are published posthumously. September 1870 Publication abruptly stops with exactly half of the novel finished, and the Mystery of Edwin Drood still a mystery. |
