The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

Crisparkle tries to reconcile Edwin and Neville, who agrees to apologise to Edwin if the former will forgive him. Edwin provokes him and he reacts violently, giving Jasper the opportunity to spread rumours about Neville's having a violent temper. Neville is immediately smitten with Rosa and is indignant that Edwin prizes his betrothal lightly. Crisparkle that he had hated his cruel stepfather, while Rosa confides to Helena that she loathes and fears her music-master, Jasper. Crisparkle Helena will live at the Nuns' House with Rosa. Neville will study with the minor canon Rev.

Neville Landless and his twin sister Helena are sent to Cloisterham for their education. 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. They quarrel good-naturedly, which they apparently do frequently during his visits. The next day, Edwin visits Rosa at the Nuns' House, the boarding school where she lives. Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud, which had been previously arranged by their respective fathers. The next evening, Edwin Drood visits Jasper, who is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral and is also his uncle. The novel begins as John Jasper leaves a London opium den.

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. Upon the death of Dickens on 9 June 1870, the novel was left unfinished in his writing desk, only six of a planned twelve instalments having been written. The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly disguised Rochester.

Later Drood disappears under mysterious circumstances. Landless and Edwin Drood take an instant dislike to each other. Miss Bud, Edwin Drood's fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless. 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 lusts after his pupil, Rosa Bud. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens