The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
DICKENS, Charles.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
“How beautiful you are!": First edition of Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood
London: Chapman & Hall, 1870.
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Item Number: 136223
First edition in book form of Dickens’ final novel. Octavo, original cloth decorated in gilt, tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of dickens and additional engraved title, light yellow endpapers, 12 wood-engraved plates, 40 pages of advertisements at end. In very good condition.
Charles Dickens’ novels regularly revolved around masks, dual identities and other secrets. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, however, “enlarged and strengthened [such matters] in the pursuit of a larger vision, a vision which depicts the ‘lanes of light’ between the dark pillars of a crypt and which reflects upon ‘that mysterious fire which lurks in everything” (Ackroyd, 1056). Unfortunately, at the time of his death on June 9, 1870, Dickens had written only six parts of the book, three of which had been published. The remaining three were published posthumously. Dickens had so closely guarded the plot’s outlines, even from his closest friends, that to this day the identity of Drood’s killer remains a topic for speculation, discussion and debate. “There are few of [Dickens’] stories which are superior in the matter of composition… one of the best unfinished mystery stories in literature” (Eckel, 96). This tantalizing tale has been adapted in film and television several times.
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