From the Paper
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens was the last work of the author and has been widely discussed and written about not only for that reason but also because it was unfinished and thus poses something of a problem for critics and readers. The book is thus a mystery in a double sense, leaving the reader uncertain whether Dickens intended that John Jasper was the murderer of his nephew Edwin Drood.

... how Dickens started the novel in the usual way by writing the first two installments. The ideas that were behind this story had been written in Dickens's notebook some time before. The idea of two young people who had been separated for many years after having been pledged to be married was written down as early as 1861 or even 1857, and by the middle of 1869 he was hard at work developing his... "

Abstract
One of the mysteries of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" is the question that lies at the heart of all mysteries; ' whodunnit'? But there is another, at least as compelling question at the heart of this mystery, which how did author Charles Dickens intend for this novel to end? And, why does this unfinished novel read so very much like a finished novel? The paper shows that despite the fact that the story is often performed by theater companies that allow the audience to guess what the intended ending might have been, thus emphasizing the unfinished nature of the book, the novel itself seems oddly complete. This paper proposes one possible solution to the unfinished novel, one that is consistent with the tone and intent of what Dickens himself wrote.

From the Paper
"This improvised ending takes up where Dickens laid down his pen and assumes "as do many of the proposed endings to this novel" that Edwin is not really dead. To understand why this is the logical solution, we must go back in time to John Jasper's Christmas Eve party. During this party, Neville finds his antagonism toward Edwin diminishing because of Edwin's own friendliness and disarming openness to Neville. They are also drawn together by the fact that each of them believes that there is something peculiar about Jasper: Their increasing distrust of him draws the two of them together."

Tags:Edwin, Drood, Rosa, Bud, Neville, Landless