The Mystery of Edwin Drood: An Unfinished Novel by Charles Dickens

Published after his death, Dickens brilliantly brings to life a broad cast of colorful characters in the never solved mysterious disappearance of one Edwin Drood, all set in the rural hamlet of Cloisterham around the Cathedral close.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Charles Dickens’s brilliant contribution to the field of crime and detection. In fact, the novel is even more of a mystery than Dickens himself intended, for he died before completing it, making it a favorite of literary detectives.

Against a background of opium dens, nocturnal graveyard visits, and moldering monastic crypts, Dickens weaves a tightly knit plot centered on the ominous disappearance of young Edwin Drood. Suspected of foul murder are John Jasper, a drug-addicted choir-master who hungers after Drood’s fiancée, and Neville Landless, a Ceylonese who had previously quarreled violently with the missing man. With dark, brooding atmosphere and masterful characterization, Dickens is at the height of his powers in this final work.

Table of Contents
Chapter 01: The Dawn
Chapter 02: A Dean, and a Chapter Also
Chapter 03: The Nuns’ House
Chapter 04: Mr. Sapsea
Chapter 05: Mr. Durdles and Friend
Chapter 06: Philanthropy in Minor Canon Corner
Chapter 07: More Confidences Than One
Chapter 08: Daggers Drawn
Chapter 09: Birds in the Bush
Chapter 10: Smoothing the Way
Chapter 11: A Picture And A Ring
Chapter 12: A Night With Durdles
Chapter 13: Both at Their Best
Chapter 14: When Shall These Three Meet Again?
Chapter 15: Impeached
Chapter 16: Devoted
Chapter 17: Philanthropy, Professional and Unprofessional
Chapter 18: A Settler in Cloisterham
Chapter 19: Shadow on the Sun-Dial
Chapter 20: A Flight
Chapter 21: A Recognition
Chapter 22: A Gritty State of Things Comes On
Chapter 23: The Dawn Again