Book description
Charles Dickens's final, unfinished novel has inspired generations
of speculation ...
Choirmaster John Jasper is a man of deep hypocrisy. His public
reputation is flawless yet privately he leads an immoral life,
frequenting squalid opium dens. And although outwardly he seems
delighted with the betrothal of his nephew Edwin Drood to Rosa Bud,
one of his choristers, secretly he is consumed by jealousy.
But he is not alone in hoping for Edwin's demise. Among others,
hot-tempered Neville Landless has also made an enemy of Drood - so
when Edwin disappears, at whom should the accusing finger point?
Charles Dickens was born in Landport in Portsmouth on 7 February
1812. Sent to work in a blacking factory at the age of twelve, after
his Navy Pay Office clerk father was imprisoned for debt, Dickens's
memories of this unhappy period haunted him throughout his life and
influenced much of his writing. After stints as a clerk and a
shorthand reporter in the law courts, Dickens became a reporter of
parliamentary debates for the Morning Chronicle until the huge
success of his first books enabled him to become a full-time author.
Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870, leaving his last novel The
Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished.
Peter Ackroyd's biography of Charles Dickens was published in 1990
to enormous critical acclaim. He has also written another major
biography, T. S. Eliot, which was awarded the 1984 Whitbread
Prize and was joint winner of the Royal Society of Literature's
William Heinemann Award. Peter Ackroyd's novels include The Last
Testament of Oscar Wilde, Milton in America, Chatterton, The
Clerkenwell Tales and The Fall of Troy and his
non-fiction works include Ezra Pound and his World,
Chaucer and London: The Biography, among others. His
most recent biography is Poe: A Life Cut Short.
