A Dickens Whodunnit: Solving the Mystery of Edwin Drood

Interesting exhibition at the Dicken’s Museum looking at his last unfinished novel “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.

Over 250 solutions have been proposed to the unfinished novel in essays, films, books and more. A lovely diagram set out the two crime scenes, Cloisterham (Rochester) and London as the book had been set in real places. These gave maps showing where people lived and an outline of the characters.

The exhibition also has the table from the Swiss Chalet on which he wrote the last words. There was a fascinating section on a re-enacted trail of John Jaspars held in 1914 by the Dicken’s Fellowship with G.K. Chesterton as the judge and Bernard Shaw as the foreman of the jury! It seems to have fallen apart as Chesterton held everyone in contempt of court!

Other sections looked at film, stage and TV versions of the story and Howard Duffield’s collection of Drood books.

 

 

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