The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by Charles Dickens. The novel was left unfinished at the time of Dickens' death, and readers have often speculated what the ending might have been. The novel is named after Edwin Drood, but it mostly tells the story of his uncle, a Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque choirmaster named John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud is Drood's fiance, and has caught the eye of the high spirited and hot tempered Neville Landless, who comes from Ceylon with his twin sister, Helena, and immediately makes an enemy of Drood. In the musical version (see below) all of these, along with the Reverend Crisparkle, whom the Landless twins live with, a mysterious opium dealer called only the Princess Puffer, and Rosa's guardian's servant, Mister Bazzard, are all considered possible suspects.

Trivia

• In 2005, Charles Dickens became, for one episode, a character in the science fiction series Doctor Who. In the episode The Unquiet Dead, Dickens encounters the Doctor and helps the time traveller fight off a ghostly alien invasion on Christmas Eve, 1869. The episode ends with Dickens declaring his intention to incorporate his adventure with the Doctor into his work-in-progress, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Doctor, upon departing 1869, sadly notes that Dickens would never get to finish his tale.