Edwin Drood - worth reading though unfinished?

[mal4mac]

If, like me, until last week, you've avoided reading Edwin Drood because it's unfinished, don't! Dickens at his best... and it finishes at a place that almost feels right... the mystery is left as a mystery, but you've been introduced to a wonderful cast of heroes and anti-heroes.... Hiram Grewgious, the angular guardian. The "muscular Christian" Rev. Septimus Crisparkle, and the swashbuckling Lieutenant Tartar. And all are competing for the love of Miss Rosa Bud (you gotta smile at those names!) There's even a pair of evil twins and an opium smoking choir master stalking Rosa. And several other eccentrics. Did Dickens die through his brain, heart and soul over-heating while writing this novel?

[MystyrMystyry]

There's a finished version by Leon Garfield that's pretty damned brilliant because he was a great author who shone in Dickensian shoes

Look him up, though I don't know if the novel's still in print - it should be, and I'm not letting go of my copy for all the coffee in Corfu and Capri

[prendrelemick]

Definitely worth reading.

[dfloyd]

His last finished novel, Out Mutual Friend, has been relegated by critics as not so good, but this has now been dismissed and the novel has been rated high in Dickensian lore. Don't miss the BBC production of this one.

As for what Dickens died of .... he died of a massive stroke. Nineteenth century doctors killed about as many patients as they saved. But to be fair, there was no blood pressure lowering medicines available or even blood pressure measuring apparatus. The stroke was probably caused by a bad diet for the near 60 years he was alive. Of course, he was under tremendous pressure to earn more money to satisfy his life style. I don't know about his tobacco or alcohol consumption, both of which raise your blood pressure; hence, your susceptibility for a stroke.