Audiobook · read by volunteers
Mystery of Edwin Drood
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
Read by Alan Chant · 23 chapters · 12 h 21
About the book
A cathedral town, a choirmaster, a young man about to be married, and a fog of opium: Charles Dickens left the Mystery of Edwin Drood as his final novel, and it is as strange and atmospheric as anything he wrote. In Cloisterham, the quiet home of Dean and Chapter, John Jasper leads the choir and tutors his nephew Edwin, who is engaged to the lovely Rosa Bud since childhood. But Jasper has a secret life in the shadows, and a newcomer from overseas, hot-tempered and proud, soon sets the town on edge. When trouble comes, suspicion falls in several directions at once. Dickens never finished the book, so the story leaves its puzzle open, and Alan Chant reads the twenty-three chapters that exist with relish. The result is a gothic puzzle with Dickens's trademark eccentrics, and a mystery that still divides readers.
Introduction
Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and died in 1870, the best-known English novelist of his century. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was begun in 1869 and issued in monthly parts, as many of his earlier books had been. He died with only half of the planned instalments written, and the novel has been left unfinished ever since. Readers, critics and later writers have argued for generations about what the ending would have been, which makes this one of the most discussed fragments in English literature.
It is a darker and more compact book than most of Dickens's work. It belongs to the family of detective and crime fiction, yet it is first of all a study of an obsessed and divided mind, set in a small cathedral town where everyone knows everyone and secrets weigh heavily. The shadow of the choirmaster John Jasper falls over almost every scene. Dickens also brings in his usual gallery of oddities: a stonemason with a taste for the macabre, a pompous auctioneer, a lawyer of precise and curious habits.
This LibriVox reading runs for roughly twelve and a half hours across 23 chapters and is performed by one volunteer, Alan Chant. A single voice suits a novel built on atmosphere and hints. It is a rewarding listen for anyone who enjoys a Victorian puzzle, and a good reason to play detective yourself.
Because the story stops where it does, every listener becomes a kind of detective. You may enjoy weighing the clues, comparing theories, or simply savouring the atmosphere of a town where the bells ring, the choir sings and the past never quite stays buried.
Public domain
Charles Dickens died in 1870: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text