Arguably the most famous unfinished novel in the English language,

is also itself all about incompletion, fragmentation, interruption, endings and the failure of endings. The novel, that is, anticipates its own incompletion. After all, the pawnbroker in Cloisterham “offers vainly […] unredeemed […] odd volumes of dismal books” (p.52, Penguin Edition, 1985), one of which, presumably, might be

itself. In this way, Dickens's final novel continues and, indeed,

continues the narratorial strategy of Dickens's previous novel,

(1864-5), in which stories are continually breaking up and clashing with one another.

Dickens began work proper on the novel in August 1869. The projected length of the novel was twelve

2050 words

Citation: Taylor, Jonathan. "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=114, accessed 27 November 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article