The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870. His final novel, it was left unfinished when he died.
Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opium addict, who lusts after his pupil, Rosa Bud. Miss Bud, Edwin Drood's fiancée, has also caught the eye of the high-spirited and hot-tempered Neville Landless. Landless and Edwin Drood take an instant dislike to each other. Later Drood disappears under mysterious circumstances. The story is set in Cloisterham, a lightly disguised Rochester.
At the death of Dickens on 9 June 1870, the novel was left unfinished in his writing desk, only six of a planned twelve instalments having been written. He left no detailed plan for the remaining installments or solution to the novel's mystery, and many later adaptations and continuations by other writers have attempted to complete the story.

Summary

The novel begins as John Jasper leaves a London opium den. He is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral. The next evening, he is visited by his nephew, Edwin Drood. Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud, which had been arranged by their fathers. The next day, Edwin visits Rosa at the Nuns' House, the boarding school where she lives. They quarrel good-naturedly, which they apparently do frequently during his visits. Meanwhile, Jasper, having an interest in the cathedral crypt, seeks the company of Durdles, a man who knows more about the crypt than anyone else.
Neville Landless and his twin sister Helena are sent to Cloisterham for their education. Neville will study with the minor canon the Rev. Septimus Crisparkle; Helena will live at the Nuns' House with Rosa. Neville confides to Mr Crisparkle that he had hated his cruel stepfather, while Rosa confides to Helena that she loathes and fears Jasper, who is her music master. Neville is immediately smitten with Rosa and is indignant that Edwin treats his betrothal so lightly. Edwin provokes him and he reacts violently, which gives Jasper the opportunity to spread rumours that Neville has a violent temper. Mr Crisparkle tries to reconcile Edwin and Neville; Neville agrees to apologise to Edwin if Edwin will forgive him. It is arranged that they will dine together for this purpose on Christmas Eve at Jasper's home.
Rosa's guardian, Mr Grewgious, tells her that she has a substantial inheritance from her father. When she asks whether there would be any forfeiture if she did not marry Edwin, he replies that there would be none on either side. Back at his office in London, Mr Grewgious gives Edwin a ring which Rosa's father had given to her mother, with the proviso that Edwin must either give the ring to Rosa as a sign of his irrevocable commitment to her or return it to Mr Grewgious. Mr Bazzard, Mr Grewgious's clerk, witnesses this transaction.
Next day, Rosa and Edwin amicably agree to end their betrothal. They decide to ask Mr Grewgious to break the news to Jasper, and Edwin intends to return the ring to Mr Grewgious. Meanwhile, Durdles takes Jasper into the cathedral crypt. On the way there Durdles points out a mound of quicklime. Jasper provides Durdles with a bottle of wine. The wine is mysteriously potent and Durdles loses consciousness; while unconscious he dreams that Jasper goes off by himself in the crypt. As Jasper and Durdles return from the crypt, they encounter a boy called Deputy; Jasper, thinking he was spying on them, takes him by the throat but, realising that this will strangle him, lets him go.
On Christmas Eve, Neville buys himself a heavy walking stick; he plans to spend his Christmas break hiking in the countryside. Meanwhile, Edwin visits a jeweller to get his pocket watch repaired; it is mentioned that the only jewellery he wears is the watch and chain and a shirt pin. By chance he meets a woman who is an opium user from London. She asks Drood's Christian name and he replies that it is "Edwin"; she says he is fortunate it is not "Ned", for "Ned" is in great danger. He thinks nothing of this, for the only person who calls him "Ned" is Jasper. Meanwhile, Jasper buys himself a black scarf of strong silk, which is not seen again during the course of the novel. The reconciliation dinner is successful and at midnight Edwin Drood and Neville Landless leave together to go down to the river and look at a storm that rages that night.
The next morning Edwin is missing and Jasper encourages suspicions that Neville has killed him. Neville leaves early in the morning for his hike; the townspeople overtake him and forcibly bring him back to the city. Mr Crisparkle keeps Neville out of jail by taking responsibility for him, stating that he will produce Neville any time his presence is required. That night, Jasper is strongly affected when Mr Grewgious informs him that Edwin and Rosa have ended their betrothal; he reacts more strongly to this news than to the possibility that Edwin may be dead. The next morning, Mr Crisparkle goes to the river weir and finds Edwin's watch and chain and shirt pin.
Half a year later, Neville is living in London near Mr Grewgious's office. Lieutenant Tartar introduces himself and offers to share his garden with Neville; Lt Tartar's chambers are adjacent to Neville's above a common courtyard.
A white-haired and whiskered stranger calling himself Dick Datchery arrives in Cloisterham. He rents a room below Jasper's and observes the comings and goings in the area. Going to his lodgings for the first time, Mr Datchery asks Deputy for directions. Deputy will not go near the lodgings for fear that Jasper will choke him again.
Jasper visits Rosa at the Nuns' House and professes his love for her. She rejects him but he persists, telling her that if she gives him no hope he will destroy Neville, the brother of her dear friend Helena. In fear of Jasper, Rosa flees to Mr Grewgious in London.
The next day Mr Crisparkle follows Rosa to London. While he is with her and Mr Grewgious, Lt Tartar calls and asks if he remembers him. Mr Crisparkle does remember him, as the person who years before saved him from drowning. They do not dare let Rosa contact Neville and Helena directly, for fear that Jasper may be watching Neville, but Lt Tartar allows Rosa to visit his chambers to contact Helena above the courtyard. Mr Grewgious arranges for Rosa to rent a place from Mrs Billickin and for Miss Twinkleton to live with her there for respectability.
Jasper visits the London opium den again for the first time since Edwin's disappearance. When he leaves, at dawn, the woman who runs the opium den follows him. She vows to herself that she will not lose his trail again, as she had done after his last visit. This time, she follows him all the way to his home in Cloisterham; outside it she meets Datchery, who tells her Jasper's name and that he will sing in the cathedral service the next morning. On inquiry, Datchery learns she is called "Princess Puffer". The next morning she attends the service and shakes her fists at Jasper from behind a pillar, observed by both Datchery and Deputy.
Dickens's death leaves the rest of the story unknown. According to his friend and biographer John Forster, after writing him two brief letters which relate to the plot Dickens had supplied Forster with an outline of the full plot:

His first fancy for the tale was expressed in a letter in the middle of July. "What should you think of the idea of a story beginning in this way?—Two people, boy and girl, or very young, going apart from one another, pledged to be married after many years—at the end of the book. The interest to arise out of the tracing of their separate ways, and the impossibility of telling what will be done with that impending fate." This was laid aside; but it left a marked trace on the story as afterwards designed, in the position of Edwin Drood and his betrothed.
I first heard of the later design in a letter dated "Friday the 6th of August 1869", in which after speaking, with the usual unstinted praise he bestowed always on what moved him in others, of a little tale he had received for his journal, he spoke of the change that had occurred to him for the new tale by himself. "I laid aside the fancy I told you of, and have a very curious and new idea for my new story. Not a communicable idea, but a very strong one, though difficult to work." The story, I learnt immediately afterward, was to be that of the murder of a nephew by his uncle; the originality of which was to consist in the review of the murderer's career by himself at the close, when its temptations were to be dwelt upon as if, not he the culprit, but some other man, were the tempted. The last chapters were to be written in the condemned cell, to which his wickedness, all elaborately elicited from him as if told of another, had brought him. Discovery by the murderer of the utter needlessness of the murder for its object, was to follow hard upon commission of the deed; but all discovery of the murderer was to be baffled till towards the close, when, by means of a gold ring which had resisted the corrosive effects of the lime into which he had thrown the body, not only the person murdered was to be identified but the locality of the crime and the man who committed it. So much was told to me before any of the book was written; and it will be recollected that the ring, taken by Drood to be given to his betrothed only if their engagement went on, was brought away with him from their last interview. Rosa was to marry Tartar, and Crisparkle the sister of Landless, who was himself, I think, to have perished in assisting Tartar finally to unmask and seize the murderer.

Characters

Edwin Drood: an orphan. When he comes of age, he plans to marry Rosa Bud and go to Egypt, working as an engineer with the firm in which his father had been a partner.
Rosa Bud: an orphan and Edwin Drood's fiancée. Their betrothal was arranged by their fathers.
John Jasper: the choirmaster of Cloisterham Cathedral, Edwin Drood's uncle and guardian, and Rosa Bud's music master. Not much older than Drood, he secretly loves Rosa. He frequently visits an opium den in London, run by Princess Puffer. It is probable that Dickens intended to make him the putative murderer. Jasper seemingly takes advantage of the well-known and acrimonious rivalry between Drood and Neville Landless for Rosa's affections, apparently murdering Drood soon after Landless's resentful and angry remarks about Drood, thus shifting public suspicion of Drood's murder away from himself and onto Landless. A further implication is that if Landless were to be convicted of Drood's murder and executed, Jasper would have disposed of both of Rosa's love interests, and would be free to try for Rosa's hand himself.
Neville Landless: one of a set of orphaned twins; his sister is Helena. They are from Ceylon, but it is not clear to what extent they are Ceylonese. In their childhood they were mistreated and deprived. The immature and impressionable Neville is immediately smitten with Rosa Bud, and becomes Drood's hated rival for her affections; he has a volatile temper and is more proud than is good for him. His temper and pride cause him to become the prime suspect in Drood's disappearance; the obvious suspicion is that he had become enraged and killed Drood in the hope of being able to win Rosa himself. His integrity prevents him from making an insincere apology to Drood.
Helena Landless: Neville's twin sister. Helena and Rosa become dear friends. According to Neville, she successfully pretended to be a boy during their escape attempts in childhood.
The Rev. Septimus Crisparkle: minor canon of Cloisterham Cathedral and Neville Landless's mentor.
Mrs Crisparkle: Mr Crisparkle's widowed mother.
Mr Grewgious: a London lawyer and Rosa Bud's guardian. He was a friend of her parents. He also was an unsuccessful suitor of Rosa Bud's mother, who in her youth looked extremely similar to Rosa Bud.
Mr Bazzard: Mr Grewgious's clerk. He is absent from that post when Datchery is in Cloisterham. He has written a play.
Durdles: a stonemason and the local undertaker. He knows more than anyone else about the Cloisterham Cathedral cemetery; he takes Jasper on a tour of the graveyard and tells him about the human-flesh-dissolving properties of quicklime.
Deputy: a small boy. "Deputy" is a nickname he uses to conceal his own name. If he catches Durdles out after 10 pm and drunk, he throws stones at him until he goes home. Durdles pays Deputy a halfpenny per night to do so.
Dick Datchery: an enigmatic stranger who takes lodgings in Cloisterham for a month or two. He becomes interested in Jasper and in Princess Puffer; the implication is that he is an undercover detective summoned to help solve Drood's murder, or another character in disguise.
Her Royal Highness the Princess Puffer: a haggard woman who runs a London opium den frequented by Jasper. She is unnamed in most of the book, and "Princess Puffer" is the title which Deputy gives her. She habitually claims to be helpless and ill to gain sympathy and handouts, but she secretly shows considerable savvy and cunning, both in swindling the customers of her opium den and in gleaning revealing information about them.
Mr Sapsea: a comically conceited auctioneer. By the time of Drood's disappearance he has become Mayor of Cloisterham.
The Dean: the Dean is the most senior clergyman at Cloisterham Cathedral, a man of some gravitas to whom others behave with fitting deference. In return he can be rather condescending.
Mr Tope: the verger of Cloisterham Cathedral.
Mrs Tope: the verger's wife. She cooks for Jasper and lets lodgings to Datchery.
Miss Twinkleton: the mistress of the Nuns' House, the boarding school where Rosa lives.
Mrs Tisher: Miss Twinkleton's assistant at the Nuns' House.
Mr Honeythunder: a bombastic London philanthropist. He is Neville and Helena Landless's guardian.
Mr Tartar: a retired naval officer. He resigned his commission in his late twenties when an uncle left him some property, but he lives in London, being unaccustomed to the space of a large estate.
Mrs Billickin: a widowed distant cousin of Mr Bazzard. She lets lodgings in London to Rosa and Miss Twinkleton.