![]() There’s no doubt that Simmons is a master writer. (I do think that this book also would benefit for having read a couple of Wilkie Collins novels…) And – for most of the book – doesn’t think it’s fair. And Wilkie was – at least according to Simmons – very jealous because of this. I haven’t read anything by Wilkie Collins yet so I don’t know if it’s fair but both back then and now, Dickens is the best one in the eyes of the public. There’s no doubt that both in their time and in our time, Dickens is the greater novelist. Or maybe, it’s all something that Dickens invented – a kind of joke that got too far and was primarily fueled by Wilkie’s abuse issues and Dickens’ abilities as a master mesmerizer. So the question becomes – is Wilkie a reliable narrator so we can trust what he tells us about Dickens’ last years or is this rather one man’s descend into opium-induced madness? I’m still not sure. Only thing is – Wilkie is not only an opium-user, he also self-medicate with laudanum in extremely high doses, several glasses at a time. This is the extremely exciting story Wilkie Collins relate to us. Wilkie becomes a sort of spy into Dickens’ life to inform a private detective, working desperately to catch the sinister Drood. Dickens was extremely fascinated by Drood in the beginning but realized later that Drood was a murderer, a man so versed in the ancient Egyptian beliefs that he was able to resurrect himself and was more an apparition than a man.īecause of Dickens’ connection to Drood, Wilkie is slowly dragged into this as well and experiences first hand a nasty Egyptian ritual involving a scarab. This Drood hunted the rest of Dickens’ life and as a expert mesmerizer, Drood made Dickens do what he bid. Not only with his work but also with various investigations and experiences in the less familiar parts of London, the part where the opium addicts frequent, the parts where the lowest classes fight and struggle for survival each and every day.ĭickens was not an opium-user – but at the railway accident, he met a man, a certain personage named Drood. Wilkie experienced firsthand much of what Dickens did and experienced in those last years – and Dickens was busy. The story is told by his friend, the author Wilkie Collins. This is the story of the last few years of Charles Dickens’ life and what he did after being in a terrible railway accident in 1865 and till his death in 1870. I haven’t even started talking about what’s the book about yet. I love this aspect of it – how you can imagine Dickens living his life and seeing inspiration all around him.īut I digress. John Jasper’s secret visit to the crypt is here, we have Deputy and so much more. Dickens has one of the main characters be a opium addict – in Drood (at least) one of Dickens’ best friends is a opium addict and suffers terrible consequences because of it. Of course, Simmons then has a cat named Pussy. ![]() One small example is how in the Dickens novel, there’s a girl nicknamed Pussy and a lawyer who thinks Pussy is a cat. Simmons have taken parts from The Mystery of Edwin Drood and then used them in this book in the most clever way. If you have read Dickens’, you will get the hints in Drood – in fact, Drood then reads as a introduction to how an author gathers inspiration. ![]() Everyone should read The Mystery of Edwin Drood just to read this one afterwards since this book makes more sense if you have read Dickens’ novel. I said in my review of that book that I didn’t recommend it except for die hard Dickens fans and the like – but I was wrong. I’ve had this on my shelves for a couple of years, just waiting for me to get ready to read The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens. Let me start of by saying that I absolutely loved this book so if there’s an inappropriate amount of gushing in the following, you have been warned. ![]()
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