About this title: Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens' life, "Drood" explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to his final, unfinished work: "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
Date published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781847247957ISBN:1847247954
Description: Good. This book is in GOOD overall condition. It shows signs of having been read and has general light wear to the cover, spine and pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc
Date published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781847247957ISBN:1847247954
Description: Good. We use Alibris to support work that we do in Africa and our UK team comprises long term unemployed and prisoners coming to the end of sentences. We will despatch your goods within two working days. read more
Description: New. Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. ISBN10: 1847249329. read more
Description: New. Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. ISBN10: 1847247954. read more
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780316007023ISBN:0316007021
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780316007023ISBN:0316007021
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date published: 2010
ISBN-13:9780316007030ISBN:031600703X
Description: New. 031600703X NEW, DIRECT FROM THE PUBLISHER TO OUR WAREHOUSE! ! : ...! ! ! ! . (may have faint shelf wear from warehouse). ALL ORDERS SHIP SAME OR NEXT BUSINESS DAY, FREE POSTAL DELIVERY CONFIRMATION FOR U.S. ORDERS, TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE! ! ! ! read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Date published: 2010
ISBN-13:9780316007030ISBN:031600703X
Description: Fine. 031600703X NEW, DIRECT FROM THE PUBLISHER TO OUR WAREHOUSE! ! : ...! ! ! ! . (may have faint shelf wear from warehouse). ALL ORDERS SHIP SAME OR NEXT BUSINESS DAY, FREE POSTAL DELIVERY CONFIRMATION FOR U.S. ORDERS, TOP CUSTOMER SERVICE! ! ! ! read more
"When I finished this book I looked around on the web for reviews. I read those of the professional reviewers and the bloggers and some from non-bloggers as well and I can tell you there's quite a range of opinions. Some thought it too long and could use a strong editorial hand. Others said that the author fell victim to the habit of giving too much detail about the particular time period (in Drood's case, Victorian England) as though every detail the author discovered during his research needed to be put in the book. Still others felt there were too many incidental side stories that had nothing to do with plot and so slowed the book down considerably.
I did not feel this way. I enjoyed the descriptions of Dickens' house parties, the relationship between Charles Dickens and various other characters, including those with his wife and son-in-law, Wilkie Collins' brother, Charley. I got to know Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and a host of other people. And then there was the London undertown! (Did this place really exist?) Had the book been any shorter, I would not have had the same sense of atmosphere that pervaded the whole work, nor would I have enjoyed the contrast between the everyday life of the upper class and the horrors faced by the 'Charles Dickens' poverty-stricken lower class. It was immensely fascinating to read about the laudanum-addicted Wilkie's movements between undertown and Charles Dickens country getaway.
This book showed me what a great story-teller Dan Simmons is. Rich in period detail with the right amount of creepiness, Drood was brilliant. Now, I'm well aware that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I couldn't get enough of it and found it highly entertaining from the first page. It reminded me somewhat of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, another book that many people thought should have been shorter but I was happy it wasn't.
My only complaint with this book is the weight! The hardcover must weigh a good 3 pounds so think twice before taking it on the bus!"
"If you know the first thing my literary tastes, you know that the concept of this book could hardly fail to be appealing to me.An fictional explanation of Charles Dicken's final, unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood narrated in the first person by Wilkie Collins. These two writers have given me hours of delightful reading. In the case of Charles Dickens, whom I've been reading since I was very young, I can say that his books influenced not only my literary tastes but also my values, in no small way. You can't imagine how gleeful I was to discover, after reading my first Collins book in college, that Collins and Dickens were actually good friends.
Objectively, I can see that Drood could stand to be trimmed a bit, and even I agree that the last 150 pages drag a bit. But throughout the rest of the book, I relished even the fictional details of Dickens' and Collins' friendship/rivalry. Simmons will probably lose the complete attention of readers looking only for a good mystery. Frankly, some of the details are such as could only interest the most devoted of Victorian literature freaks (ahem. Me.). I was bored, at times, by what I found to be intrusive interludes describing Collins' domestic life. As the fictionalized Collins-narrator of this book anticipates and bitterly laments, we really want to know about Dickens and Drood, Drood and Dickens.
The novel provides some deliciously creepy moments and a compelling mystery. It sometimes strays from that central mystery to explore other, slightly less interesting side-plots. Unfortunately, one major thread,the conclusion of which I had been eagerly anticipating, is dropped near the end of the novel, and I found myself wondering whether Simmons himself just didn't know how to wrap it up. Ambiguity can be thrilling, even better than full explication, but the reader should always be left with the feeling that the writer knows what happened, and is smiling wickedly somewhere else in the world. Or perhaps I was simply supposed to take the ending at face value, in which case it all becomes a hideous cheat. Neither alternative is particularly attractive, and though I very much enjoyed Drood, I was left thinking more of its shortcomings than its successes, perhaps because when it does succeed, Drood does so on spectacular levels that cast its failures into black contrast."
"This tale, "penned" by Wilkie Collins, recounts the last few yers of Dickens' life. Like a newly discovered Sherlock Holmes story, the Drood manuscript has been withheld from publication until many years in the future so that the involved parties will have shuffled off the mortal coil. It starts with a train wreck, ends with the death of an author, and, in between, chronicles a descent into madness, drug abuse, jealousy, and paranoia that never fails to be compelling reading.
Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens were friends and frequent collaborators. Dan Simmons writes about that friendship and places the two men in a tale of mystery tinged with the supernatural. Drood is populated with characters taken from the lives and works of both men; many of the characters from The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Dicken's unfinished novel) have analogues in Drood.
In the opening chapters, Dickens and Collins are, to my eyes, parallels to Holmes and Watson. Dickens, the energetic, highly observant guide, takes long walks, makes Holmes-like deductions, and appears puzzled when Collins, overweight and suffering from gout, fails to be interested by these observations. As the story progresses, Collins becomes increasingly jealous over Dickens' success (Collins repeatedly writes that in the future Dickens's works will still be read but he dobuts his own will even be remembered). Dickens, as seen through Colllins eyes, also undergoes severe character changes as he boots his wife from his house and tries to be happy with his mistress.
Into this mix is added the seemingly supernatural character of Drood, a mysterious, gruesome man of the east, who is a master of mesmerism (more powerful than Dickens as Dickens himself mentions). Drood first appears in the novel's opening when Dickens survives a train wreck and meets the figure hovering over bodies like an embodiment of death. Drood places Dickens under a spell and Collins tries to understand what is happening to his friend.
Through over 800 pages of compelling prose, Simmons takes the reader to a secret London underworld, to opimum dens, to graveyards and to the London theater. Collins resorts to heavier doses of opium and ultimately, morphine injections, as he tries to comprehend who Drood is. Eventually he, too, becomes Drood's slave. As his dependence on the drug increases, so does his paranoia and he concludes that his only chance at freedom is to murder his friend, Charles Dickens.
I read this on my Kindle in a little over a week. My interest never flagged and there were times when I was completely shocked. In fact, when I finished Chapter 47, I lowered the Kindle and probably had a stunned look on my face because the person sitting next to me on the bus said, "What's the name of the book you're reading? I'm always looking for a story that will do that to me."
Some readers have complained about the ending, but I feel that it was exactly what the story required. Clues have been planted throughout and the ending does not seem forced or false. To say more would be to give it away. Trust me, it's worth the ride.
This is an excellent and fun read. Newcomers to the world of Dickens and Collins may next be driven to explore the works of those authors. Those familiar with Dickens will probably enjoy seeing the "source" of that author's characters and how they wind up in his books, especially in his last novel. And those who enjoy a good thriller and a story about love and friendship will not be disappointed.
"Drood is dark, disturbing, and detailed to the extreme, but it is also an absolute delight for any lover of Dickens' writing. The accuracy of the biographical information on Charles Dickens was much appreciated, as well as some little known anecdotes that the author included. This book is an entryway into the seamy, drug-obsessed world of London in the 1800s, as well as an intricate look at Victorian society and values. A dreary tale, but a very interesting read."
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