The Problem of 'Edwin Drood': A Study in the Methods of Dickens

A scholarly inquiry into an unfinished Dickens novel that assembles textual analysis, family and external testimony, manuscript evidence, and the published illustrations to weigh competing interpretations. The book's first part collects and critiques sources and outlines Dickens's narrative methods; the second part evaluates proposed solutions, asking whether the central young man was murdered, who the enigmatic Datchery might be, and how the plot was likely to end. The author reviews earlier theories, advances his own reconstruction, and provides critical notes and a bibliography.