The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Drawing from the hard cold stones a spark of that mysterious fire which lurks in everything.... (the tower of St George's)
Charles
Dickens' last novel, set in East London, is doubly mysterious, because
he never completed it. He died of a stroke on 9 June 1870, exhausted by
overwork and his gruelling public readings. Two-thirds of the book was
finished, but he left only a sketch for the rest. Who killed Edwin
Drood, who had mysteriously vanished? Was it his uncle John Jasper, an
opium addict and choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral (perhaps based on
Rochester Cahedral in Kent, near his last home at Gad's Hill - the city
features in many of his other books - but see below for an alternative
theory)? Was it the Ceylonese twin Neville? Both of these were rivals
for the affection of the heiress Rosa. Or was it some combination of
the fog, the opium and the quicklime pit that give the book its
sinister character? Various completions have been made, and in
the summer of 2011 the BBC will screen the latest, by Gwyneth Hughes.
Frederick Kitton The
Novels of Charles Dickens: A Bibliography and Sketch
(Elliot Stock, London 1897), chapter 13
A prominent feature of Edwin
Drood is the graphic account of
opium-dens and their frequenters, which are still to be found in the
East End of London. Dickens's American friend, Mr J.T. Fields, has
recorded that, during his stay in England in the summer of 1869, he
accompanied the novelist one night (under police escort) to some
lock-up houses, watch-houses, and opium-dens, it being from one of the
latter that he gathered the incidents which are related in the opening
pages. "In a miserable court," says Mr. Fields, "we found the haggard
old woman blowing at a kind of pipe made of an old penny ink-bottle.
The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of this wretched
creature in 'Edwin Drood' we heard her croon as we leaned over the
tattered bed on which she was lying. There was something hideous in the
way this woman kept repeating 'Ye'll pay up according, deary, won't
ye?' and the Chinamen and Lascars made never-to-be-forgotten pictures
in the scene." We also have Dickens's statement that what he described
he saw--exactly as he had described it--down in Shadwell in the autumn
of 1869. "A couple of the Inspectors of Lodging-houses knew the woman,
and took me to her as I was making a round with them, to see for myself
the working of Lord Shaftesbury's Bill." Relative to his sketch of
opium-smoking, Sir John Bowring (who had been British Ambassador to
China and Governor of Hong Kong) pointed out to Dickens what appeared
to him an inaccuracy in his delineation of that scene, and sent him an
original Chinese sketch of the form of the pipe and the manner of its
employment. While thanking him for the information, the novelist
replied that he had only chronicled what actually came under his own
observation in the neighbourhood of the London docks. Sir John's
comment upon this is as follows: "No doubt the Chinaman whom he
[Dickens] described had accommodated himself to English usage, and that
our great and faithful dramatist here as elsewhere most correctly
portrayed a piece of actual life."
Dickens placed the scene of Jasper's opium-smokings in a court just
beyond the churchyard of St. George-in-the-East, Stepney. The Rev.
Harry Jones, rector from 1873 to 1882, mentions that the old crone was
known as Lascar Sal, and was living at the time he wrote (1875). The
John Chinaman of whom she was so jealous in her trade was George Ah
Sing, who died in 1889, he resided at 131, Cornwall Road, St.
George's-in-the-East, and at the inquest it transpired that death was
due to the rupture of a blood-vessel accelerated by destitution. When
the novelist visited him, he kept an opium-den in New Court, Victoria
Street, E., which used to be a house of call for Chinese seamen coming
to this country and others who indulged in the use of the drug. The
particular den described in the story was pulled down some years ago to
make room for a Board-school playground, while the bedstead, pipes,
etc., were purchased by Americans and others interested in curious
relics.
See here for comment on one of Dickens' two historical novels, Barnaby Rudge, set at the time of the 1780 Gordon Riots in London.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also visited the local opium dens, 'for research', as did Oscar Wilde. In The Picture of Dorian Grey, describing its dissolute title character's journey to the opium den in Bluegate Fields, Wilde wrote of the streets like the sprawling web of some spider ... over the low roofs rose the black masts of ships. See too this anonymous 1868
account and this account by James
Greenwood.
In a detailed
monograph of the 1980s Dyer's
Court
Mark Willingale, a local architect and historian, argued that (a) the
opium den that was Dickens' model was in New Court, just to the east of
St George's church and gardens, (b) that the 'cathedral' he mentions
was the church of St George-in-the-East, and (c) identifies various
sites from the book, including The Highway, Cable Street, the burial
ground, the Rectory, a local inn, a watchmaker's shop and a toy shop,
and 'Jasper's Gate House'.
Back to History
page
A prominent feature of Edwin
Drood is the graphic account of
opium-dens and their frequenters, which are still to be found in the
East End of London. Dickens's American friend, Mr J.T. Fields, has
recorded that, during his stay in England in the summer of 1869, he
accompanied the novelist one night (under police escort) to some
lock-up houses, watch-houses, and opium-dens, it being from one of the
latter that he gathered the incidents which are related in the opening
pages. "In a miserable court," says Mr. Fields, "we found the haggard
old woman blowing at a kind of pipe made of an old penny ink-bottle.
The identical words which Dickens puts into the mouth of this wretched
creature in 'Edwin Drood' we heard her croon as we leaned over the
tattered bed on which she was lying. There was something hideous in the
way this woman kept repeating 'Ye'll pay up according, deary, won't
ye?' and the Chinamen and Lascars made never-to-be-forgotten pictures
in the scene." We also have Dickens's statement that what he described
he saw--exactly as he had described it--down in Shadwell in the autumn
of 1869. "A couple of the Inspectors of Lodging-houses knew the woman,
and took me to her as I was making a round with them, to see for myself
the working of Lord Shaftesbury's Bill." Relative to his sketch of
opium-smoking, Sir John Bowring (who had been British Ambassador to
China and Governor of Hong Kong) pointed out to Dickens what appeared
to him an inaccuracy in his delineation of that scene, and sent him an
original Chinese sketch of the form of the pipe and the manner of its
employment. While thanking him for the information, the novelist
replied that he had only chronicled what actually came under his own
observation in the neighbourhood of the London docks. Sir John's
comment upon this is as follows: "No doubt the Chinaman whom he
[Dickens] described had accommodated himself to English usage, and that
our great and faithful dramatist here as elsewhere most correctly
portrayed a piece of actual life."