John Jasper's Secret: A Sequel to Charles Dickens' Unfinished Novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Anonymous (Paperback)
Brand : Wildside Press
- SKU:
- 143443172X
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Quite a Satisfactory Sequel
Not uninterruptedly, but recurrently through life, I count myself by way of being an amateur Droodologist, to the point of providing a new outcome for the sixteenth and last G&S opera in the alternate timeline I created for, e.g., THE VAMPIRE OF THE SAVOY. As a reader of the amateur Droodologist persuasion, I found JOHN JASPER'S SECRET to be quite a satisfactory sequel to the tale Charles Dickens died before completing. (And, indeed, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD may be a more major item in the original author's bibliography unfinished than if it had been finished.)
Wikipedia credits this novel, first published in 1871 in the very aftermath of Dickens' death, to New York journalist Henry Morford; but since he chose to keep his own secret under the popular pen name of "Anonymous," I applaud Wildside's decision to go with that. As also with the decision to make it again readily and affordably available to readers at large.
I will not play spoiler by revealing this version's outcome. Only to say that, for myself, I still prefer that of the 1935 Claude Rains movie. Nevertheless, the JOHN JASPER'S SECRET author (with more space-time to give the project) follows up on some material in the Dickens original which the 1935 movie simply ignores; and some of these 1871 conclusions look to me (little as I personally like one or two of them) inescapable if we stick with all the material Dickens published and try to incorporate it as Dickens rather clearly intended. There are other points, however, on which Dickens famously remained ambiguous at his death: and while I would have handled things differently, I do not feel inclined to quibble with what the author of JOHN JASPER'S SECRET did.
He has also introduced several new characters, and handled them, more or less in the style of Dickens, not too badly. And while the passage of more than a century may have done a great deal to smooth over distinctions amongst the varying Victorian styles, I did not find this sequelizer's style glaringly different from that of Dickens. Indeed, a large number of descriptive details or philosophical comments of general application quite tickled my fancy. Some of his scenes in Cloisterham cathedral and in Princess Puffer's opium den wax rather powerful. I'm not convinced he made a very good job of Rosa Bud -- I certainly couldn't understand why so many of the male characters should be so very greatly smitten with the little dolly; she seems potentially much stronger in the hands of her original author. Mr. Tartar, however, seems to me very slightly improved: as he comes off in Dickens' story, I almost think she'd do better with Jasper! It might not be a case of male author unable to do female character, however: I found that Helena Landless remains quite strong (except perhaps for having fallen so deeply in love with Edwin Drood), while Neville struck me as somewhat more pallid and wan than in Dickens. And the number of characters suffering silently in noble love for some unattainable object of affection grows to the modern mind more laughable than pathetic. On the whole, however, I found this a very good, satisfying read and, since we don't have to take anybody's completion of Edwin Drood's mystery as either final or precluding anybody else's completion, I recommend this one highly as something to read right after finishing what Dickens wrote.