Beschreibung:

DICKENS, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood . London: Chapman and Hall, April-September 1870.
DICKENS, Charles. The Mystery of Edwin Drood . London: Chapman and Hall, April-September 1870. 6 parts [all published], 8 o (224 x 143 mm). Engraved portrait of Dickens by J.H. Baker and vignette title-page and 12 engraved plates by Samuel Luke Fildes Original blue-green pictorial wrappers, uncut, some leaves unopened (some wear and chips, part three front joint cracked, some leaves loose in final part); cloth slipcase. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL MONTHLY PARTS, the earliest issue of part 6 with the "eighteenpence" slip pasted over the one shilling price on the front wrapper. The "Edwin Drood Advertiser" is present in each part, as well as most of the inserted advertisements, including the 8-page Chapman & Hall ads in part 4 found in some copies; without the Gaimes, Sanders and Nicol ad on cork in part 2, but with an 8-page Chapman and Hall ad dated 31 July 1870 laid in, the All the Year Round slip in part 2 and without the back ads in part 6. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens' last novel, left unfinished upon his death in June 1870. Written in a dark and mournful tone, the work "... impelled Chesterton to compare this somber half-told mystery to the performance of a dying magician making a final splendid and staggering appearance before mankind" (Johnson, p.1116). Numerous arguments and theories exist concerning the novel's conclusion, and endless sequels and solutions have been published in an attempt to finish what Dickens had started. Eckel, pp.96-98; Hatton & Cleaver, pp.373-84.