Anita and I on a secret mission with some of Our Finest (we were disguised as civilians, of course). 😉

Even prior to the “It was the best of times” passage, Dickens writes “Recalled to Life,” the recurring theme throughout the novel. Similarly, he introduces “the spike that intervenes” in the opening paragraph of ‘Drood,’ picking it up again in many other forms throughout his unfinished masterpiece.

1970’s Pilates ball

Perhaps John Jasper never wanted to kill then quick-lime his nephew Edwin Drood; perhaps he wanted to quick-lime opium housed in crypts at Cloisterham Cathedral in order to rid hisself, his town, and his nation from the evils of the drug.

That Great Black Scarf

The spike that intervenes, intervening.

Rest in Peace, Dr Michael Slater. youtu.be/rnqzcz1FUcI?...

Got our flowers planted just before the rains here in Florida. :::whew:::

Rosa seeking sanctuary in Cloisterham Cathedral.

Google’s AI (Gemini’s) interpretation of The Spike that Intervenes Theory of The Mystery of Edwin Drood:

“Since the mace was omitted, Jasper must be acquitted!”

For fun, I asked an unbiased judge, ChatGPT, which Drood theory would hold the most water in the court of law, and it was Mark Wheats’ “Spike that Intervenes Theory” that prevailed. (Keep in mind that this doesn’t even include “The Shell Game Theory of Drood”).

If someome goes out of their way to acknowledge your book, never reply by trying to sell them another book. (Yes, I had this happen once.) 🤣 youtu.be/9RxU-64P4cw?...

I asked AI about one of my books, and though it’s accurate when conveying back cover information, there comes a point where I can tell AI never read my story, so it starts fudging (like a middle schooler fudging a book report in front of class).

“It’s not what you cover in class, it’s what you uncover.” -Walter Lewin

Dickens may have changed Mr Tope’s position on the cover because Rosa is tipping off readers by looking back at him and his mace (the spike that intervenes), so Dickens had Charles Collins (or Luke Fildes) move the verger next to the arch instead. (Be sure to fully open pics.)

Very much enjoyed this episode! open.spotify.com/episode/5n9I...

Rosa may have made that “great black scarf” for Jasper and given it to him on Christmas Eve. Note below that as Miss Twinkleton censors stories for her pupils, she reveals that her students are learning embroidery, tambour, and crochet.

I visited the Omni Parker House in Boston last July, and the Press Room has Charles Dickens’ handwritten manuscript for ‘A Christmas Carol’ printed into its carpet. The door to Dickens’ room where he stayed in 1867 is also on site, as well as the looking glass he practiced ‘A Christmas Carol’ in.

Freud was 14 years old when Dickens died, so don’t believe all that gobbledygook about Jasper being psychologically tormented like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (which was written 16 years after Dickens’ death). The villains in ‘Drood’ are easy to see, if one simply uses parsimony.

When it comes to the world’s greatest literary puzzle, ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’, readers don’t need to have IQs above 130 to solve it. All that’s required is a loving, playful heart with the basic knowledge of nursery rhymes and childhood games.

Billy Wilder hits the nail on the head when he speaks about the future of film in his 1986 AFI lifetime achievement award speech: youtu.be/FCps-tOVzTE?...

The Dali Museum

I love the wrapper on the Anniversary edition of ‘The Dickensian’—so beautiful (Great articles too!) Definitely a collector’s issue!

It looks like Dickens didn’t want to reveal the clue of Mr Tope in procession with his mace too early (left pic), so he decided to give us another clue instead (right pic), one that is just as telltale as his deletion of the mace. He calls Jasper “the living waters”, likening him to Jesus.

When it comes to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens not only pulled the wool over our eyes for the past 155 years, but the wool was still attached to the sheep.

To your left, the original Peter Piper nursery rhyme; to your right, Dickens’s cryptic Peter Piper passage. Note how Dickens changed the plural “peppers” to “pepper,” since Mr. Tope is “picking” just one person, the pickled [drunken] Durdles (who tells Jasper he thinks it was a ghost).

“Mr Bazzard with a frowning smile at the fire, put a hand into his tangled locks, as if the thorn of anxiety were there; then into his waistcoat, as if it were there; then into his pockets, as if it were there.” If you look closely, the thorn of anxiety is on the cover, and Mr Tope is holding it.

Dickens leaves us not only clues with nursery rhymes, but with childhood games as well. Is Dickens connecting the stranger Datchery in the passage on the left to (whom we come to know as) Tartar the stranger in the passage on the right?

In Drood, if we find the intoned, feeble, cracked, dying character’s voice whose monotonous mutter awakens muttered thunder, we find THE WICKED MAN. (Hint: it rhymes with “The Bean”).

Here’s a sentence in chapter 9 (which I feel contains more clues than any other chapter) displaying the Dean’s “cracked monotonous mutter” while revealing how easy it would be for a verger, dressed in black, to “pick a peck of pickled [Durdles]” with his mace. (Please see the Peter Piper Passage.)

Are you the chosen one? Can you pull Dickens’s mighty quill from the stone and solve The Mystery of Edwin Drood?

The file that connects Pip to his secret benefactor in Great Expectations; the message “RECALLED TO LIFE” in A Tale of Two Cities that foreshadows the ending; the letters in Bleak House; the mace that points to the villain in Edwin Drood; Dickens leaves us clues to all of his stories from the start.

The Dean’s pulpit on the left is what Dickens describes in the last chapter of Edwin Drood as a “big brass eagle holding the sacred books upon his wings.” Compare this with the effigy of Mr. Sapsea’s father’s auctioneer pulpit in chapter 4 on the right. Is Mr. Sapsea’s father THE WICKED MAN?

The omitted passage in chapter 9 shows Mr. Tope in procession with his mace, like the Pied Piper with his pipe. If Dickens was going to humourously compare Mr. Tope’s procession with the Pied Piper’s, lest not forget ‘tis the Pied Piper who lured the town’s children away, never to be seen again.

We mustn’t only look at what Dickens reveals to us in Drood but what he attempts to hide. Such as deleting the mace; writing “The Dean” in big letters after “James’s disappearance” then correcting it; capitalizing “IS” in the very first paragraph then changing it to lower-case; etc.

When it came time for the Chief Verger and Showman to perform, I believe Dickens would have compared Mr. Tope, with his mace-in-hand, to the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with his pipe-in-hand. There’s great emphasis on nursery rhymes (such as The Peter Piper Passage).

James Wakefield was initially the name for Edwin Drood. In Dickens’s notes, just after “James’s disappearance”, note how he was about to write “The Dean” in big letters, halted, then wrote it in smaller letters (along with Mrs and Miss Dean). Dickens is placing the Dean at the scene of the crime.

Past Vergers of Rochester Cathedral (with chalk line in hand).

I love how Billy Wilder uses “circles” as the recurring theme in ‘The Lost Weekend’—from the window-shade ring in the opening shot—to the way the film comes full-circle in the end. (A true masterpiece.) youtu.be/2iQpa9MNnVA?...

“They will all be coming out directly; let us get away. Oh, what a resounding chord! But don’t let us stop to listen to it; let us get away!” -Rosa Bud referring to the sublime sound of the Choir in ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’

When you read ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood,’ note how the only “celestial,” “beautiful,” “melodious,” “sublimely,” “delightful,” “fervid,” and “sweet” part about the Cathedral is the voice of its Choir. (Choirmaster John Jasper is innocent for the murder of Edwin Drood.)

‘But seeming may be false or true.’ -Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Ever notice in The Mystery of Edwin Drood that the Dean’s name is never mentioned? I mean, we know Crisparkle’s name, Jasper’s name, even Tope’s name—it’s as if Dickens was waiting to place the name-pea under its appropriate shell. (In Great Expectations we don’t know Magwitch’s name till 2/3 thru.)

For those who think “that great black scarf” is the murder weapon Jasper strangles his nephew with on Christmas Eve: the scarf is ”great” because it represents “evil.“ But why can’t the scarf be “great” because it represents something “good” on Christmas Eve? (Such as a Christmas gift from Rosa.)

We recorded an episode of his podcast, Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire to accompany the audiobook, if you want to explore the weirdness of this, one of Dickens's last complete works www.buzzsprout.com/1897197/epis...

The Shell Game Theory of ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ reveals: a) Jasper is innocent b) the Dean and Mr Tope are guilty c) the Dean is not a ‘real Dean’ (as Dickens wrote) but an imposter d) Dickens was not being blasphemous e) all the above

Did you know that “the shell game” dates back to Ancient Greece?

A simplistic way of viewing the shell game theory of The Mystery of Edwin Drood is isolating everything but the voices in the first and second service we attend as readers. If we find the actual clergyman whose voice is intoned, cracked, monotonously muttering, and dying, we find the villain.