1914 was a good year for Dickens's last unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It saw the parodic Trial of John Jasper for The Murder of Edwin Drood staged in aid of the Samaritan, Children’s Homeopathic, St. Agnes and Mt. Sinai Hospitals, an amusing piece of theatre that featured such lofty and exalted persons as G.K. Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw in its cast. It also saw the publication of two continuations or completions for the novel, one of them by W. E. C. (William Crisp).
Crisp's version contains poorly reproduced illustrations by Luke Fildes from the original Chapman and Hall Household Edition of 1870, together with nine new ones by Zoffany Oldfield. Each of the following plates appears within a bold, rectilinear frame of approximately 13.5 cm by 10.2 cm, or 5 ⅜ by 4 inches.
- 1. Mr. Jasper Receives a Visitor (Chapter XXVI)
- 2. Deputy Locked in the Crypt (Chapter XXVIII)
- 3. Sister and Brother (Chapter XXX)
- 4. Rosa Sees Her Own Reflection (Chapter XXXVI)
- 5. Slushy Visits Winks (Chapter XXXVIII)
- 6. The Verger's Wife Discusses Mr. Jasper with Mr. Datchery (Chapter XXXIX)
- 7. Jasper Enquires for Durdles (Chapter XLIII)
- 8. Jasper Sees What is Left of His Victim (Chapter XLIII)
- 9. "To Have and To Hold from This Day Forth." (Chapter XLIV)
- A Gallery of Zoffany Oldfield’s illustrations for the book
Related Materials
- Illustrations by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes for The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)
- Unravelling The Collins-Fildes Monthly Wrapper for The Mystery of Edwin Drood: The Solution to Dickens's Conundrum?
- Some Early Dramatic Solutions to Dickens's Unfinished Mystery
- A Gallery of Sir Luke Fildes’ Illustrations for Edwin Drood
Bibliography
Cohen, Jane R. "Chapter 18: Luke Fildes." Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio State U. P., 1980. 221-234.
Dickens, Charles, and W. E. C. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, ed. Mary L. C. Grant. New text drawings by Zoffany Oldfield. London: J. M. Ouseley, 9 John Street, Adelphi, 1914.
_______. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. With Illustrations [by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A.] London: Chapman and Hall Limited, 1870.
_______. The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Reprinted Pieces and Other Stories. With Thirty Illustrations by L. Fildes, E. G. Dalziel, and F. Barnard. The Household Edition. 22 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, 1879. Vol. XX.
Paroissien, David (ed.). "The Illustrations," Appendix 3 in Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood. London: Penguin, 2002, pp. 294-299.
Walters, J. Cuming. The Complete "Mystery of Edwin Drood" by Charles Dickens: The History, Continuations, and Solutions (1870-1912). With a portrait [by Fildes in 1870]. Illustrations by Sir Luke Fildes, R. A., [and] F. G. Kitton. Facsmiles and a bibliography. London: Chapman & Hall, 1912.
Walters, J. Cuming. "Edwin Drood Continued." Dickensian Vol. 10, No. 9 (September 1914): 238-241.
Created 22 August 2025