Book Review: Drood by Dan Simmons

By Carlotta G. Holton

Drood is a tour de force that speculates as to the inspiration behind Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, Edwin Drood. When Dickens survives the Staplehurst train wreck of 1865 with his mistress and her mother, he encounters a ghoulish man named Drood. This meeting sets the wheels in motion for a macabre ride that affects not only Dickens, but the reader as well.

For fans of Dickens, the unfinished “Mystery of Edwin Drood,” is ripe for conjecture. Having seen a Broadway production in the late 80’s which offered the audience the opportunity to cast the deciding votes as to the solution of the mystery, I admit a fascination with the motives behind the work. Simmons is a master of atmosphere and plot and I was hooked right from the start.

The character of Drood is unlike any other in Dickens extensive portfolio. Regardless of whether the character is real, a phantom, or the personification of death and evil, he is ominous and frightening. Dressed in a black opera cape and top hat, he is an eerie sight amidst the wreckage and victims along the tracks. He is missing fingers and eyelids and Collins notes, “there is a brittleness fringe of hair. He glided rather than walked.” And there is a sibilant hiss of his speech. Is he, as Detective Fields maintains, the murderer of more than 300 people?

The novel, narrated by Dickens’ contemporary, Wilkie Collins, is saturated in Victorian London. Dickens treks through the bleak streets of the East End. We feel the sluggishness of hidden opium dens and sense the damp mold of underground crypts. On his investigation for the truth about Drood, Dickens makes a River Styx-like journey into Undertown, the subterranean home to less fortunate and often shady characters. We shudder at the corpses of stillborn babies hung out on clotheslines. It is a picture of grim sanitary conditions. “The air this steaming July night was almost green with the heated effusions of 3 million human beings, excrement and the effluvia of the urban and industrial slaughter that was the hallmark of our era,”says Collins.

Throughout the venture we are wondering, could Dickens’ meeting with Drood have resurrected his fascination – perhaps even obsession – with the dark side? Was this urge hiding in wait for such a trigger to release it? Is Drood a metaphor for the writer’s subconscious? I found this line of thinking so contrary to the image of Dickens, that I was compelled to read on.

Drood is couched in the mystique of a darkly-written detective story. History, morality, jealousy, insanity and the occult all play key roles in the drama that unfolds. Through many twists and turns in the plot a strange psychological profile of the Dickens no one ever knew emerges as our hero encounters Egyptian rites, mesmerism, the walking dead and brain-eating beetles.

There are echoes of a Salieri/Mozart type rivalry here as well. Artistic contemporaries often covertly disguise their jealousy of one another. Collins, however, makes no bones about his jealousy of Dickens’ literary talents. It shapes his action – including blackmail – with his friend. The reader wonders with such pent-up emotion, how accurate is the tale he is narrating?

Collins refers to Dickens as “inimitable.” Yet he continually refers to his stealing some of his characters and ideas. He cites the characters of Sidney Carton (modeled after a character In the Deep) and Miss Havisham (taken from his Woman in White). His criticism is sharp: “Dickens invariably gave his audiences credit for too much, and through his self-indulgent flights of impenetrable fantasy and unnecessary subtlety, left far too many ordinary readers lost in the thick forest of Dickensian prose.”

There is nothing subtle about his critique. “I was … almost certainly always shall be … ten times the architect of plot than Charles Dickens ever was.”

Drood is a departure from Dan Simmons’ earlier works, several of which I have read and enjoyed. It is a thrillingly, masterful and imaginative tale. It is an enthralling supposition as to what really motivates a writer. Though some might find the 775 pages daunting, I savored every single page.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact, Touching The Dead and Vampire Resurrection, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.