DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. II. No. 13. JANUARY 1921. 



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DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

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Editorial Notes 



A HAPPY period spent recently in bed gave me an 

 opportunity of rereading some of Dickens, and led 

 me to the fascinating and interesting problem of Edwin 

 Drood. This problem is an excellent one to study 

 during an illness, not only because it takes one's mind 

 away from the happenings of to-day, but also because its 

 solution does not involve anything that is vital. How- 

 ever the various problems of the story may be solved, 

 no one — not even the author of the story — is one penny 

 the worse. The problem of Edwin Drood exists, of 

 course, because this last novel of Dickens has barely 

 half been told, and because Dickens built up his stories 

 according to a system on which conjectures may be 

 based regarding the possible development and end of 

 the story. 



* * « * * 



The problems in the story are these : 



(i) Was Ed\\in Drood murdered ? Is so, how, by 

 whom, and where was his body hidden ? 



(2) Who was Datchery, the stranger who appeared 

 in Cloisterham after Drood's disappearance ? 



(3) Who was the old opium woman called the 

 Princess Puffer, and why did she pursue Jasper ? The 

 last of these is not of great interest, and as the materials 

 available for its solution are scanty, it has been dropped 

 by most people. Not so, however, the others. 



1 



It was Mr. R. A. Proctor, the astronomer, who 

 started the serious discussion on these problems. He 

 put forward a view that Drood was not murdered, but 

 rescued by Durdles from the bed of quicklime, and 

 that he appeared later in the story disguised as 

 Datchery. Among the chief of those who have contri- 

 buted to the discussion have been Mr. Cuming Walters, 

 Dr. M. R. James, Prof. Henry Jackson, and Sir W. 

 Robertson Nicoll. The general opinion now is that 

 Jasper would have murdered Drood by strangling him 

 with his neckerchief and casting the body into lime. 

 The gold ring on Drood's hand would have escaped 

 decomposition, and would ultimately reveal the 

 murderer. This was the little fact that the story-book 

 murderer, for all his cleverness, was going to overlook. 

 Sir W. R. Nicoll, whose book ' on the subject is perhaps 

 the best, accepts this view, and the latest book,^ that 

 by Mr. Garden (published at the end of 1920), concurs. 



* in * * * 



The question, " Who was Datchery ? " is a much 

 harder one. If one assumes, as nearly all students of 

 the problem do, that Datchery is someone in disguise 

 and sorheone who has already appeared in the book, 

 the choice narrows itself to Bazzard, the clerk of Old 

 Grewgious ; Tartar, the seafaring man whose job was 

 to look after Neville ; and curiously enough Helena 

 Landless. Bazzard seems the obvious solution to any 

 reader who forgets that an author is nearly always 

 cleverer than all but the acutest of his readers. Tartar 

 is another solution ; it has been ably advocated by 

 Mr. Gadd, and Mr. Garden adopts this solution in his 

 book. The majority, and notably Mr. Cuming Walters, 

 and later Sir W. R. Nicoll, believe that Datchery was 

 really Helena Landless cleverly disguised. She had 

 the necessary qualifications. Her whole heart was in 

 the affair for which the disguise was necessary. The 

 fact that Datchery concealed his hands on nearly 

 every occasion suggests that he was a woman. It is 

 a pity that we shall never know the truth. 



« The Problem oj Edwin Drood. A Study in the Methods of 

 Dickens. (Hodder & Stoughton, 4s. 6d.) 



2 The Murder of Edwin Drood. By Percy T. Garden. 

 (Palmer, 6s. net.) 



