Monthly Archives: April 2014
Tomb Raiders
What primarily struck me about this instalment is the melancholy sense of stasis, wearisomeness, decrepitude and decomposition. It is tempting, but possibly facile, to read this tone as the sadness, or heightened sense of mortality, of an increasingly unwell, middle-aged … Continue reading
First monthly number: case review
Today on the Drood Inquiry you can see the first part of our case notes – a graphic summary of the first monthly part and its main plot points (see http://www.droodinquiry.com/case_review/ ). At present of course our followers are all … Continue reading
The tenderer scandal of Cloisterham: two early reviews
We’ve been sharing our own initial response to month one of Drood (see https://cloisterhamtales.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/first-monthly-number-april-1870/), but what did Dickens’s contemporaries make of it? It was usual practice at the time for reviews to appear only after the final instalment had been … Continue reading
First monthly number: April 1870
‘Back to the big brushes’ was Dickens’s observation as he prepared to start composing Our Mutual Friend* in monthly parts in 1863, having previously written two novels on the trot in weekly parts. I’m reminded of this because I’m coming … Continue reading
