Tag Archives: John Jasper
The Coming Storm: The Meteorology of Edwin Drood
It was a dark and stormy night… No, don’t worry, it’s not a Dickens quote, but his friend Edward Bulwer Lytton in Paul Clifford, later used frequently as an opening line by Snoopy in his dogged attempts to write literature … Continue reading
Christmas in Cloisterham
Christmas and Dickens. The two are so commonly linked in popular perception, and at this time of year not a day goes by without a different adaptation of A Christmas Carol on the television. No, Dickens did not invent the … Continue reading
Something Wicked This Way Comes
In this instalment Jasper’s revelations begin to confirm what astute readers may have already deduced; that he loves Rosa, a fact which may also be connected to Edwin’s disappearance, and possibly even the suspicions gathered around Neville. Jasper’s self-exposure in … Continue reading
Fourth monthly number: Case Notes
Not a month goes in which I do not point out the difficulty in our self-imposed limit of one page in which to summarise the monthly installment for our graphic novel, but this month more than ever the pressure is … Continue reading
Third Monthly Number June 1870
What is striking about this third monthly part is how much Dickens manages to pack into 32 pages and how much he demands from his readers. First of all the variety of tone and scene. We begin in Cloisterham, where … Continue reading
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
Picturing John Jasper
Dickens’s letters testify to the close relationship he had with his illustrators and the minute directions and corrections he would make to ensure the graphical depictions of his characters matched the images in his head. So it’s been a terrifying … Continue reading
