Drood

by Dan Simmons

Book Overview

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens -- at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316007021
• ISBN13: 9780316007023
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 777 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Plan on taking a long time to finish this book.

The author had a good idea for a story but got lost in the details. Long passages with information that is not relevant to the story line. It too me forever to finish reading this book. It is over 900 pages long when 300 pages would have been sufficient.

A struggle to the end!

I love Dan Simmons novels but this book just did not do it for me. So many slow parts and senseless details. I did finally read all of it. Took me almost 3 months when I read the Terror in just a week.

Compelling and completely credible

Where it became really crafty for me was the conversations Collins had with himself and with Dickens about how a novel should be, how it should progress, who should take us there, what it should reveal to the reader and what to keep secret until the end. In many ways it was Simmons having a conversation with us about about the book we were reading (Drood) and what direction was credible and/or compelling. All the while, we didn't know what was coming next. Simmons clearly was grappling with the substance of HIS story and whether it was more like Collins, Dickens or something different. It was a wonderful exercise to be part of. In addition, Simmons showed respect and homage to Dickens. A fine tip of the hat and acknowledgment to a great author. I've read nearly everything Simmons has written and he's one of my favorite living authors. Drood is way different, enthralling and I don't think anyone but Simmons could have pulled this off. The earlier reviews are all spot-on.

If you love suspense and shadows, you'll love Drood.

One of the differences between an A list author, in my opinion, and the rest of the mob is that first quality authors don't rely on formulaic plots. Dan Simmons is an A list author, and his latest novel, Drood, is one more example of exactly what a solid author Simmons has become. I thought Simmons' last novel, The Terror, was one of the best books of its type that I've read in a long while. To have Simmons follow up with a book like Drood is, from a readers point of view, gratifying. The plot of Drood is quite simple. Charles Dickens narrowly misses being killed when the train he is riding on is wrecked at Staplehurst in June, 1865. Rushing to assist those that are injured he comes upon a character so mysterious that the incident stretches credulity. It is this meeting with Drood that will continue to affect Dickens for the remainder of his life. Dickens' convinces his friend and fellow author Wilkie Collins to help pursue Drood throughout much of underground London. And that's the story. Narrated by Wilkie Collins, an author twelve years younger than Dickens, is a marvelous device by Simmons. Wilkie Collins was, in reality, a contemporary of Dickens and his friend. Collins was a man that ignored Victorian standards of behavior by carrying on with two women he wasn't married to more or less at the same time. Addicted to Opium, Collins was a free spirit for the time. Never to reach the fame of his friend, Dickens, Collins was none-the-less rather successful all things considered. Of course, the fact that Dickens never finished The Mystery of Edwin Drood before his death is another layer of intrigue and mystery surrounding the whole story; both the real and the fictional. Dan Simmons uses the character and flavor of Victorian London and the real life friends of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to great effect. Besides Simmons, no other author seems to capture the feeling of Victorian London except perhaps Michael Cox. The Meaning of Night: A Confession and The Glass of Time are wonderful in conveying what life in Victorian England might have been like. Even the covers of Drood and The Meaning of Night are similar. Drood also seems to feel like a black and white movie, perhaps from the 30's or 40's. The sense of atmosphere that Simmons manages to convey to the reader is wonderful. Simmons is also a master of taking a historical event and wrapping a story around that event. I thought his last book The Terror was wonderful in telling a great story around the loss of the Franklin expedition in the 1840's. The fact that Drood incorporates a real event is right up Simmon's alley. I highly recommend. Peace to all.

Fascinating fictional portrayal of Dickens and Collins

Dan Simmons' new novel "Drood" covers roughly five years in the relationship of Victorian writers Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Neither one emerges as particularly likeable. Dickens is egocentric, manipulative, and sometimes cruel. He serves as mentor to, (and frequent collaborator of) Collins, who is twelve years his junior. Collins' admiration and genuine liking for Dickens eventually becomes twisted by his extreme jealousy. The relationship between the two forms the heart of "Drood." The story is told as the first-person narrative of Wilkie Collins. Collins, a laudanum addict, frequently suffers from nightmares, hallucinations, and occasional loss of memory. He thus functions as an unreliable narrator and the reader is sometimes left wondering what is real. I don't mean this as a criticism; for me it made the book that much more intriguing. Collins is drawn in by Dickens to search for a man named Drood, a reputed serial killer living literally underground. Thus begins a nightmarish journey through a world existing below the streets of London. I enjoyed this book immensely and would highly recommend it to readers of historical fiction, especially those familiar with and interested in the works of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. I love the way Simmons incorporated the actual events of these writers' lives into this very imaginative tale. Simmons must have done quite a bit of research. I've only read "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins, but "Drood" has definitely inspired me to read more.

Simmons' best.

A delightful book, made so by the voice of the narrator, Wilkie Collins. I will leave the details of the plot and it's historical basis to other reviewers. The humor, surprise, and dread of which this book is brimming all come from Dan Simmons' creation of the drug addicted, envious, murdering, completely self absorbed Collins. Simmons has worked the same magic that Nabakov (I am not comparing their stature as writers) did in Lolita, taking despicable feelings and acts and by inverting them make them entertaining. To me he carries it off flawlessly, keeping a steady forceful momentum from beginning to end.