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jelisela's review against another edition
1.0
Maybe I'm uncultured, not smart enough to understand, etc., but this book was so unbelievably boring that I failed to make it past page 50. Shooting myself would have been more entertaining than this book.
moirab's review against another edition
3.0
Intriguing historical mystery. No where near as good as the Dante Club, but interesting and entertaining. And made me want to read more Dickens, so that's good!
quietjenn's review against another edition
4.0
more historical literary mystery from pearl, pretty much on par with his other two books, so if you liked those ... it does take a little while to get into and parts seem superfluous (specifically, the material with dickens son in india), but enough substance to counteract that. it very much brings the setting and the characters alive and made me both want to a) brush up on my dickens and b) learn more about the real-life characters (who knew that the founders of harper and row were so loathsome?).
everandvale's review against another edition
2.0
BORING AND UNORIGINAL.
If you want to read a good book that deals with Dickens' unfinished novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" I suggest you read "Drood" by Dan Simmons or "La verità sul caso D." by Fruttero & Lucentini (I think it's been translated in English as well).
"The last Dickens" just wasn't it.
If you want to read a good book that deals with Dickens' unfinished novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" I suggest you read "Drood" by Dan Simmons or "La verità sul caso D." by Fruttero & Lucentini (I think it's been translated in English as well).
"The last Dickens" just wasn't it.
mschristy's review against another edition
1.0
This is the second of Matthew Pearl's books that I could simply not muster up the interest to finish, which is highly unusual for me. The pacing in the first several chapters was extremely choppy, with no indication of who the primary characters were going to be; added to the fact that I don't particularly like Dickens, I chose to send it back to the library and move on to something else.
victoriad702's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book. Would be a solid 4.5. Now, I do love Matthew Pearl. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dante Club, thought The Poe Shadow-while not as good-was still solid, but I think my enjoyment of The Last Dickens eclipses them all.
The Last Dickens is about the search for the final sections of Dickens' last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, when Dickens dies while writing it. He manages to get half way through (6 of the 12 installments)but his US publishers feel they can investigate and figure out what the ending was supposed to be and save themselves from sure ruin. The novel takes James Osgood and his bookkeeper Rebbecca from Boston to London in their search for clues to the ending. Along their way they meet mysterious and interesting people and get in way over their heads.
The novel also has sections of Dickens' second trip to America for a book reading tour which are also quite enjoyable. The only part of the novel I disliked was the side story of Francis Dickens, Charles' son in India. It seemed superfluous to me and just thrown in for the sake of being thrown in. It wasn't really developed and constituted only a few sections. But on the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
The Last Dickens is about the search for the final sections of Dickens' last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, when Dickens dies while writing it. He manages to get half way through (6 of the 12 installments)but his US publishers feel they can investigate and figure out what the ending was supposed to be and save themselves from sure ruin. The novel takes James Osgood and his bookkeeper Rebbecca from Boston to London in their search for clues to the ending. Along their way they meet mysterious and interesting people and get in way over their heads.
The novel also has sections of Dickens' second trip to America for a book reading tour which are also quite enjoyable. The only part of the novel I disliked was the side story of Francis Dickens, Charles' son in India. It seemed superfluous to me and just thrown in for the sake of being thrown in. It wasn't really developed and constituted only a few sections. But on the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
As far as I'm concerned, Matthew Pearl is a one-book author. The Dante Club was outstanding. Neither The Poe Shadow nor this book came even close....and I couldn't even finish this one.