Nickleby, of Monk, of Jonas Chuzzlewit, were the least of the
innumerable attractions. But Dickens was more and more drawn
towards the secret that excites curiosity, and to the game of hide
and seek with the reader who tried to anticipate the solution of
the secret.

In April, 1869, Dickens, outworn by the strain of his American
readings; of that labour achieved under painful conditions of
ominously bad health--found himself, as Sir Thomas Watson reported,
"on the brink of an attack of paralysis of his left side, and
possibly of apoplexy." He therefore abandoned a new series of
Readings. We think of Scott's earlier seizures of a similar kind,
after which Peveril, he said, "smacked of the apoplexy." But
Dickens's new story of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, first
contemplated in July, 1869, and altered in character by the
emergence of "a very curious and new idea," early in August, does
not "smack of the apoplexy." We may think that the mannerisms of
Mr. Honeythunder, the philanthropist, and of Miss Twinkleton, the
schoolmistress, are not in the author's best vein of humour. "The
Billickin," on the other hand, the lodging-house keeper, is "in
very gracious fooling:" her unlooked-for sallies in skirmishes with
Miss Twinkleton are rich in mirthful surprises. Mr. Grewgious may
be caricatured too much, but not out of reason; and Dickens, always
good at boys, presents a gamin, in Deputy, who is in not unpleasant
contrast with the pathetic Jo of Bleak House. Opinions may differ
as to Edwin and Rosa, but the more closely one studies Edwin, the
better one thinks of that character. As far as we are allowed to
see Helena Landless, the restraint which she puts on her "tigerish
blood" is admirable: she is very fresh and original. The villain
is all that melodrama can desire, but what we do miss, I think, is