Charles Dickens and Mesmerism

This biography suggests that EDWIN DROOD was an attempt by Dickens to break free from the make-believe. It suggests that Dickens concealed in its pages details of his life.

In 2019, I went on a trip with my mom and brother—first to Paris, then to London. On the last day of our stay in London, hours before the plane was due to take off, we made a stop to a place that I hadn’t imagined seeing but which filled me with all of the wonder I would have expected: the Charles Dickens Museum. 

I was a fangirl visiting the home of my …