The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot (eBook, ePUB)

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a prodigious Scottish scholar, literary critic, novelist, and poet, now best known for his collections of fairy tales and for his work in anthropology and mythology. With a career spanning genres such as history, folklore, and children's literature, Lang's contributions to the literary world are varied and significant. Lang, a contemporary of literary giants like Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells, distinguished himself with a remarkable academic insight into myths and legends, which he passionately collected from around the world, forming the basis for his popular 'Fairy Books' series. A graduate of St Andrews University and Balliol College, Oxford, Lang also took to journalistic writing, showcasing his wide-ranging interests that extended to poetry, history, and literary criticism. Perhaps one of his lesser-known works, 'The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot' (1905), focuses on Charles Dickens's unfinished novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' and is demonstrative of Lang's literary detective skills, as he engaged in scholarly speculation about the intended conclusion of Dickens's last work. Lang's diverse literary style embraced a descriptive narrative, often intertwining a conversational tone with analytical detail, which appealed to both scholarly audiences and the general public.