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Originally Posted by issybird
I loved it. I was sucked in from the beginning; the scene in the opium den was so creepy and portentous that Dickens had me from then on.. ....
....One thing that puzzled me is that at one point in the churchyard, mention was made of Edwin's father's tomb. So where is his mother buried? I really, really wanted to think that Princess Puffer was in fact Jasper's sister and Edwin's mother, but she seems too old for that. It's still the best explanation for Jasper's connection to her and her hatred of him and protectiveness toward Edwin. It's easy enough to believe that if she had sunk into depravity, it was more palatable for her husband and brother to concoct a tale of her death than to cope. A different version of Bertha Rochester in her attic, as it were.
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It’s great that you enjoyed it so much. And top marks to you for inventiveness! It really works. I was also puzzled about the tomb only containing Jasper’s “brother-in-law”. Since it seemed unnatural for an uncle to kill his own nephew, I looking for a solution where Jasper wasn’t Edwin’s actual biological uncle, but nothing seemed to fit that clue about the tomb.
Your solution pulls so many threads together. The drugs could have aged the Princess Puffer prematurely. It’s quite convincing - I couldn’t have thought of it in a hundred years!