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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
Thanks for the links, Victoria! Dickens did have a very interesting personal history.
Matthew Pearl’s introduction suggests that there are some biographical elements in the book. Pearl suggests that the way Jasper views Edwin with resentment and disappointment could be compared to the way Dickens viewed his sons. He thought they lived extravagantly expensive lives and were unfocused, engaging in exotic colonial pursuits. Dickens also could have been reflecting regrets about his own marriage on to Edwin and Rosa’s anxiety about their engagement. Dickens also had brothers who lived dark lives and could have been inspiration for Jasper’s character. Pearl also states that Dickens relied on medical opiates in his final years, which could have been relevant to Jasper’s opium use. Lastly he alleges that Dickens could have projected his secret affair with Ellen Ternan (older man, young actress) onto Jasper’s pursuit of Rosa Bud.
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A great deal of Dan Simmons
Drood uses quite a few of these points to move his story along. However, you do see dear friend Wilkie using more of the fruit of the poppy flower than Dickens in that work. I think this is one of those interesting things to look back on though - opium and laudanum were still very much in medical use at near lethal quantities.
Its the same as moralizing about Sherlock Holmes and his very legal cocaine use in those stories.