Ordinarily, a writer's notes are of little interest to most readers, but Dickens's notes for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, so often reprinted, are fascinating, not only to those who have read the book but even to those who haven't and perhaps never will. Moreover, they are fascinating at first sight. In large part, this is because they are the notes for an unfinished novel--an unfinished mystery novel--but in some part it is because Dickens has taken the trouble to make them interesting. He has given many of his jottings a "spin," making them amusingly cryptic or suggestive. We might, by way of illustration, glance at a few instances. Very near the top of the first sheet, we have:
