Dickens in Heaven

We got the big snow this December and a thoroughly white Christmas. But not many visitors to my little library. It is difficult to find time to read in such a busy month. I was lucky to sneak in my annual Dickens at the last minute. I only had 10 days or so, so I chose the unfinished 200-page
The Mystery of Edwin Drood and absolutely loved it. Then I watched the 2012 2-episode BBC version, and although they left out a few of the great characters I thought their last-minute twists and ending quite acceptably Dickensian. I appreciate them giving this great book a good ending, although in the introduction to my edition G.K. Chesterton said, "What was the mystery of Edwin Drood from Dickens's point of view we shall never know, except perhaps from Dickens in heaven, and then he will very likely have forgotten." Yes, I think that is true of him. I think when we get to heaven, those of us who want to get there (Chesterton and Dickens seemed to want to), we won't be at all about any earthly accomplishments and legacies, just as those were not our focus here on earth. But Dickens's God-given delightful talent and insights into human nature, good and evil, are certainly gifts to us here and now to help us on our way.

Chesterton goes on to discuss the several different scholars' theories concerning the end of this unfinished story, which all sounded stretched to me. Like I said, I liked the BBC ending quite well. Still, as Chesterton wrote, "Dickens is dead, and a number of splendid scenes and startling adventures have died with him. Even if we get the right solution we shall not know that it is right. The tale might have been, and yet it has not been. And I think there is no thought so much calculated to make one doubt death itself, to feel that sublime doubt which has created all religion---the doubt that found death incredible. Edwin Drood may or may not have really died; but surely Dickens did not really die. Surely our real detective liveth and shall appear in the latter days of the earth. For a finished tale may give a man immortality in the light and literary sense; but an unfinished tale suggests another immortality, more necessary and more strange."

Yes, I truly believe in heaven, too. I once wondered if I'd get to meet my favorite authors in heaven . . . Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, C. S. Lewis, Flannery O' Connor. But on second thought I decided I better let that presumption go. As Lewis writes in The Great Divorce, if we want something other than God and His gifts, we won't even choose to go there, we will choose the other place! And heaven is where I want to go. Once there, if I see them, I see them. If I don't, I don't. And if I do get to meet them, I imagine there will be even bigger and better things to talk about than the books they wrote, perhaps the exciting ideas and principles contained or hinted at within the books they wrote. Won't there be only large minds in heaven, the kind that talk about ideas rather than people and things and events?


Now I can put this book in my little library current collection: Books with Character Names for or in the Titles. (I never put anything in my library that I haven't read.) How many such books can you name off the top of your head? There are more than you may think. My little library filled up fast just from my stock here at home.