Mr. Dick, Or, The Tenth Book

Book excerpt: This novel blends Charles Dickens and characters from his novels into a quest to discover the ending of Dickens' last novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood which was left uncompleted at the author's death in 1870. Ohl's narrator, Francois Daumal nurtures a passion for Dickens. He systematically devours everything Dickens ever wrote, and develops a particular obsession with Edwin Drood. He becomes an expert on the subject, steeped in Dickensian studies, commentaries, critiques of all kinds, from the most specialist to the most exotically alternative. His discovery as a student that his obsession is shared by another, the smoothly urbane and ruthlessly ambitious Michel Mangematin, marks the beginning of a deadly rivalry that will be pursued over the following years with not only academic and worldly success at stake but also love, self-esteem, and even personal identity.