A tale of two Dickens
Is Charles Dickens the new Leonardo Da Vinci?
Da Vinci — artist, inventor and literal Renaissance man — made a big comeback in 2003 with the novel The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown used a familiar manhunt plot as a framework on which to hang breathless details of religious conspiracies, centuries-old gossip, and rumors of telltale images hidden in Da Vinci’s masterpieces. The Da Vinci Code launched a trend of similar historical-excavation thrillers with titles such as The Templar Legacy.
Six years later, authors are changing up Brown’s formula by shifting from cultural icons to literature’s most notorious unsolved mysteries. Dickens, arguably the English language’s most popular and esteemed novelist, is getting what could be called the Da Vinci treatment. Certainly the author of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol casts a long shadow. In recent years, his influence has turned up in the work of journalistic fiction writer Tom Wolfe, leftist sci-fi author China Miéville, and HBO’s cop series “The Wire.”
Two novelists, working independently, have released books within weeks of each other that hit on one of fiction’s most enduring questions: What is The Mystery of Edwin Drood?