His last novel, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood , was to be issued in twelve monthly
numbers from April, 1870, but he died in June, having completed half the
mystery. In this novel, Dickens extends his vision beyond England to include the
empire itself. It appears as if he would continue to make yet another advance in
his artistic development in this unfinished novel.
Dickens died June 9, 1870, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
In a letter to Forster, Carlyle sends his condolences: "I am profoundly sorry
for you and indeed for myself and for us all. It is an event world-wide; a
unique of talents suddenly extinct; and has "eclipsed," we too may say, "the
harmless gaiety of nations.' No death since 1866 [the year of Carlyle's wife's
death] has fallen on me with such a stroke. No literary man's hitherto ever did.
The good, the gentle, high-gifted, ever-friendly, noble Dickens, -- every inch
of him an Honest Man."
