Chapter XVII: 1868-1870

Pages 444-460.

LAST READINGS. AET. 56-58.

Health improved 444
What the readings did and undid 445
Expenses and gains in America 446
Noticeable changes in him 447
_Oliver Twist_ reading proposed 448
Objections to it 449
Death of Frederick Dickens 450
Macready at _Oliver Twist_ reading 451
Another attack of illness 452
A doctors' difference 454
At Emerson Tennent's funeral 454
The illness at Preston 455
Brought to London 456
Sir Thomas Watson consulted 456
His note of the case 457
Guarded sanction to other readings 458
Close of career as public reader 460

CHAPTER XVIII. 1869-1870.

Pages 461-477.

LAST BOOK. AET. 57-58.

The agreement for _Edwin Drood_ 461
First fancy for it 462
Story as planned in his mind 463
What to be its course and end 463
Merits of the fragment 464
Comparison of early and late MSS 466
Discovery of an unpublished scene 467
Last page of _Drood_ in fac-simile 468
Page of _Oliver Twist_ in fac-simile 469
Delightful specimen of Dickens 470
Unpublished scene for _Drood_ 470-476