DOCSLIB.ORG

Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend: a Publishing History

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend: a Publishing History CHARLES DICkens’s OUR MUTUAL FRIEND Even within the context of Charles Dickens’s history as a publishing innovator, Our Mutual Friend is notable for what it reveals about Dickens as an author and about Victorian publishing. Marking Dickens’s return to the monthly number format after nearly a decade of writing fiction designed for weekly publication in All the Year Round, Our Mutual Friend emerged against the backdrop of his failing health, troubled relationship with Ellen Ternan, and declining reputation among contemporary critics. In his subtly argued publishing history, Sean Grass shows how these difficulties combined to makeOur Mutual Friend an extraordinarily odd novel, no less in its contents and unusually heavy revisions than in its marketing by Chapman and Hall, its transformation from a serial into British and U.S. book editions, its contemporary reception by readers and reviewers, and its delightfully uneven reputation among critics in the 150 years since Dickens’s death. Enhanced by four appendices that offer contemporary accounts of the Staplehurst railway accident, information on archival materials, transcripts of all of the contemporary reviews, and a select bibliography of editions, Grass’s book shows why this last of Dickens’s finished novels continues to intrigue its readers and critics. Ashgate Studies in Publishing History Offering publishing histories of well-known works of literature, this series is intended as a resource for book historians and for other specialists whose scholarship and teaching are enhanced by access to a work’s publication and reception history. Features include but are not limited to sections on the text’s composition, production and marketing, contemporary reception, textual issues, subsequent editions, and archival resources. The series is designed to allow for flexibility in presentation, to accommodate differences in each work’s history. Proposals on works whose publishing histories are particularly significant for what they reveal about a writer, a cultural milieu, or the history of print culture are especially welcome. Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend A Publishing History SEAN GRASS Iowa State University, USA First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprintof the Taylor &Francis Group, an informa business Copyirght © Sean Grass 2014 Sean Grass has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Grass, Sean, 1971– Charles Dickens’s Our mutual friend : a publishing history / by Sean Grass. pages cm.—(Ashgate studies in publishing history: manuscript, print, digital) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6930-2 (hardcover: alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-7546-9659-9 (ebook)— ISBN 978-1-4724-0500-5 (epub) 1. Dickens, Charles, 1812–1870. Our mutual friend. 2. Dickens, Charles, 1812–1870— Relations with publishers. 3. Literature publishing—England—History—19th century. 4. Authors and publishers—England—History—19th century. I. Title. PR4568.G73 2014 823’.8—dc23 2013035881 ISBNISBN 13:13: 978-0-7546-6930-2 (hbk) For Jean DePolis and Dollie Grass, whose histories I should also have written when there was time Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xiii Introduction: Our Mutual Friend: “The poorest of Mr. Dickens’s works” 1 1 The Man from Somewhere: Ellen Ternan, Staplehurst, and the Remaking of Charles Dickens 9 2 The Cup and the Lip: Writing Our Mutual Friend 37 3 Putting a Price upon a Man’s Mind: Our Mutual Friend in the Marketplace 71 4 A Dismal Swamp? Our Mutual Friend and Victorian Critics 97 5 The Voice of Society: Our Mutual Friend since 1870 131 Appendix 1: Dickens, Ellen Ternan, and Staplehurst 159 Appendix 2: The Manuscript, the Proof Sheets, and the Berg Copy 165 Appendix 3: Contemporary Reviews of Our Mutual Friend 169 Appendix 4: Selected Bibliography of Editions of Our Mutual Friend 253 Bibliography 257 Index 265 Plates List of Illustrations Plates 1 A “typical” page from the manuscript of the novel. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1202, fol. 185r. Purchased, 1944. 2 Dickens’s manuscript monthly number plan for No. 1. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1202, fol. 4r. Purchased, 1944. 3 Dickens’s manuscript monthly number plan for No. 4. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1202, fol. 7r. Purchased, 1944. 4 Chapter 1, p. 3 of the Proof sheets. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Proof sheets, with the author’s ms. corrections. Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; vol. 1, p. 3. 5 Chapter 1, p. 3 of the first edition in 2 vols by Chapman and Hall. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (London: Chapman and Hall, 1865). Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; vol. 1, p. 3. 6 Dickens’s manuscript monthly number plan for No. 2. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York: MA 1202, fol. 5r. Purchased, 1944. x Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend 7 The end of Chapter 9, “A Marriage Contract,” in manuscript. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1202, fol. 83r. Purchased, 1944. 8 The start of Chapter 10, “A Marriage Contract,” in proofs. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Proof sheets, with the author’s ms. corrections. Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; vol. 1, p. 86. 9 The continuation of Chapter 10 in proofs. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Proof sheets, with the author’s ms. corrections. Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; vol. 1, p. 59 [87]. 10 Dickens’s note to Clowes on No. 5, in manuscript. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1202, fol. 120r. Purchased, 1944. 11 The beginning of Chapter 11, “Podsnappery,” in manuscript. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1202, fol. 96r. Purchased, 1944. 12 Original pencil sketch of the monthly wrapper to Our Mutual Friend, Marcus Stone. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Copy 4. Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 13 The monthly wrapper of Our Mutual Friend as published for No. 11 in March 1865, Marcus Stone. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Copy 4. Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 14 Pen-and-ink sketch (top) and published version (bottom) of “The Bird of Prey,” Marcus Stone. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Copy 4. Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. List of Illustrations xi 15 From “A Cry for Help,” in manuscript, showing Dickens’s instruction to Clowes. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1203, fol. 158r. Purchased, 1944. 16 Dickens’s manuscript insertions A–E to Book the Fourth, Chapter 16. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Original autograph manuscript with innumerable erasures and corrections. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; MA 1203, fol. 120r. Purchased, 1944. Figure A1.1 “Charles Dickens Relieving the Sufferers at the Fatal Railway Accident, Near Staplehurst,” Penny Illustrated Paper (front page), June 24, 1865. British Library, British Newspaper Library, 19th Century British Library Newspapers Collection. 163 Acknowledgements When I began working on this book more than four years ago, I could not have imagined where it—or my life—would have taken me since: to New York, over and over, as I combed the collections at the Morgan Library and at the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library; to Iowa, away from old friends and toward new ones, in a new professional setting; to new inquiries into the 1860s book market and Charles Dickens’s place in it. At first I was thrilled just to participate in the scholarly effusion that Dickens’s bicentenary promised, and to contribute one small verse to the magnificent celebration of his life and work. Now, I am profoundly excited and humbled by the stunning breadth of Dickens’s achievement in Our Mutual Friend, an extraordinary novel that bred awe—but no contempt—as I grew more and more familiar with it, and that I have come to love as one of Dickens’s crowning achievements.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Great Expectations
    Great Expectations 1 2 CONTENTS 1. The Encounter 26 2. The Chase 31 3. Summoned to Play 43 4. At Satis House 49 5. The Three Jolly Bargemen 59 6. At Miss Havisham’s 62 7. The Apprenticeship 70 8. Old Orlick 75 9. Drawn to Gentry 87 10. Farewell 102 11. In London with the Pockets 110 12. At the Castle 126 13. An Unexpected Call 134 14. A Heavy Heart 147 15. A Mind not at Ease 152 16. A Visit to the Castle 163 17. A Quarrel 169 18. Visitor of the Night 177 19. A Heart Poured Out 184 20. Pursued 201 21. The Ties 215 22. On The Run 228 23. Peace At Last 242 24. Good Old Joe 248 25. Back Home 255 3 Great Expectations Introduction Dickens’s Biography Born to a poor family on February 7th, 1812, in Portsmouth, Charles Dickens was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich while his mother, Elizabeth Barrow, hoped to be a teacher and school director. In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Charles spent the years that shaped his character and he and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore everything around. This period came to an end when in 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London. Although his father was a kind and pleasant man, he had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means; so huge debts started accumulating and the family’s of Dickens the 1892 edition of Forster's financial situation worsened.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles' Childhood
    Charles’ Childhood His Childhood Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second of their eight children . John was a clerk in a payroll office of the navy. He and Elizabeth were an outgoing, social couple. They loved parties, dinners and family functions. In fact, Elizabeth attended a ball on the night that she gave birth to Charles. Mary Weller was an early influence on Charles. She was hired to care for the Dickens children. Her bedtime stories, stories she swore were quite true, featured people like Captain Murder who would make pies of out his wives. Young Charles Dickens Finances were a constant concern for the family. The costs of entertaining along with the expenses of having a large family were too much for John's salary. In fact, when Charles was just four months old the family moved to a smaller home to cut expenses. At a very young age, despite his family's financial situation, Charles dreamed of becoming a gentleman. However when he was 12 it looked like his dreams would never come true. John Dickens was arrested and sent to jail for failure to pay a debt. Also, Charles was sent to work in a shoe-polish factory. (While employed there he met Bob Fagin. Charles later used the name in Oliver Twist.) Charles was deeply marked by these experiences. He rarely spoke of this time of his life. Luckily the situation improved within a year. Charles was released from his duties at the factory and his father was released from jail.
    [Show full text]
  • The Characters of a Christmas Carol Page 10: Pre and Post Show Questions & Discussion Starters Page 11: Resources Language Arts Core Curriculum Standards CCRR3
    Theatre for Youth and Families A Christmas Carol Based on the story by Charles Dickens Adapted by David Bell Directed by Rosemary Newcott Study Guide, grades K-5 Created by the Counterpane Montessori Middle and High School Dramaturgy Team of Martha Spring and Katy Farr As part of the Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists’ Dramaturgy by Students program Under the guidance of Resident Teaching Artist Kim Baran Now in its 25th season, a magical holiday tradition for the whole family. On the Alliance Theatre stage November 21 through December 24, 2014 A Christmas Carol Study Guide 1 Happy Holidays from the Alliance Theatre! Welcome to the Alliance Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens and adapted for stage by David H. Bell. This Study Guide has been created with the student audience in mind with the intent of providing a starting point as the audience prepares and then reflects together upon the Alliance Theatre for Youth and Families’ series production of A Christmas Carol. A note from the director, Rosemary Newcott, the Sally G. Tomlinson Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth and Families: “I think of this show as a gift to Atlanta . I always hope it reflects the look and spirit of our community. The message is one that never grows old – that one is still capable of change — no matter what your age or what you have experienced!” Table of Contents Page 3: Charles Dickens Page 4-5: Vocabulary **(see note below) Page 6: Cast of Characters; Synopsis of the story Page 7: Money of Victorian England Page 8: Design your Own Christmas Carol Ghost Costume! Page 9: Word Search: The Characters of A Christmas Carol Page 10: Pre and Post show questions & discussion starters Page 11: Resources Language Arts Core Curriculum Standards CCRR3.
    [Show full text]
  • Highland Road Cemetery, Portsmouth
    HIGHLAND ROAD CEMETERY, PORTSMOUTH A GUIDE TO THE “DICKENS” GRAVES a self-guided walk This information was provided to Portsmouth City Council by Professor A.J. Pointon from the Friends of Highland Road Cemetery and Dickens Fellowship GRAVE (see plan for location) ET Ellen Lawless Ternan (see “The Invisible Woman” by Claire Tomalin) was the love of Charles Dickens from 1857 to his death in 1870. Of a theatrical family, she met Dickens when he was in a play with her and her two sisters (see below). After Dickens died, she subtracted 10 years from her age and wed Rev. George Wharton Robinson in 1876; after he died, she gave up work (at real age 70) and went to live with Fanny in Victoria Grove, Southsea. She died in 1914, living on as Helen Landless in “Edwin Drood”. MT Maria Ternan, married name Taylor, lived with sister Fanny after they moved from London to Southsea; she died in 1903. Fanny, who had been introduced to Anthony Trollope’s brother Thomas by Dickens, and was his wife until he died in 1892, had been both actress and opera singer; she moved to Southsea in 1900 and died in 1913. SP Susan Pearce, daughter of John Dickens’s landlord, William Pearce (who lived in the grand house two doors down from the Birthplace Museum at 393 Commercial Road). Lived in 393 up to her death in 1903 when the Council were able to purchase it (See D below). WP This headstone commemorates the sons of William Pearce. William Baker Pearce (junior) shared a midwife (Mrs Purkiss) with Charles Dickens.
    [Show full text]
  • Andersen's English Workpack
    ANDERSEN’S ENGLISH WORKPACK Produced by Out of Joint 2010 page 1 Introduction Aim of Workpack The resource materials in this pack are intended to enhance students’ enjoyment and understanding of Andersen’s English. The activities are variations of the rehearsal techniques used by Max Stafford-Clark during the production, and present creative and practical strategies for learning in a classroom setting. The workpack also works alongside the workshop that Out of Joint provides for Andersen’s English, led by the Artistic Director, the Associate Director or the Education Manager. The resources are primarily aimed at students aged 16+ who are studying Drama at BTEC or A Level. The workpack is in two main sections – Researching the Play and the Rehearsal Process. Rehearsing the Play Andersen’s English explores the story behind a real meeting between Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen, when the latter outstayed his welcome at Gads Hill Place in 1857. Artistic Director Max Stafford-Clark always encourages vigorous research before and during the rehearsal process, and with 9 out of the 10 characters in the play being real people, there was extensive reading on this period of history and the people themselves. This section includes an introduction into the play’s setting, as well as Dickens himself and the controversy of his personal life in his later years. Rehearsing the Play The Associate Director Jessica Swale gives is an insight into the rehearsal process with extracts from her diary over the five weeks before opening in Bury St Edmunds. Student Activities The workpack includes an introduction into Max Stafford-Clark’s rehearsal techniques such as actioning and status, as well as classroom exercises relating to the production.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Other Woman” – Eliza Davis and Charles Dickens
    44 DICKENS QUARTERLY “The Other Woman” – Eliza Davis and Charles Dickens MURRAY# BAUMGARTEN University of California, Santa Cruz he letters Eliza Davis wrote to Charles Dickens, from 22 June 1863 to 8 February 1867, and after his death to his daughter Mamie on 4 August 1870, reveal the increasing self-confidence of English Jews.1 TIn their careful and accurate comments on the power of Dickens’s work in shaping English culture and popular opinion, and their pointed discussion of the ways in which Fagin reinforces antisemitic English and European Jewish stereotypes, they indicate the concern, as Eliza Davis phrases it, of “a scattered nation” to participate fully in the life of “the land in which we have pitched our tents.2” It is worth noting that by 1858 the fits and starts of Jewish Emancipation in England had led, finally, to the seating of Lionel Rothschild in the House of Commons. After being elected for the fifth time from Westminster he was not required, due to a compromise devised by the Earl of Lucan and Benjamin Disraeli, to take the oath on the New Testament as a Christian.3 1 Research for this paper could not have been completed without the able and sustained help of Frank Gravier, Reference Librarian at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Librarian Laura McClanathan, Lee David Jaffe, Emeritus Librarian, and the detective work of David Paroissien, editor of Dickens Quarterly. I also want to thank Ainsley Henriques, archivist of the Kingston Jewish Community of Jamaica, Dana Evan Kaplan, the rabbi of the Kingston Jewish community, for their help, and the actress Miryam Margolyes for leading the way into genealogical inquiries.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Dickens and His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions from a Performance Tour of the United States, 1867-1868
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Theses Department of Communication 12-17-2014 Making it in America: How Charles Dickens and His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions from a Performance Tour of The United States, 1867-1868 Jillian Martin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses Recommended Citation Martin, Jillian, "Making it in America: How Charles Dickens and His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions from a Performance Tour of The United States, 1867-1868." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses/112 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAKING IT IN AMERICA: HOW CHARLES DICKENS AND HIS CUNNING MANAGER GEORGE DOLBY MADE MILLIONS FROM A PERFORMANCE TOUR OF THE UNITED STATES, 1867-1868 by JILLIAN MARTIN Under the Direction of Leonard Teel, PhD ABSTRACT Charles Dickens embarked on a profitable journey to the United States in 1867, when he was the most famous writer in the world. He gave seventy-six public readings, in eighteen cities. Dickens and his manager, George Dolby, devised the tour to cash in on his popularity, and Dickens earned the equivalent of more than three million dollars. They created a persona of Dickens beyond the literary luminary he already was, with the help of the impresario, P.T. Barnum. Dickens became the first British celebrity to profit from paid readings in the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • March 2016 ------London Particular the Dickens Fellowship Newsletter ______
    No. 44 March 2016 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- London Particular The Dickens Fellowship Newsletter _____________________________________________________________________ paragraph too. I am enjoying it. It’s as if someone REVISED OPENING HOURS AT THE CHARLES had said to Dickens, Charley, I want a good long DICKENS MUSEUM Members will be aware that novel with plenty of dry old lawyers, and a they are entitled to free entry at the CDM in miserable country house in Lincolnshire where it’s Doughty Street, on production of their always raining, and a mysterious affair about a girl, membership card. CDM opening hours have been that everyone knows a bit of but no one knows all changed for 2016 and are now: Tues – Sun 10am of – might make her tell part of the story … I’m – 5pm (last entry 4pm). The Museum will be sure C.D. got it in a flash, & fitted the Jellabys [sic] closed on Mondays – except for public holiday & Smallweeds & Turveydrop in later. They aren’t Mondays when it will be open 10am – 5pm. nearly as stirring as the rest, or (to me) interesting …’. ***** Journalistic Howlers An article in the Daily MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL - REMINDER Telegraph (3.12.15) describes how bills were run Members should have received a renewal form for up by various famous people at a Savile Row 2016 with the last LP. Fees are unchanged, i.e. tailor’s. The article states: “Charles Dickens, not £17 for membership, £15 for The Dickensian. If famous for his dress sense, is known to have paid you haven’t renewed, please do so asap. If you’ve off the debts of his eldest son, after he had run up mislaid the form, send your name and address a substantial bill with the tailors.
    [Show full text]
  • The Final Farewell (Frederick Busch's the Mutual Friend)
    Ontario Review Volume 9 Fall-Winter 1978-79 Article 22 April 2017 The inF al Farewell (Frederick Busch's The utualM Friend) Paula Deitz Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.usfca.edu/ontarioreview Recommended Citation Deitz, Paula (2017) "The inF al Farewell (Frederick Busch's The utualM Friend)," Ontario Review: Vol. 9 , Article 22. Available at: http://repository.usfca.edu/ontarioreview/vol9/iss1/22 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Final Farewell THE MUTUAL FRIEND by Frederick Busch. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. Pp. 222. $8.95, hb. On a bookshelf in the dining room of Longfellow's Cambridge house, there is a complete set of Dickens; and the story goes that Dickens, upon spotting this row of books when he dined there on Thanksgiving Day 1867, commented to Longfellow: "Ah-h-h! I see you read the best authors." Hearing this anecdote told by a guide in the Longfellow house, one has the sense of an immediate presence. This is the same effect worked by Frederick Busch in The Mutual Friend, his scrupu­ lous recreation in novel form of Charles Dickens and those who at­ tended him in his last years. The novel begins in this 1867 period with Dickens's public readings in America, and the dinner with Longfellow figures in the early pages. "Begins" is a misleading word here, for Busch's admirable technique is anything but linear. With a firm control over his material -he is faithful to the recorded facts and intuitive with his inventions- he presents this account of the years leading up to Dickens's death, and its aftermath, from different points of view.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Dickens and Higham a Circular Walk
    Charles Dickens and Higham A circular walk www.kent.gov.uk/explorekent KENT Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth on the 7th of February 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens, the 2nd of 8 children. John was a pay clerk in the Royal Navy and the family moved with his job, coming to Chatham when Charles was 5 years old. Dickens was so inspired by what he found in Kent that he returned here for the last years of his life. Many people and places in his novels have Kentish roots. The marshland around this area lent itself to the vivid opening of Great Expectations. Dickens was a dedicated walker. 12 miles was an average daily walk. He would walk in all weathers, turning ideas over in his mind. This walk covers 6.6 miles and includes places & landmarks that Dickens would have known well. 1 Arrivals 2 Building a new life It is unlikely that Dickens would Dickens’s early life was happy, but his have chosen to live at Gad’s Hill father John was careless with money Place had Higham lacked a railway and fell into debt. In 1823 John was station. Regular railway travel was compelled to put his son Charles to “…walking was, perhaps, vital to Dickens. Even his traumatic work in Warren’s blacking factory near experience of the Staplehurst railway the Strand, pasting labels onto bottles his chiefest pleasure, and crash on the 9th of June 1865 did not of boot polish for 6 shillings a week. the country lanes and city curtail this.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Dickens
    Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education and other social reforms. Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most of them published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication. Cliffhanger endings in his serial publications kept readers in suspense. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Dickens
    THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO CHARLES DICKENS EDITED BY JOHN O. JORDAN published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom cambridge university press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru,UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011-4211,USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 2001 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2001 Reprinted 2004 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface Adobe Sabon 10/13pt System QuarkXPress™ [se] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to Charles Dickens / edited by John O. Jordan. p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to literature) Includes bibliographical references (p. 224) and index. isbn 0 521 66016 5 – isbn 0 521 66964 2 (pb.) 1. Dickens, Charles, 1812–1870 – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Dickens, Charles, 1812–1870 – Handbooks, manuals, etc. i. Jordan, John O. ii. Series. pr4588.c26 2001 823′.8 –dc21 00-065162 isbn 0 521 66016 5 hardback isbn 0 521 66964 2 paperback CONTENTS List of illustrations page ix Notes on contributors xi Notes on references and editions xiv List of abbreviations xv Chronology xvi Preface xix john o.
    [Show full text]