Charles Dickens in Love

by Robert Garnett

  It was a beautiful party: “Birthday Celebrations,” Journalism 4:233.

  writing to me once: Letters 7:545 (22 Feb. 1855).

  I think I never should: Letters 1:17 (18 March 1833).

  I know how all these things: Forster, Life 1:32.

  petty disputes of Doctor’s Commons: Dickens’s transcriptions of his own shorthand notes for two trials in Doctor’s Commons survive. Both cases (in 1830) concerned “a disturbance in the vestry-room of the venerable church of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield. Objection had been taken by some of the parishioners to the levying of a poor rate, an altercation ensued, and proceedings were instituted against two of the aggrieved ratepayers by one of the churchwardens” (William J. Carlton, quoted in Hanna, “Before Boz,” where Dickens’s transcripts of the verbose judgments in both cases are printed, 293-305).

  when four years: Letters 7:557 (?Early March 1855).

  I began to write: Letters 7:543-44 (22 Feb. 1855).

  the most disinterested: Letters 7:539 (15 Feb. 1855).

  whatever I have tried: David Copperfield, ch. 42.

  I began to fight: Letters 7:539 (15 Feb. 1855).

  All that any one can do: Letters 1:29 (19 May 1833).

  I have positively stood amazed: Letters 7:557 (?Early March 1855).

  take my woodman’s axe: David Copperfield, ch. 36.

  Whatever of fancy: Letters 7:538 (15 Feb. 1855).

  I never can love: Letters 1:29 (19 May 1833).

  My entire devotion: Letters 7:543 (22 Feb. 1855).

  represented the whole world: Letters 7:539 (15 Feb. 1855).

  Unresolved, apprehensive: Parker, Doughty Street Novels, 56.

  only longing for companionship: Ibid., 60.

  I have … fixed: Letters 1:144 (31 March 1836).

  within these twelve months: Letters 7:545 (22 Feb. 1855).

  the happiness I had vaguely: David Copperfield, ch. 48.

  one of the strangest features: Baker, Charles Dickens and Maria Beadnell, xxvii-xxviii.

  Chapter 3

  “A Fable (Not a gay one)”: MS Firestone Library, Princeton; facsimile printed in Dickensian 28 (1932), 2-3.

  a polite and flattering communication: Letters 1:33 (?10 Dec. 1833).

  I am always entirely unemployed: Letters 1:30 (6 June 1833).

  rather backward: Letters 1:33 (?10 Dec. 1833).

  dimmed with joy and pride: “Preface,” Pickwick Papers (1850 edition).

  I intend with the gracious permission: Letters 1:32 (3 Dec. 1833).

  All that any one can do: Letters 1:29 (19 May 1833).

  As soon as I return: Letters 1:34 (?10 Dec. 1833).

  My next paper: Letters 1:33-34 (?10 Dec. 1833).

  had pervaded every chink: “Birthday Celebrations,” Journalism 4:232.

  Sometimes in the most unlikely: Letters 7:544-45 (22 Feb. 1855).

  I could not: Letters 7:544 (22 Feb. 1855).

  the three elder sisters: A fourth sister, Helen, was only one year old when Dickens was introduced to the Hogarth family, but she too eventually inspired strong feelings. Two decades later, when Dickens and Catherine separated, Helen as Catherine’s loyal ally became his “wickedest” enemy,” “whom I will never forgive alive or dead” (Letters 8:632 & 578).

  enjoyed it very much: Staples, “New Letters,” 76.

  a young and lovely girl: Letters 1:258 (8 May 1837).

  I have just returned home: Mary Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth [her cousin], 15 May 1836, Letters 1:689 (Appendix E).

  a letter which is mostly: Ibid.

  Mary and I wandered: “Dickens’s Diary,” Letters 1:630 (Appendix A).

  the grace and ornament: Letters 1:258 (8 May 1837).

  From the day of our marriage: Letters 1:263 (31 May 1837).

  Mary … understood it: Letters 8:560 (9 May 1858).

  are more devoted than ever: Mary Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth, 15 May 1836, Letters 1:689 (Appendix E).

  kindness itself: Staples, “New Letters,” 77.

  Dinner in Doughty Str.: Richard Bentley, MS, New York Public Library (Berg Collection); printed in Letters 1:253n.

  We lost no time: Letters 1:256-57 (8 May 1837).

  You cannot conceive: Letters 1:257 (8 May 1837).

  On the Saturday Evening: Letters 1:263 (31 May 1837).

  She was taken ill: Letters 1:268 (8 June 1837).

  Thank God she died in my arms: Letters 1:259 (17 May 1837). Dickens specified in at least eight different accounts that Mary had died in his arms—in fact, in every surviving account he wrote about her death.

  Her body lies in the beautiful cemetery: Letters 1:268 (8 June 1837).

  my dear young friend: Letters 1:341 (11 Dec. 1837).

  It is a great trial: Letters 2:410 (25 Oct. 1841).

  drive over there: Letters 2:410 (26 Oct. 1841).

  I neither think nor hope: Letters 2:410 (25 Oct. 1841).

  a melancholy pleasure: Letters 1:323 (26 Oct. 1837).

  Increased reputation: “Dickens’s Diary,” in Letters 1:629 (Appendix A).

  I shall never be so happy: Ibid., 1:630.

  every night for many months: Letters 3:483-84 (8 May 1843).

  I have never had her ring off: Letters 1:323 (26 Oct. 1837).

  Is it not extraordinary: Letters 1:366 (1 Feb. 1838).

  she is so much in my thoughts: Letters 3:484 (8 May 1843).

  In time my eyes: David Copperfield, ch. 2.

  I have carried into effect: Letters 3:455-56 (2 March 1843).

  The mystery is not here: Letters 6:26 (1 Feb. 1850).

  the most difficult book: Boswell, Life of Johnson, 952.

  The Protestant reader: Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens, 80.

  Christianity is a woman: Greene, Reflections 113.

  It is fatal to let people: Sayers, Creed or Chaos, 44.

  What people don’t realize: O’Connor, Habits of Being, 354.

  No one ever lived: Life of Our Lord, 441.

  Suppose ye that I am come: Luke 12:51.

  A God without wrath: Niebuhr, Kingdom of God in America, 193.

  Christianity is a scheme: [James Fitzjames Stephen?], unsigned review of The Uncommercial Traveler, 1861, excerpt in Collins, Critical Heritage, 423.

  used to say of Dickens: Paul Féval, “Charles Dickens,” excerpt in Collins, Interviews and Recollections 2:293.

  The gentlest and purest: Letters 1:323 (26 Oct. 1837).

  I should be sorry: Letters 1:366 (1 Feb. 1838).

  I dreamed of her: Letters 3:484-85 (8 May 1843).

  She is sentient: “Dickens’s Diary,” in Letters 1:632 (Appendix A).

  In an indistinct place: Letters 4:196 (?30 Sep. 1844).

  Easier than air with air: Paradise Lost 8:626-28.

  I solemnly believe: Letters 1:259 (17 May 1837).

  The certainty of a bright: Letters 1:515-16 (3 March 1839).

  was moved with the greatest compassion: Letters 4:196 (?30 Sep. 1844).

  With longer or shorter: Forster, Life 2:402.

  The first burst of anguish: Letters 1:516.

  I have been so shaken: Letters 1:260.

  faces that the grave had changed: Oliver Twist, ch. 11.

  The persons on whom: Oliver Twist, ch. 14.

  Wolves tear your throats: Oliver Twist, ch. 28.

  a sweet female voice: Ibid.

  Oh! Where are the hearts: Oliver Twist (Clarendon Press), 187n.

  She was not past seventeen: Oliver Twist, ch. 29.

  stealthily along: Oliver Twist, ch. 19.

  We know that when the young: Oliver Twist, ch. 35.

  O foul descent!: Paradise Lost 9:163-66.

  “An angel,” continued the young man: Oliver Twist, ch. 35.

  The godlike novelist: Slater, Dickens and Women, 94.

  There are smiling fields: Oliver Twist, ch. 51.

  henceforth to be the scene: Ibid.

  I would fain linger: Oliver Twist, ch. 53.

  They felt a railway trai
n: Adams, Autobiography, 324.

  Chapter 4

  My attachments: Letters 9:309 (14 Sep. 1860).

  favourite child: David Copperfield (Charles Dickens edition), “Preface.”

  No one can ever believe: David Copperfield (1850 edition), “Preface.”

  I am in danger: Ibid.

  I am deeply: Letters 4:669 (?30 Nov. 1846).

  His sister Fanny: Forster, Life 2:67.

  had naturally an interest: David Copperfield, ch.22.

  All was over: David Copperfield, ch. 26.

  I fancy: Letters 7:539 (15 Feb. 1855).

  I really think: Letters 5:569 (10 July 1849).

  a straw hat and blue ribbons: David Copperfield, ch. 26.

  a dress of celestial blue: David Copperfield, ch. 33.

  an engagement ring: David Copperfield, ch. 38.

  rather diminutive: David Copperfield, ch. 26. The quotations following are taken from the same chapter.

  Don’t talk about being poor: David Copperfield, ch. 37.

  Oh, please don’t: Ibid.

  the occasion: Letters 7:557 (?Early March 1855).

  You may make it necessary: David Copperfield, ch. 38.

  There is nothing: Ibid.

  My dear Maria: Letters 7:777 (Late 1831).

  I, turned of eighteen: “City of London Churches,” Journalism 4:112.

  I was steeped: David Copperfield, ch. 33.

  What an idle time!: Ibid.

  I can never open: Letters 7:557 (?Early March 1855).

  I began to fight: Letters 7:539 (15 Feb. 1855).

  I have never been so good: Ibid.

  On her face: David Copperfield, ch. 15.

  I cannot call: Ibid.

  solemn hand upraised: David Copperfield, ch. 53.

  Until I die: David Copperfield, ch. 60.

  so may I: David Copperfield, ch. 64.

  that spirit which directs: Letters 3:35 (29 Jan. 1842).

  a fair hand: David Copperfield, ch. 35.

  goodness, peace: David Copperfield, ch. 16.

  my sweet sister: David Copperfield, ch. 18.

  So perfect a creature: Letters 1:259 (17 May 1837).

  a major embarrassment … lifeless: Slater, Dickens and Women, 100, 161, 251-53.

  the real legless angel: Orwell, “Charles Dickens,” 102.

  The influence for all good: David Copperfield, ch. 16.

  She put her hand: David Copperfield, ch. 25.

  seemed to touch: Ibid.

  the fury and the mire: Yeats, “Byzantium.”

  I believe I had: David Copperfield, ch. 25.

  He seemed to swell: Ibid.

  I felt its whole weight: David Copperfield, ch. 58.

  foreign towns, palaces: Ibid.

  a ruined blank: Ibid.

  clasped in my embrace: David Copperfield, ch. 62.

  I came to Carthage: Augustine, Confessions 3:1.

  Those trifles: Ibid., 8:11.

  Thou hast made us: Ibid., 1:1.

  paintings of two scenes: The illustration’s framed painting of the Peggottys’ boat-house reproduces in miniature Phiz’s vignette for the novel’s title page, which shows the upside-down hull on the shore and Emily seated on the shingle in the foreground. With this picture within a picture of Emily, and with Agnes herself seated in the parlor and Dora’s portrait over the mantel, this final illustration in David Copperfield includes images of the three loves of David’s life: his childhood sweetheart Emily, his youthful passion Dora, and his predestined wife Agnes.

  Kiss me my dear!: Dickens’s manuscript revisions are reproduced in Brattin, “‘Let me Pause Once More’…,” 88.

  O Agnes, O my soul: David Copperfield, ch. 62.

  I come home: David Copperfield, ch. 39.

  Where’s the woman?: “The Haunted Man,” Christmas Stories, 150.

  She was so true: David Copperfield, ch. 60.

  Blind, blind, blind: David Copperfield, ch. 35. These words are ominously echoed a little later by a blind beggar David passes in the street.

  the first mistaken impulse: David Copperfield, ch. 48, repeating the words of Annie Strong three chapters earlier.

  it would have been better: David Copperfield, ch. 53.

  The old unhappy feeling: David Copperfield, ch. 48.

  I don’t quite apprehend: Letters 7:556-57 (?Early March 1855).

  Chapter 5

  I know that in many points: Letters 4:69 (11 March 1844).

  She was eighteen: Christiana Weller’s resemblance to Mary Hogarth was not simply a fevered notion of Dickens. Talking with Christiana one day the following year, Mary’s mother Mrs. Hogarth “mentioned how the [Hogarth] family thought she was like Mary Hogarth—’and a charming compliment,’” Christiana noted in her diary, “‘for she must have been an angel’” (Paroissien, “Charles Dickens and the Weller Family,” 7).

  I love her dear name: Letters 4:54n. The “dear name” that had won Dickens some fame alluded to Christiana’s surname, the same as that of Sam Weller, the celebrated cockney footman of Pickwick Papers.

  I read such high: Letters 4:58 (1 March 1844).

  I cannot joke: Letters 4:55 (28 Feb. 1844).

  I would point out: Letters 4:70 (11 March 1844).

  But at the worst: Ibid.

  If I … felt: Ibid.

  beyond the reach: Letters 4:99 (8 April 1844).

  Hours of hers: Letters 4:70 (11 March 1844).

  I had as high: Letters 4:99-100 (8 April 1844).

  the frantic tone: Darby, “Dickens and Women’s Stories: 1845-1848,” 67.

  recollection of Miss Weller: Letters 4:57 (1 March 1844).

  I swear to you: Letters 4:69 (11 March 1844).

  a very beautiful girl: Letters 4:398 (4 Oct. 1845).

  Mrs. Thompson disappoints: Letters 4:604 (17 Aug. 1846).

  She seems … to have: Letters 4:615 (30 Aug. 1846).

  convulsions, distortions: Kaplan, Dickens and Mesmerism, 77.

  myriads of bloody phantoms: Letters 12:443 (24 Nov. 1869).

  I have a perfect conviction: Letters 4.265 (10 Feb. 1845).

  Wheresoever I travelled: Letters 12:443 (24 Nov. 1869).

  “To Be Read at Dusk,” reprinted in Short Fiction, 68-74.

  put through her paces: Stone, Working Notes, 75.

  carrying her gossamer parasol: Dombey and Son, ch. 21.

  very handsome: Ibid.

  admirable—the women quite perfect: Letters 5:35 (15 March 1847).

  I should like Edith: Letters 5:67 (Mid-May 1847).

  The interest and passion: Forster, Life 2:33.

  the engrossing interest: “1847 Narrative,” [Hogarth & Dickens], Letters of Charles Dickens, 162.

  He had never thought: Dombey and Son, ch. 42.

  That space the Evil One: Paradise Lost 9:463-65.

  He imagined her dangerously dark: Dombey and Son, chs. 27, 37, 42, 45, 47 and 54.

  she lifted her hand: Dombey and Son, ch. 47.

  references to her breast and bosom: McCombie, “Sexual Repression in Dombey and Son,” 34.

  quite a lady: Letters 5:34 (10 March 1847).

  What devil: Dombey and Son, ch. 54.

  about thirty: Letters 5:34 (10 March 1847).

  When and where: Barnaby Rudge, ch. 41.

  “Sir,” returned Edith: Dombey and Son, ch. 45.

  winning, happy, amiable: “Dickens’s Diary,” Letters 1:629 (Appendix A).

  The Woman had once: Adams, Autobiography, 321.

  Wandering days: Letters 6:721 (22 July 1852).

  Why is it: Letters 7:523 (3 &?4 Feb. 1855).

  the specialist in childbearing: Nayder, The Other Dickens, 152.

  All social evils: Letters 6:41 (22 Feb. 1850).

  great mass of matter: Letters 6:41 (22 Feb. 1850).

  We seek to bring: “A Preliminary Word,” Journalism 2:177.

  I saw a poisoned air: “A December Vision,” Journalism 2:307-8.

  I bequeath to my successor: “The Last Words of
the Old Year,” Journalism 2:314-15.

  I have seen: “The Last Words of the Old Year,” Journalism 2:313.

  a very Fortunatus’s purse: Letters 6:525 (23 Oct. 1851).

  I have always had: Letters 6:448 (27 July 1851).

  more like a man: Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey.”

  The amount of business: Letters 6:329-30 (23 March 1851).

  rolling of a sea: Letters 6:521 (15 Oct. 1851).

  I have quite: Letters 6:574 (13 Jan. 1852).

  I left Liverpool: Letters 6:599-600 (15 Feb. 1852).

  Yet I hope: Letters 6:328 (23 March 1851).

  They rise: “Home for Homeless Women,” Journalism 3:130-32.

  I found something: Letters 6:598 (13 Feb. 1852).

  is very much grown: Letters 6:467 (22 Aug. 1851).

  I will only add: David Copperfield, ch. 42.

  less fixed purpose: Letters 7:245 (14 Jan. 1854).

  I don’t think: Letters 6:467 (22 Aug. 1851).

  As her case: Letters 6:309 (8 March 1851).

  an alarming disposition: Letters 6:311 (9 March 1851).

  After taking: Letters 6:314 (12 March 1851).

  If, with a wish: Letters 6:355 (17 April 1851).

  whom I cannot afford: Letters 6:627 (16 March 1852).

  Mrs. Dickens and her boy: Letters 6:629 (19 March 1852).

  What a thing it is: Letters 6:266 (24 Jan. 1851).

  Repeated pregnancies: MacKenzie, Life, 246.

  indescribable lassitude: Letters 7:245 (14 Jan. 1854).

  an exhausted composure: Bleak House, ch. 2.

  Is a new dress: Ibid.

  She has a purpose: Bleak House, ch. 16.

  She has beauty still: Bleak House, ch. 2.

  She was as graceful: Bleak House, ch. 18.

  air of superiority: Ibid.

  You see everything: Bleak House, ch. 12.

  the quickness: Bleak House, ch. 12.

  intelligence … is too quick: Bleak House, ch. 28.

  oyster of the old school: Bleak House, ch. 10.

  This woman: Bleak House, ch. 48.

  My lady … is afraid: Bleak House, ch. 7.

  sense and strength of character: Bleak House, ch. 48.

  Anger, and fear: Bleak House, ch. 41.

  It is not in her nature: Bleak House, ch. 48.

  wicked relief: Bleak House, ch. 55.

  What power: Bleak House, ch. 41.

  full seven happy years: Bleak House, ch. 67.

  Thus Chesney Wold: Bleak House, ch. 66.

  still my Lady’s eyes: Bleak House, ch. 28.

  You have achieved: Bleak House, ch. 18.

  I must travel: Bleak House, ch. 36.

  No man but a blockhead: Boswell, Life of Johnson, 731 (5 April 1776).