Dickens

by Fred Kaplan

FS Frank Stone

  GC George Cruikshank

  GD George Dolby

  GH Georgina Hogarth

  GHL George Henry Lewes

  HA Henry Austin

  HB Henry Burnett

  HC Harriet Collins

  HCA Hans Christian Andersen

  HFD Henry Fielding Dickens

  HMB Hannah Meredith Brown

  HWL Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  JD John Dickens

  JET James Emerson Tennent

  JF John Forster

  JL John Leech

  JM John Macrone

  JTF James T. Fields

  KD Kate (Katie) Dickens

  LA Letitia (Dickens) Austin

  LB Lady Blessington

  LH Leigh Hunt

  LW Lavinia Watson

  MB Mary Boyle

  MD Mary (Mamie) Dickens

  ML Mark Lemon

  MS Marcus Stone

  MW Maria (Beadnell) Winter

  PC Philip Collins

  PF Percy Fitzgerald

  RB Richard Bentley

  RBL Robert Bulwer-Lytton

  RHH Richard Henry Home

  TAT Thomas A. Trollope

  TB Thomas Beard

  TC Thomas Carlyle

  TJT Thomas James Thompson

  TM Thomas Mitton

  TNT Thomas Noon Talfourd

  WC Wilkie Collins.

  WCM William Charles Macready

  WFC William F. de Cerjat

  WHA William Harrison Ainsworth

  WHH William Holman Hunt

  WHR W. H. Russell

  WHW William Henry Wills

  WJC William J. Carlton

  WMT William Makepeace Thackeray

  WSL Walter Savage Landor

  BOOKS

  Dickens’ Works

  The Clarendon Dickens (Oxford, 1966–1982) has been used for DC, DS, ED, LD, MC, and OT. For all other works, including the Christmas tales and stories, The Oxford Illustrated Dickens has been used with occasional textual corrections from the Penguin edition, with the exception of BkM, which has been cited from the text (1981) published by the New York Public Library, and PI, which has been cited from the edition (1973) edited by David Paroissien. Miscellaneous Papers (1914), ed. B. W. Matz, contains many otherwise uncollected short pieces.

  AN American Notes, 1842

  BH Bleak House, 1852–53

  BkM Charles Dickens’ Book of Memoranda, 1981

  BR Barnaby Rudge, 1841

  DC David Copperfield, 1849–50

  DS Dombey and Son, 1846–78

  ED The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870

  GE Great Expectations, 1860–61

  HT Hard Times, 1854

  LD Little Dorrit, 1855–57

  MC Martin Chuzzlewit, 1843–44

  MP Miscellaneous Papers, 1914

  NN Nicholas Nickleby, 1838–39

  OCS The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840–41

  OMF Our Mutual Friend, 1864–65

  OT Oliver Twist, 1837–38

  PI Pictures from Italy, 1846

  PP Pickwick Papers, 1836–37

  RP Reprinted Pieces, 1850–56

  SB Sketches by Boz, 1833–36

  TTC A Tale of Two Cities, 1859

  UT The Uncommercial Traveller, 1860, 1865, 1875

  HCD The Heart of Charles Dickens, ed. Edgar Johnson, 1952

  KJF The Speeches of Charles Dickens, ed. K. J. Fielding, 1960

  MM Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens. His Letters to Her, ed. Walter Dexter, 1935

  N The Nonesuch Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, ed. Walter Dexter, 3 vols., 1938

  P The Pilgrim Edition of The Letters of Charles Dickens, volumes 1–5, ed. Madeline House, Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson, K. J. Fielding, 1965–81.

  Wills Charles Dickens as Editor, ed. R. C. Lehmann, 1912

  Journals

  AYR All the Year Round, 1859–70

  D The Dickensian, 1905–

  DSA Dickens Studies Annual, 1970–1987.

  GHG Gad’s Hill Gazette, 1863–65. Berg; DHM.

  HW Household Words, 1850–59

  Reminiscences, Articles, and Books

  Adrian Arthur Adrian, Georgina Hogarth and the Dickens Circle, 1957

  Allen Michael Allen, “The Dickens Family at Portsmouth, 1807–14,” D (1981), 131–43; “The Dickens Family at London and Sheerness, 1815–1816,” D (1982), 3–7; “The Dickens Family at Chatham, 1817–1822,” D (1982), 67–88; “The Dickens Family in London, 1822–1824,” D (1982), 131–51; “The Dickens Family in London 1824–1827,” D (1983), 2–20

  Bred Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens, A Friendship and Its Dissolution, Anglistica 7, 1956

  Christian Eleanor E. Christian, “Recollections of Charles Dickens,” Temple Bar, 1888

  CD Jr Charles Dickens, Jr., “Reminiscences of My Father,” Windsor Magazine, 1934

  Davies James A. Davies, John Forster, A Literary Life, 1983

  DD Gladys Storey, Dickens and Daughter, 1939

  Dolby George Dolby, Charles Dickens as I Knew Him, 1912

  F John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens, 2 vols., 1876

  Fitz Percy Fitzgerald, Memories of Charles Dickens, 1913

  Frith W. P. Frith, My Autobiography and Reminiscences, 1889

  Gaskell A. V. Chappie and Arthur Pollard, ed., Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, 1966

  HFD.M Henry Fielding Dickens, Memories of My Father, 1929

  HFD.R Henry Fielding Dickens, The Recollections of Sir Henry Dickens, 1934

  IR Philip Collins. ed., Charles Dickens, Interviews and Recollections, 2 vols., 1981

  J Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens, His Tragedy and His Triumph, 2 vols., 1952

  JTF James T. Fields, Yesterdays with Authors, 1882

  Langton Robert Langton, The Childhood and Youth of Charles Dickens, 1891

  Lehmann John Lehmann, Ancestors and Friends, 1962

  MD Mamie Dickens, My Father as I Recall Him, 1900

  MS Marcus Stone, “Reminiscences,” DHM

  Nisbet Ada Nisbet, Dickens & Ellen Ternan, 1952

  P&P Frederic G. Kitton, Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil, 1889–90

  Patten Robert Patten, Charles Dickens and His Publishers, 1978

  Ray Gordon N. Ray, The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, 4 vols., 1945–46

  Slater Michael Slater, Dickens and Women, 1983

  WCM.D William Charles Macready, The Diaries of William Charles Macready, ed. William Toynbee, 2 vols., 1912

  WCM.R William Charles Macready, Macready’s Reminiscences and Diaries, ed. Frederick Pollock, 1875

  Wright Thomas Wright, The Life of Charles Dickens, 1935

  Yates Edmund Yates, Recollections and Experiences, 1884

  CHAPTER ONE

  Scenes of His Boyhood (1812–1822)

  1. CD to WHW, 9/4/1860, N 3, 176–77; CD to WCM, 3/1/1865, N 3, 416; DD, 106–7. Though Storey states that it was Katie who tried to save some of the letters, it is likely to have been Mamie or Georgina; Katie was in France.

  2. CD to WCM, 2/1/1865, N 3, 416.

  3. Christian, 483–84; Allen (“Portsmouth”), 137; CD to ABC, 8/30/1849, P 5, 602.

  4. F, I, 1, 5; CD to ABC, 1/25/1855, HCD, 289; MS. DHM.

  5. “The First of May” (“A Little Talk about Spring and the Sweeps”), SB (June 1836), 170.

  6. J 2, 1160–61 provides genealogies for the Dickens and Barrow families that go back to 1633 and 1510 respectively. I do not believe that they are historically valid; DD, 31–33.

  7. Allen (“Portsmouth”), 131–32, 137; WJC, “The Barrows of Bristol,” D (1949), 33–36; DD, 37.

  8. Allen (“Portsmouth”), 138–39, 142.

  9. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 126; “The First of May,” SB (June 1836), 169; “Travelling Abroad,” UT, 62.

  10. Allen (“Chatham”), 67–68.

  11. “Travelling Abroad,” UT, 67; “Chatham Dockyard,” UT (AYR, 1860?), 260–62; “Dullborough Town,” UT, 116–17; the question of the
precise nature of his childhood and lifelong ailment has not been satisfactorily resolved. The most plausible guesses are made by W. H. Bowen in CD and His Family, 1956, 134–59.

  12. KJF, 50–51; Langton, 25; F, I, 7, 10.

  13. F, I, 1, 9–11.

  14. MS; Arthur Heran, “Those Wonderful Eyes,” D (1926), 25–29; F I, 1, 10–11.

  15. Memoirs of Grimaldi, ed. CD, 1838, ed. Richard Findlater, 1968, 9–10; F 2, 93.

  16. Jane W. Stedman, “Good Spirits: Dickens’s Childhood Reading.” D (1965), 150–54; F, I, i, 10; “Dullborough Town,” UT, 120.

  17. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 118.

  18. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 118–19.

  19. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 119.

  20. “Night Walks,” UT, 131; “Nurse’s Stories,” UT, 156–57.

  21. DD, 33–34; WJC, “More About the Dickens Ancestry,” D (1961), 5–10; Allen (“Chatham”), 80, 76–77.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Hero of My Own Life (1822–1834)

  1. “Dullborough Town,” UT, 116.

  2. See WJC, “The Deed in DC,” D (1952), 101–6; William Oldie, “Mr. Micawber and the Redefinition of Experience,” D (1967), 100–110: “JD is the source for Mr. Micawber. … Perhaps this, more than anything, shows how profoundly Dickens needed to write about his father” (109). E. Davey, “The Parents of CD,” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine (1874), 772–74, takes the untenable position that JD and Micawber and Elizabeth Dickens and Mrs. Nickleby have little in common and are not portraits of CD’s parents.

  3. Davey, 773; Ephesian (C. E. Bechhofer Roberts), “The Huffams, the Barrows, and the Admiralty,” D (1928), 263–66; W. B. Matz, “Christopher Huffam, CD’s Grandfather,” D (1924), 121–24; Allen (“London,” 1), 114.

  4. F, I, 1, 18–19; WJC, “The Barber of Dean Street,” D (1951), 8–12.

  5. WJC, “Fanny Dickens, Pianist and Vocalist,” D (1957), 133–43, and supplementary documents, DHM.

  6. DD, 46–48; WJC, “JD, Journalist,” D (1957), 5–11.

  7. Allen (“London,” 1), 135.

  8. WJC, “In the Blacking Warehouse,” D (1964), 11–16; for a discussion of the problem of dating the start of CD’s employment at Warren’s, see Allen (“London,” 1), 138.

  9. Kathleen H. Strange, “Blacking Polish,” D (1979), 7–11; F, I, 1, 25–26.

  10. WJC, “The Deed in DC,” D (1952), 101–6.

  11. Angus Easson, “I, Elizabeth Dickens: Light on JD’s Legacy,” D (1971), 35–40; Allen (“London,” 1), 140–50; JD to H. Perryman, 10/6/1825, D (1913), 148.

  12. Easson, 40; copies of these Public Record Office documents are at the DHM. The originals are quoted in Allen (“London,” 1), 146–47, and Allen (“London,” 2), 4.

  13. WJC, “Postscripts to Forster,” D (1962), 88–89; F, I, 28; Allen, 145–46.

  14. F, I, 1, 22–3, 36–37.

  15. F, I, 1, 38.

  16. See Albert D. Hutter, “Reconstructive Autobiography: The Experience at Warren’s Blacking,” DSA 6 (1977), 1–14; F, I, 38.

  17. P&P, 128.

  18. See “Our School,” UT, 567, 573; Willoughby Matchett, “Dickens at Wellington House Academy,” D (1911), 212–13, 180–81; C. M. Neale, “Did Dickens Learn Virgil?” D (1912), 89–91, 123–26; CD to O. P. Thomas, 1825–26. P 1, 1.

  19. Langton, 89; “Our School,” UT, 568; Walter Dexter, “One Hundred Years Ago, Dickens’s School Days in London,” D (1926), 45.

  20. WJC, “The Deed,” 104–6; the editor, “Two Early Homes of CD,” D (1951), 198–200.

  21. P&P, 129.

  22. P&P, 130–31.

  23. WJC, “The Strange Story of TM,” D (1960), 141–52; P 1, 35 note.

  24. CD to J. H. Kuenzel, 7/?/1838, P 1, 423; P 1, 9 note 4.

  25. Gerald G. Grubb, “Dickens’ First Experience as a Parliamentary Reporter,” D (1940), 216; Samuel Carter Hall, Retrospect of a Long Life, 1883, 64; WJC, “JD, Journalist,” D (1957), 5–6.

  26. WJC, CD Shorthand Writer (1926), 46–7; CD to Kuenzel, 7/?/1838, P1, 423; Grubb, 211–18.

  27. F, I, 3. 55.

  28. P 1, 2.

  29. A. De Suzannet, “Maria Beadnell’s Album,” D (1935), 161–68.

  30. “City of London Churches,” UT, 88–89; Michael Slater, “David to Dora: A New Dickens Letter,” D (1972), 162–66, and Slater, 54–57; “The Bill of Fare,” HH MS.; despite his disappointment, he continued to feel affection for George Beadnell, who “was most hospital, friendly, & kind,” and corresponded with him through the 1840s.

  31. WJC, “A Companion of the Copperfield Days,” D (1953), 7–16.

  32. CD to MW, 2/22/1855, N 2, 633; “Birthday Celebrations,” UT, 403.

  33. CD to Maria Beadnell, 5/14/1833, 5/19/1833, P 1, 23, 29; CD to Henry Kolle, 5/19/1833, P 1, 29.

  34. CD to JF, 12/30–31/1844, 1/1/1845, P 4, 244–45.

  35. WJC, “Fanny Dickens,” 135–36; P 4, 245.

  36. CD provided a fictional account of an aspect of the preparation in “Mrs. Joseph Porter” (Monthly Magazine, 1/1834); Morgan MS.

  37. Morgan MS.; Charles Haywood, “CD and Shakespeare; or, The Irish Moor of Venice, O’Thello, With Music.” D (1977), 67–87.

  38. CD to Kolie, 12/10/1833, P1, 33–34; WJC, “An Echo of the Copperfield Days,” D (1949), 149–52; Charles Mackay, Forty Years’ Recollections of Life Literature, and Public Affairs, 1877, I, 78; P&P, 133–34.

  39. JD to TB, 12/4/1834, DHM.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The First Coming (1834–1837)

  1. J. P. Collier, An Old Man’s Diary, 1872, IV, viii.

  2. Collier, IV, 12–14.

  3. P 1, 47, 60; KJF, 347.

  4. P 1, 41 note 1; CD to CaD, 12/16/1835, P 1, 106–7; P 1, 106, note 3.

  5. KJF, 346–47; “Preface,” SB (1850); “Preface,” PP (1867).

  6. KJF, 347; Charles Mackay, P&P, 134.

  7. CD to George Hogarth, 1/20/1835, P 1, 54–55.

  8. PP, 138.

  9. DD, 49–50; W. Forbes Gray, “The Edinburgh Relatives and Friends of CD,” D (1926), 218–23; Christian, 481.

  10. WJC, “An Early Home of Dickens in Kensington,” D (1965), 20–25; CD to CaD, 7/1835. 7/9/1835. P 1. 67, 69.

  11. CD to CaD, 5/1835, P 1, 61.

  12. CD to CaD, 6/?/1835, P 1, 63.

  13. CD to CaD, 6/1835, P 1, 63; Michael Slater, “How Dickens ‘told’ Catherine about his Past,” D (1979), 3–6.

  14. CD to CaD, 11/19/1835, P 1, 95.

  15. CD to CaD, 12/18/1835, 12/?/1835, P 1, no, 104.

  16. CD to CaD, 11/3O?/1835, P 1, 99; P 1, 131 note, 144 note; PP, supplement, 10; TB to F. G. Kitton, 1/12/1888, DHM.

  17. See G. A. Sala, The Life and Adventures of G. A. Sala, 1895, I, 172–73, for the origin of this story and John Sutherland, “JM,” DSA 13, 244 and 258 note; CD to JM, 10/27/1835, P 1, 81–84.

  18. Samuel Ellis, William Henry Harrison and His Friends, 1911, I, 99, 121, 225.

  19. Sala, Gentleman’s Magazine (1878). Quoted in Michael Wynn Jones, George Cruiksbank, His Life and London, 1978, 43; Blanchard Jerrold, The Life of George Cruiksbank, 1898, 109, 47–73; John Wardropper, The Caricatures of George Cruiksbank, 1978, 8; Kitton, CD and His Illustrators, 1899, 4; they had probably met in the summer of 1835. See WHA to Dear Sir, 8/30?/1835, HH.

  20. Jerrold, 109; CD to JM, 12/26/1835, 12/171835, P 1, 112, 108; JTF, 230–31.

  21. See Sutherland, 250, and Patten, 31–32, 40–41.

  22. CD to RB, 9/17/1836, P 1, 174; P 1, 210 note; T. W. Hill, “Dickens and His ‘Ugly Duckling,’” D (1950), 190–96.

  23. Patten, 60–62; Arthur Waugh, A Hundred Years of Publishing: Being the Story of C&H, 1930, 16–17; “Preface,” PP (1847).

  24. Patten, 46–60; C&H to CD, 2/12/1836, P 1, 648; CD to CaD, 2/10/1836, P 1, 128–29.

  25. Waugh, 20–21, 23; CD to Robert Seymour, 4/14/1836, P 1, 145–46; “Preface,” PP (1868), xxiii; for an argument on behalf of Seymour’s contributions to PP, see Diane
Keitt, “CD and Robert Seymour: The Battle of Wills,” D (1986), 2–11.

  26. Patten, 65; CD to C&H, 4/27/1836, P 1, 147–48.

  27. See Jane R. Cohen, CD and His Original Illustrators, 1980, 53–58.

  28. Speech at the Royal Academy dinner, Ray I, 312; KJF, 265.

  29. Ray, I, 312; CD to JL, 8/24/1836, P 1, 168; CD to C&H, 8/24/1836, P 1, 169–70; F, I, 1, 71–72.

  30. Patten, 66–67.

  31. CD to C&H, 11/1/1836, P 1, 189.

  32. JD to C&H, 2/14/1837, DHM transcription from Fitzgerald Collection, Rochester.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Charley Is My Darling (1837–1841)

  1. CD to JF, 6/20?/1837. P 1, 274.

  2. WMT to Edward Fitzgerald, 5/1835, Ray, I, 287; Juston O’Driscoll, Memoir of Daniel Maclise, 1871, 20–22; Christian, 496.

  3. Davies, 159–83; CD to JF, 1/8/1845, P 4, 246–47; JF to Mrs. JF, 7/8?/1869, HH; JF, “Diary,” 8/1853, 7/15/1849, 2/24/1851, 8/29/1859, 10/12/1860, HH; Henry Rawlins to Whitwell Elwin, 12/20/1879, HH.

  4. JF to Mrs. Bennett, 6/20/1827, HH; Miss Bennett to Thomas Chitty, 9/12/1877, HH; extract from playbill, HH; William Andrew Mitchell, Newcastle Mercury (5/17/1828); P 3, 273 note 1.

  5. Davies, 10–13; CD to Dr. Belcombe, 2/8/1838, Morgan; JF, “Diary,” 8/18/1859, HH.

  6. P 1, 205 note 3, 210 note 1.

  7. Samuel C. Hall, Memories of Great Men and Women of the Age 1877, 64.

  8. WCM.D, 36, 72, 399.

  9. P 1, 65 note; WJC, “The Death of Mary Hogarth–Before and After,” D (1967), 69; Mary Scott Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth II, 5/15/1836, P 1, 689; Mary Scott Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth II, 1/26/1837, “New letters of Mary Hogarth and Her Sister Catherine,” D (1967), 77.

  10. Catherine Hogarth to Mary Scott Hogarth II, 5/30/1857, WJC, “New Letters,” D (1967), 71–72, 80; CD to ABC, 5/9/1858, HCD, 354–55.

  11. CD to George Thomson, 5/8/1837, P 1, 256; WJC, “New Letters,” 80; CD to unknown correspondent, 6/8/1837, P 1, 268; CD to TB, 5/17/1837, P 1, 259.

  12. Charles Klingman, “The Dream of CD,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytical Association (1970), 783–89; P 1, 629; CD to Richard Johns, 5/31/1837, P 1, 263.

  13. P 1, 632; CD to Johns, 5/31/1837, P 1, 263; CD to William Bradbury, 3/3/1839, P 1, 515; CD to CaD, 2/1/1838, P 1, 366.

  14. CD to Henry Kolle, 12/10?/1833, P 1, 34; Kathleen Tillotson, ed., OT, 1966, xv-xvi.

  15. From the inscription by CD on Mary Hogarth’s tombstone, P 1, 259 note 1.

  16. OT, LVIII.

  17. OT, XXXIX, LIII.