English Literature
society, between whom the harsh laws of that day frequently made no
distinction. Third, as a reporter, and afterwards as manager of various
newspapers, he learned the trick of racy writing, and of knowing to a
nicety what would suit the popular taste. Fourth, as an actor, always an
actor in spirit, he seized upon every dramatic possibility, every tense
situation, every peculiarity of voice and gesture in the people whom he
met, and reproduced these things in his novels, exaggerating them in the
way that most pleased his audience.
When we turn from his outward training to his inner disposition we find two
strongly marked elements. The first is his excessive imagination, which
made good stories out of incidents that ordinarily pass unnoticed, and
which described the commonest things--a street, a shop, a fog, a lamp-post,
a stagecoach--with a wealth of detail and of romantic suggestion that makes
many of his descriptions like lyric poems. The second element is his
extreme sensibility, which finds relief only in laughter and tears. Like
shadow and sunshine these follow one another closely throughout all his
books.
Remembering these two things, his training and disposition, we can easily
foresee the kind of novel he must produce. He will be sentimental,
especially over children and outcasts; he will excuse the individual in
view of the faults of society; he will be dramatic or melodramatic; and his
sensibility will keep him always close to the public, studying its tastes
and playing with its smiles and tears. If pleasing the public be in itself
an art, then Dickens is one of our greatest artists. And it is well to
remember that in pleasing his public there was nothing of the hypocrite or
demagogue in his make-up. He was essentially a part of the great drifting
panoramic crowd that he loved. His sympathetic soul made all their joys and
griefs his own. He fought against injustice; he championed the weak against
the strong; he gave courage to the faint, and hope to the weary in heart;
and in the love which the public gave him in return he found his best
reward. Here is the secret of Dickens's unprecedented popular success, and
we may note here a very significant parallel with Shakespeare. The great
different in the genius and work of the two men does not change the fact
that each won success largely because he studied and pleased his public.
GENERAL PLAN OF DICKENS'S NOVELS. An interesting suggestion comes to us
from a study of the conditions which led to Dickens's first three novels.
_Pickwick_ was written, at the suggestion of an editor, for serial
publication. Each chapter was to be accompanied by a cartoon by Seymor (a
comic artist of the day), and the object was to amuse the public, and,
incidentally, to sell the paper. The result was a series of characters and
scenes and incidents which for vigor and boundless fun have never been
equaled in our language. Thereafter, no matter what he wrote, Dickins was
lbeled a humorist. Like a certain American writer of our own generation,
everything he said, whether for a feast or a funeral, was spposed to
contain a laugh. In a word, he was the victim of his own book. Dickens was
keen enough to understand his danger, and his next novel, _Oliver Twist_,
had the serious purpose of mitigating the evils under which the poor were
suffering. Its hero was a poor child, the unfortunate victim of society;
and, in order to draw attention to the real need, Dickens exaggerated the
woeful condition of the poor, and filled his pages with sentiment which
easily slipped over into sentimentality. This also was a popular success,
and in his third novel, _Nicholas Nickleby,_ and indeed in most of his
remaining works, Dickens combined the principles of his first two books,
giving us mirth on the one hand, injustice and suffering on the other;
mingling humor and pathos, tears and laughter, as we find them in life
itself. And in order to increase the lights and shadows in his scenes, and
to give greater dramatic effect to his narrative, he introduced odious and
lothsome characters, and made vice more hateful by contrasting it with
innocence and virtue.
We find, therefore, in most of Dickens's novels three or four widely
different types of character: first, the innocent little child, like
Oliver, Joe, Paul, Tiny Tim, and Little Nell, appealing powerfully to the
child love in every human heart; scond, the horrible or grotesque foil,
like Sqeers, Fagin, Quilp, Uriah Heep, and Bill Sykes; third, the
grandiloquent or broadly humorous fellow, the fun maker, like Micawber and
Sam Weller; and fourth, a tenderly or powerfully drawn figure, like Lady
Deadlock of _Bleak House,_ and Sydney Carton of _A Tale of Two Cities,_
which rise to the dignity of true characters. We note also that most of
Dickens's novels belong decidely to the class of purpose or problem novels.
Thus _Bleak House_ attacks "the law's delays"; _Little Dorrit,_ the
injustice which persecutes poor debtors; _Nicholas Nickleby,_ the abuses of
charity schools and brutal schoolmasters; and _Oliver Twist,_ the
unnecessary degradation and suffering of the poor in English workhouses.
Dickens's serious purpose was to make the novel the instrument of morality
and justice, and whatver we may think of the exaggeration of his
characters, it is certain that his stories did more to correct the general
selfishness and injustice of society toward the poor than all the works of
other literary men of his age combined.
THE LIMITATIONS OF DICKENS. Any severe criticism of Dickens as a novelist
must seem, at first glance, unkind an unnecessary. In almost every house he
is a welcome guest, a personal friend who has beguiled many an hour with
his stories, and who has furnished us much good laughter and a few good
tears. Moreover, he has always a cheery message. He emphasizes the fact
that this is an excellant world; that some errors have crept into it, due
largely to thoughtlessness, but that they can be easily remedied by a
little human sympathy. That is a most welcome creed to an age overburdened
with social problems; and to criticise our cheery companion seems as
discourteous as to speak unkindly of a guest who has just left our home.
But we must consider Dickens not merely as a friend, but as a novelist, and
apply to his work the same standards of art which we apply to other
writers; and when we do this we are sometimes a little disappointed. We
must confess that his novels, while they contain many realistic details,
seldom give the impression of reality. His characters, though we laugh or
weep or shudder at them, are sometimes only caricatures, each one an
exaggeration of some peculiarity, which suggest Ben Jonson's _Every Man in
His Humour_. It is Dickens's art to give his heroes sufficient reality to
make them suggest certain types of men and women whom we know; but in
reading him we find ourselves often in the mental state of a man who is
watching through a microscope the swarming life of a water drop. Here are
lively, bustling, extraordinary creatures, some beautiful, some grotesque,
but all far apart from the life that we know in daily experience. It is
certainly not the reality of these characters, but rather the genius of the
author in managing them, which interests us and holds our attention.
Notwithstanding this criticism, which we would gladly have omitted, Dickens
is excellent reading, and his novels will continue to be popular just so
long as men enjoy a wholesome and absorbing story.
WHAT TO READ. Aside from the reforms in schools and prisons and workhouses
which Dickens accomplished, he has laid us all, rich and poor alike, under
a debt of gratitude. After the year 1843 the one literary work which he
never neglected was to furnish a Christmas story for his readers; and it is
due in some measure to the help of these stories, brimming over with good
cheer, that Christmas has become in all English-speaking countries a season
of gladness, of gift giving at home, and of remembering those less
fortunate than ourselves, who are still members of a common brotherhood. If
we read nothing else of Dickens, once a year, at Christmas time, we should
remember him and renew our youth by reading one of his holiday stories,--
_The Cricket on the Hearth, The Chimes_, and above all the unrivaled
_Christmas Carol_. The latter especially will be read and loved as long as
men are moved by the spirit of Christmas.
Of the novels, _David Copperfield_ is regarded by many as Dickens's
masterpiece. It is well to begin with this novel, not simply for the
unusual interest of the story, but also for the glimpse it gives us of the
author's own boyhood and family. For pure fun and hilarity _Pickwick_ will
always be a favorite; but for artistic finish, and for the portrayal of one
great character, Sydney Carton, nothing else that Dickens wrote is
comparable to _A Tale of Two Cities_. Here is an absorbing story, with a
carefully constructed plot, and the action moves swiftly to its thrilling,
inevitable conclusion. Usually Dickens introduces several pathetic or
grotesque or laughable characters besides the main actors, and records
various unnecessary dramatic episodes for their own sake; but in _A Tale of
Two Cities_ everything has its place in the development of the main story.
There are, as usual, many characters,--Sydney Carton, the outcast, who lays
down his life for the happiness of one whom he loves; Charles Darnay, an
exiled young French noble; Dr. Manette, who has been "recalled to life"
from a frightful imprisonment, and his gentle daughter Lucie, the heroine;
Jarvis Lorry, a lovable, old-fashioned clerk in the big banking house; the
terrible Madame Defarge, knitting calmly at the door of her wine shop and
recording, with the ferocity of a tiger licking its chops, the names of all
those who are marked for vengeance; and a dozen others, each well drawn,
who play minor parts in the tragedy. The scene is laid in London and Paris,
at the time of the French Revolution; and, though careless of historical
details, Dickens reproduces the spirit of the Reign of Terror so well that
_A Tale of Two Cities_ is an excellent supplement to the history of the
period. It is written in Dickens's usual picturesque style, and reveals his
usual imaginative outlook on life and his fondness for fine sentiments and
dramatic episodes. Indeed, all his qualities are here shown, not
brilliantly or garishly, as in other novels, but subdued and softened, like
a shaded light, for artistic effect.
Those who are interested in Dickens's growth and methods can hardly do
better than to read in succession his first three novels, _Pickwick, Oliver
Twist_, and _Nicholas Nickleby_, which, as we have indicated, show clearly
how he passed from fun to serious purpose, and which furnish in combination
the general plan of all his later works. For the rest, we can only indicate
those which, in our personal judgment, seem best worth reading,--_Bleak
House, Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend_, and _Old Curiosity Shop_,--but
we are not yet far enough away from the first popular success of these
works to determine their permanent value and influence.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-1863)
As the two most successful novelists of their day, it is natural for us, as
it was for their personal friends and admirers, to compare Dickens and
Thackeray with respect to their life and work, and their attitude toward
the world in which they lived. Dickens, after a desperately hard struggle
in his boyhood, without friends or higher education, comes into manhood
cheery, self-confident, energetic, filled with the joy of his work; and in
the world, which had at first treated him so harshly, he finds good
everywhere, even in the jails and in the slums, simply because he is