The Letters of Charles Dickens. Vol. 2, 1857-1870Dickens, Charles
General
The Letters of Charles Dickens. Vol. 2, 1857-1870
Dickens, Charles
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 -- Correspondence; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence
In the autumn of this year he began another story, to be published
weekly in "All the Year Round." The letter to Mr. Forster, which we
give, tells him of this beginning and gives him the name of the book.
The first number of "Great Expectations" appeared on the 1st December.
The Christmas number, this time, was written jointly by himself and Mr.
Wilkie Collins. The scene was laid at Clovelly, and they made a journey
together into Devonshire and Cornwall, for the purpose of this story, in
November.
The letter to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton is, unfortunately, the only one
we have as yet been able to procure. The present Lord Lytton, the
Viceroy of India, has kindly endeavoured to help us even during his
absence from England. But it was found to be impossible without his own
assistance to make the necessary search among his father's papers. And
he has promised us that, on his return, he will find and lend to us,
many letters from Charles Dickens, which are certainly in existence, to
his distinguished fellow-writer and great friend. We hope, therefore, it
may be possible for us at some future time to be able to publish these
letters, as well as those addressed to the present Lord Lytton (when he
was Mr. Robert Lytton, otherwise "Owen Meredith," and frequent
contributor to "Household Words" and "All the Year Round"). We have the
same hope with regard to letters addressed to Sir Henry Layard, at
present Ambassador at Constantinople, which, of course, for the same
reason, cannot be lent to us at the present time.
We give a letter to Mr. Forster on one of his books on the Commonwealth,
the "Impeachment of the Five Members;" which, as with other letters
which we are glad to publish on the subject of Mr. Forster's own works,
was not used by himself for obvious reasons.
A letter to his daughter Mamie (who, after her sister's marriage, paid a
visit with her dear friends the White family to Scotland, where she had
a serious illness) introduces a recent addition to the family, who
became an important member of it, and one to whom Charles Dickens was
very tenderly attached--her little white Pomeranian dog "Mrs. Bouncer"
(so called after the celebrated lady of that name in "Box and Cox"). It
is quite necessary to make this formal introduction of the little pet
animal (who lived to be a very old dog and died in 1874), because future
letters to his daughter contain constant references and messages to
"Mrs. Bouncer," which would be quite unintelligible without this
explanation. "Boy," also referred to in this letter, was his daughter's
horse. The little dog and the horse were gifts to Mamie Dickens from her
friends Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Smith, and the sister of the latter, Miss
Craufurd.
[Sidenote: Mr. W. C. Macready.]
TAVISTOCK HOUSE, _Monday, Jan. 2nd, 1860._
MY DEAREST MACREADY,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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