DICKENS 



1790 



DICKENS 



and its inimitable Dick Swivcller; and Bar- 

 naby Rudge, his only historical novel with 

 the exception of A Talc of Two Cities. This 

 latter gives a vivid picture of the period of 

 the French Revolution, and the "knitting 

 women" are not soon forgotten. Sidney Car- 

 ton, the hero, is perhaps the most heroic of all 



CHARLES DICKENS 



Of his boyhood one authority (Long) says that 

 he was "a poor, obscure and suffering child, help- 

 ing to support a shiftless family by pasting labels 

 on blacking bottles, sleeping under a counter like 

 a homeless cat, and once a week timidly ap- 

 proaching the big prison where his father was 

 confined for debt." 



Dickens' characters, and the story as a whole 

 is his most dramatic and artistic work. Drama- 

 tized as The Only Way, the Tale has been 

 very popular. Other outstanding novels are 

 Martin Chuzzlewit, which contains in overflow- 

 ing measure Dickens' characteristic humor, but 

 which for a time stirred up considerable feeling 

 against him in America because of its satire 

 on life in "Eden"; Dombey and Son, beloved 

 by many because of its pathetic little Paul 

 Dombey, and admired by progressive thinkers 

 because of its revelation of the evils of cram- 

 ming in schools; Hard Times, a bitter attack on 

 the heartlessness of capital toward labor, and 

 a most complete criticism of adulthood for 

 robbing children of a real childhood and for 

 preventing the development of the imagination 

 of each child; Great Expectations, Dickens' 

 best-rounded work; Our Mutual Friend and 

 David Copperfield. 

 This last-named story was Dickens' favorite 



among his own works, and contained more 

 that is autobiographical than all the rest to- 

 gether. Mr. Micawber is a sketch, exagger- 

 ated, but good-naturedly so, of Dickens' father, 

 and the agonies of little David during his 

 warehouse experiences are those of Dickens' 

 self, remembered so keenly that they were a 

 pain to him all his life. One novel, The 

 Mystery oj Edwin Drood, he left unfinished at 

 his death, and it is a curious fact that while 

 in most of Dickens' stories he cannot keep a 

 secret but reveals the windings of his plot at 

 every turn, in this unfinished one he kept his 

 secret so well that no one has ever been able 

 to complete the tale satisfactorily. 



During the latter years of his life Dickens 

 added to his immense popularity by giving 

 readings from his own works, and his Letters 

 describe most amusingly the crowds that 

 flocked to hear him. All this was too much 

 for his strength, however, and he died at the 

 age of fifty-eight, at his home, Gadshill, near 

 Rochester. Mourning for him was widespread, 

 and the public which had loved him as though 

 he had been a personal friend felt that he 

 should be buried in Westminster Abbey, rather 

 than at Rochester, as he had desired. Accord- 

 ingly, he lies in the Poets' Corner there. 



American Visits. The United States and 

 Canada knew Pickens not only through his 

 works but through several visits to America. 

 The first was in 1842, and was turned by the 

 enthusiastic people into a sort of triumphal 

 progress. Everywhere great crowds awaited 

 him, until he confessed himself hungry for soli- 

 tude; everywhere he was feasted and flattered, 

 and though his frankness on the subject of 

 international copyright and his unfavorable 

 comments on the country and its self-conscious 

 republicanism, as written in American Notes 

 and Martin Chuzzlewit, later brought about 

 much criticism of him, the American people 

 enjoyed his works too much to hold a grudge. 

 When he made his next visit, in 1867, every 

 hall in which he gave his readings was packed 

 to its capacity. 



Influence on Education. Dickens never 

 taught school, nor did he outline a system of 

 education; he never wrote a learned book on 

 "child-training" or "defects in modern educa- 

 tion," yet educators of note declare him to 

 have been the greatest educational reformer 

 England has ever produced. Not only did 

 specific abuses yield to his attacks, but the 

 general spirit of education in England and 

 the very attitude toward the child changed 



