Dickens

by Adolphus William Ward

Overview

Published in the first series of English Men of Letters in 1882, this biography of Charles Dickens (1812–70) provides a short introduction to the life and works of the most popular author of the Victorian era. Sir Adolphus William Ward (1837–1924), a prominent scholar who taught at the newly founded the University of Manchester and became President of the British Academy, wrote on English literature from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and translated Curtius' History of Greece. His work complements earlier biographies of the writer who styled himself as 'The Inimitable' and whose influence as a novelist, social commentator and social reformer cannot be overstated. The life is treated chronologically, and a final chapter discusses 'the future of Dickens' fame', concluding that although he has faults as a novelist, his place in the canon of English literature is secure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108034500
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/03/2011
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - English Men of Letters
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.55(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER III. 8TRANOE LAND 8. [1843-1847.] A Journey across the Atlantic in midwinter is no child's- play even at the present day, when, bad though their passage may have been, few people would venture to confess doubts, as Dickens did, concerning the safety of such a voyage by steam in heavy weather. The travellers for Dickens was accompanied by his wifehad an exceptionally rough crossing, the horrors of which he has described in his American Notes. His powers of observation were alive in the midst of the lethargy of sea-sickness, and when he could not watch others he found enough amusement in watching himself. At last, on January 28, 1842, they found themselves in Boston harbour. Their stay in the United States lasted about four months, during which time they saw Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, and Buffalo. Then they passed by Niagara into Canada, and after a pleasant visit to Montreal, diversified by private theatricals with the officers there, were safe at home again in July. Dickens had met with an enthusiastic welcome in every part of the States where he had not gone out of the way of it; in New York, in particular, he had been feted, with a fervour unique even in the history of American enthusiasms, under the resounding title of " the Guest of the Nation." Still, even this imposed no moral obligation upon him to take the advice tendered to him in America, and to avoid writing about that country" we are so very suspicious." On the other hand, whatever might be his indignation at the obstinate unwillingness of the American public to be moved a hair's-breadth by his championship of the cause of internationalcopyright,1 this failure could not, in a mind so reasonable as his, have outweighed the reme...

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Before Pickwick; 2. From success to success; 3. Strange lands; 4. David Copperfield; 5. Changes; 6. Last years; 7. The future of Dickens' fame.