LETTER–To Charles Dickens

The let­ter to Charles Dick­ens delves into the unique lit­er­ary divide between those who favor Dick­ens and his con­tem­po­rary, Thack­er­ay, argu­ing instead for appre­ci­a­tion of both authors’ works. The nar­ra­tor iden­ti­fies him­self as impar­tial, enjoy­ing the mer­its of both writ­ers with­out tak­ing sides. Despite this neu­tral­i­ty, the chap­ter cri­tiques the extreme imi­ta­tions and man­ner­isms of Dick­en­s’s “spe­cial devo­tees,” who, despite their ado­ra­tion, might mis­un­der­stand the breadth of his humor and the depth of his works beyond the sur­face-lev­el mim­ic­ries. The evo­lu­tion of Dick­en­s’s recep­tion is not­ed, with a recog­ni­tion of his endur­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty and the way his nov­els, such as “David Cop­per­field,” pro­vide solace and escape to read­ers, even as some open­ly reject his books like “Pick­wick.”

The chap­ter pro­gress­es to lament the decline of humor in Eng­land, attribut­ing soci­etal issues and lack of under­stand­ing of Dick­ens to a broad­er dearth of humor. Dick­ens is cel­e­brat­ed for inher­it­ing and con­tribut­ing to a British tra­di­tion of robust, uproar­i­ous humor and social satire. Char­ac­ters like Sam Weller and Mrs. Gamp sym­bol­ize the essence of old Eng­lish com­e­dy, reared on “the beef and beer” of a bygone era. Yet, the chap­ter ques­tions the longevi­ty of Dick­en­s’s appeal, espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing his pathos and melo­dra­ma, which, to mod­ern sen­si­bil­i­ties, may seem over­wrought or maudlin.

In its cri­tique, the let­ter points out the para­dox of Dick­en­s’s intense and some­times gra­tu­itous emo­tion­al manip­u­la­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in his depic­tion of child char­ac­ters like Lit­tle Nell and Paul Dombey. There’s an argu­ment that such overt sen­ti­men­tal­i­ty might dis­en­gage con­tem­po­rary read­ers rather than endear them. How­ev­er, the chap­ter acknowl­edges the sub­jec­tive nature of emo­tion­al response to lit­er­a­ture, high­light­ing that what moves one read­er to tears may leave anoth­er cold.

The chap­ter con­cludes by address­ing what it per­ceives as Dick­en­s’s occa­sion­al excess­es in both dark and fan­tas­ti­cal ele­ments, which can dis­tance read­ers through their implau­si­bil­i­ty or heavy-hand­ed­ness. Yet, amidst these cri­tiques, the chap­ter retains a deep respect and affec­tion for Dick­en­s’s work, rec­og­niz­ing his unpar­al­leled con­tri­bu­tion to Eng­lish lit­er­a­ture and humor, while express­ing hope that his lega­cy will con­tin­ue to be cher­ished, notwith­stand­ing chang­ing tastes and sen­si­bil­i­ties.