The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-17 00:00:00

Mr. Charles Dickens's Readings.

The following is the Times' account of the delight'
ful entertainment already described as having taken
place on Tuesday evening :
In spite of the inclement state of the weather, the large
room in St. James's-hall was completely filled when, ell
Tuesday evening, Mr. Charles Dickens commenced his tlelr
series of readings. His reputation as a reader now nearly
equals his fame as a novelist, and his immense popularity is
both capacities was provc‘d by the applause which greeted
him when he quietly mounted the platform, and with scarcely
an introductory word plunged at once into the short die"
loguo between the guard and the traveller that opens the
story of "Barbox Brothers." Pleased to recognise the
good-humoured, familiar face, illumined as it was by tbe
row of concealed gaslights that always forms part of gr.
Charles Dickens's apparatus, and delighted to catch the
accents of the well-known voice, the audience had n°
sooner heard the inquiry "Guard! What place is this 2'l
than they seemed all to perpetrate an internal chucitle,
and confidently to prepare themselves for two hog°,
thorough enjoyment. The paper selected for the "reading'
had the double advantage of being perfectly fresh in the
memory of the whole assembly, as forming a considerah°
portion of the last Christmas number of All the Yeare
Round, and of being read for the first time to a Loud°
public.
It is scarcely necessary for us to state that "BarbcS
Brothers" contains a mixture of the comic and quietli
pathetic elements, in which the latter somewhat predotei-
nates. For startling effects it affords little room, and thee
characters, delicately drawn, require to be delicately treats
by the reader. The manner in which Mr. Dickens acceni;
plishes his task is worthy of a minute study, as shovriete
the perfection to which the art of reading has been brought"
and how closely it is beginning to perform the functiotfr
supposed to belong to histrionic talent only. Indeed Or;
Dickens not only delivers his dialogue dramatically, .1911,
to a certain extent he may bo said even to act his narrAtiV
passages. We had a striking instance of this sort of perier:i
mice when he read the description of the storm, in "DeVtlu
Copperfield," and we now have another, when ho sets /0%.,
the peculiarity of "Mugby Junction." Ho does not descries
only, but he conveys a notion of the feelings which the
scribed objects would awaken in the mind of a spectatn
The actual personages in " Barbox Brothers" are 11:01.1%ed
in the reading with admirable discrimination. The °I;
slightly morose Mr. Young Jackson, the genial but halo
Lamps, are always clearly discernible. The grief et tir
penitent woman is gracefully toned down so as to he e'if
phatic through its very tranquillity, and contrasts streega•
with the pert precocity of the child Polly. Of the 1)!Icti
ridden Phcebe Mr. Dickens exhibits a conception
would hardly bo deduced from the book itself. Lie elf:l0
that something like a melancholy consciousness that s'
debarred from the pleasures granted to others of her °ioo
age exists in spite of her resignation, and on one occo
the generally hidden feeling almost rises to the surfeero'd
As for the "Boy at Mugby," which forms the sec' is
part of the entertainment, it is given by Mr. DicicePvsp
his heartiest spirit of "fun," and raises a continuous tio
• On Tuesday, the '29th, the same pieces will be ag,ail
at St James's-hall.