New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-06-23
NesuDork DAILY Gxibm,.e
NEW PUBLICATIONS..
DIcKENSs LITTLE D0RRIT.


We remember, as though il were but yesterday
the hour WHEN the genius Of Dickens dawned upon
ns bhe sun new risen. Alas it was nearly TWEEN.
~ years ago, and many gray hair has come in the
mean time, but the fewer because Of hun. 1t was
N the country, among party of friends, one Of
whom ordinarily a sedste and proper man. went
about all day with an immeasurable grin on hisface,
anew, whimsical name for everybody, and strange
phase Of cockney dialect ever on his tongue. One
Of US he called Snodgrsss, and another Tracy Tup.
man, ard another Wrinkle and he never mentioned
either name without exploding with laughter. The
number of queer SMILES that he perPetrsted, say
ing that they were Wellerisms, an entirely new ism
TO US not unused to a variety in that line, exceeded
the bounds of belief. We that were not initiatef
in the secret of his singular merriment at last IN
sisted either that he should quit the house or 90 TO
the insane afylum-or make an explanation. he
refused to do either, but Juggling dozen OF very
yellow and dirtyookiDg papers, which seemed to
be pamphlets, out Of his pocket, he began to read.
These were the numbers Of new book entitled
the "Pickwick Papers," said to be By one Boz;
and, before night came, the whole pack of US were
20 full Of the adventures of the venerable President
and his club-so thoroughly absorbed in the con-
ceits Of Sam Weller-the valOr of Slammer,
Doctor Sammer-and the stories Of tie Dismal
Man, and the lacbryuose facility Of JenkiDs-and
the stupidities of old Wardle, and the sOmnoiencc
of the Fat BOy-and Mr.. Weller, seniors dscOurses
ON widows-aDd the sOrrowS and trials of poor Mrs.
Bardle-and the vast legal attanments OF Buzfuz,
Skimpen and Phunky-and the bachelor parties Of
Bob Sawyer and the sawbones-and the amiab!e
weaknesses Of "certan young lady"--that, fora
week, nothing was said or thought or dreamed in
that select circle but Pickwick-Pckwick-Pi
wick In a little while, the entire reading world
were az mad with the fun as the worst of us.
What discovery it was, that Of a mau Of ge-
MUS! What delight it furnished at the time
what vistas of untold delight it opened-what
new luster and glory It she'd over those barns and
corn fields Here is u man, we then said to our
pelyes-thi. Boz-caps6e Of infinite mirth and good
ness-amiable, humorous noble, dramatic, crea-
tive; the originator Of species Of literature,
entertaining and wholesome, genial and fantastic,
vet earnest-who, as long as he shall live and we
shall live will be ali ever welcome companion. Is
1t not as if another Ceryantes, Fielding Richter,
Walter Scott, has come TO hie3 That was twenty
wears ago. as We have said; and Boz has not
broken the promise he held to our hopes. Scarce
" q week certainly not month, has passed since
then in which the pure and seemingly exbaustlcss
fountain from which Pickwick proceeded has failed
to pour forth some new stream of mingled drollery,
psthos and humor. New, but yet diiferent-for
Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, the Curiosity
Shop BarDaby Ridge David Copperfed, Martin
Chuzzewit, Dombey & Son. Bleak House, are
both like and unlike Pekwick. They are alike in
this-tbat no one but the author of Pickwick could
have written either of them; but they are unlike 10
that they develop other powers in the author, and
are aimed at other ends. Pickwick was an Oat-
burst of simple, indefecated fun it was written
10 make people laugh, and it did make them laugh.
A hinge outlaw stretched from the British Channel
all round the civilized globe when it was published;
the " Gun never set on that evidence of British
dominion; young men and old, sick and we'll the
grave and the gay high and low, acknowledged 1t;
they who had never yielded to more than faint
smile. " ike waery moonlight spreading over the
face broke out into loud cschnnations when Pick
wick was in their hands; and the very child on his
mothers lap, who could not read clapped his hands
with plee over the illustrations of Cruikshank and
Phz. There was i'll it great deal more than
laughter yet laughter Was the staple.
But the works that followed Pickwick, sufused,
"a they continued TO be, with bumor were not 80
entirely humorous they announced, or if they did
not announce, they betrayed purpose distinct from
that of mere amusement Oliver Twist, for III
stance, was avowedly an exhibition of the lowest
criminal life Of London, made III the intent OF re-
vealipp to society some of ts most offensive ulcers
and Of existing the sympsthies of the more intell
pent and virtuaus classes in the SORROWS aud suffer-
inrs of the degraded and vile. " saw no reason,
cave the author, in later preface, why the very
drees of life so long their speech did not offend
ihe ear should not serve the purpose OF a moral
Mt least az well "a its froth and cream" Accord
inpk, he carried us into the very slums of a foul
and CORRUPT ciyIzation-ntO the cold wet, shelter
less midnight streets of the great commercial city
into the frowzy dens where vice is closely packed
and lacks the room TO turn into haunts of hunger
disease and vice, amid shabby rags that scarcely
hold together, and among utterly reckless aud re-
xaorseess wretches. for whom there is no end but
starvation or the prison - Ii appeared TO me, he
continues, "tha- to draw knot OF such associates
incrme really do exist; to paint them IN Gil their
Jeformity, in all their wretchedness, IN all the
squad poverty Of their lives; to show them really
rs they are, forever skulking uneasiy through the
Siirtiest paths with the great black ghsst gsIiows
closing up their prospects, turn them where they
msy-it appeared to that to do this, would be to
attempt something which was greatly needed, sad
-. a.