Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-06-19
The Gazette \ Gptuet
The circumstances under which
Dickens wrote Oliver Twist.

the following bit of gossip to the
Round Table:
As l am gossiping about Dickens
and his artists, let me mention a sin ll
gular circumstance connected with
"Oliver Twist" You may not re-
member, perhaps, how that story
was first published. Mr.. Richard
Bentley, the London publisher, after
he had separated from bis partner,
the late Mr.. Henry Colburn, re-
solved to have a magazine of his
own. Mr.. Colburn's New Monthly"
was not only profitable speculation.
but had been extremely useful as a
medium through which Mr.. Colburn's
publications could be widely and
strongly pufed. Mr.. Bentley an
nounced his intended periodical as
1.-The Wits Miscellany" but soon
changed the title to "Bentley's Mis-
cellany." 1t is stated and believed,
for his snarl was not to be initiated,
that Douglas Jerrold sarcastically
observed when the publisher mem
toned the change OF title, Its all
very well Il can understand why
you should not call it The Wits
Miscellany but, my dear fellow,
there was no occasion for going into
the other extreme, and calling it
Bentley's.'" AT all events, the mag
azine was commenced on the 1st of
January, 1887, and Charles Dickens,
then in the first flush of his fame
for "Sketches by Boz" and the
"Pickwick Papers" had just been
published, and were in every ones
hauds-was made its editor, at a
salary not to exceed $4,000 per an
mum, besides separate payments of
25 guineas sheet for whatever he
might please TO contribute as author.
"Oliver Twist" was commenced in
the February number, with illustra-
tons by George Cruikshank. The
seventh chapter ends with the flight
of Oliver from Mr.. Towerberry, and
that terrible beadle, Mr.. Bundle, and
his bidding farewell to his poor little
friend Dick, the parochial orphan, to
whom he says, II am running away.
They beat and i'll use me-, Dick, and
am going to seek my fortune some
long way off, | don't know where"
At the opening Of the eighth chapter,
however, Oliver is on his way to
London; and at the close he is an
inmate of Fagin the jew, and com
panion of that free and easy young
gentleman, John Dawkins, (com-
monty known as the "Artful Dodger,"
and few other choice but youthful
aspirants of the same school. When
the Quarterly Review criticised the
book, it said that Mr.. Dickens had
made a great mistake in not keeping
Oliver Twist in the country, instead
of taking him to the thieves haunts
in London, which had been described
over and over again. / happened to
know that Dickens originally in
tended to carry out the promise of his
title, "Oliver Twist; or the Parish
Boys Progress" and to trace the
life, struggles and success of what
Miss Brandon calls a "clod." He
changed his purpose; and George
Cruikshank himself told me why.
As a little bit of literary history, 1
place it upon the Round Table.
In London | was intimate with the
brothers Cruikshank, Robert and
George, but more particularly with
the latter. Having called upon him
one day at his house (it was then in
Mydleton Terrace, Pentonville), /
had to wait while he was finishing
an etching, for which printers boy
was waiting. To while away the
time, | gladly complied with his
suggestion that / should look over
a portfolio crowded with etchings,
proofs and drawings, which lay upon
the sofa. Among these, carelessly
tied together in a wrap Of brown
paper, was series of some twenty
five or thirty drawings. very care
fully finished, through most of which
were carried the now well known
portraits of Fagin, Bill Sykes and
bis dog, Nancy, the Arttul Dodger,
and Master Charles Bates-all well
known to the readers of "Oliver
Twist" There was no mistake
about it; and when Cruikshank
turned round his work finished, I
said as much. He told me that it
had long been in his mind to show
the life of a London thief by a series
of drawings, engraved by himself, in
-, l.; Il ,u;.Lon+ n ey,n,1. I:,.. Il IGa