Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1866-01-29
G6t Rairg 5u,tt,.ar.
MoNDAY...............JANUARY 20
The Circumstances Under which
Dickens wrote oliver Twist.

Dickens wrote oliver Twist.
r. Sheldon Mckenzie furnishes the fol-
lowing bit Of gossip to the Round Table:
As / am gossiping about Dickens and
his artists, let me mention a singular
circumstance connected with Oliver
Twist" You may not remember, per-
haps, how that story was first published.
Mr.. Richard Bently, the London pub
Usher, after he had separated from his
partner, the late Mr. Henry Colburn, re-
solved to have magazine of his own.
Mr.. Colbnrn's Nep Monthly" was not
only q profitable speculation, but had
been made extremely useful as a med-
rm through which MIR. Colburn's publica-
tions could be widely and strongly puff
ed. Mr.. Bently announced his intended
periodical as TIE Wits Miscellany"
but soon changed the title TO Bently's
Miscellany" 1t il stated and believed,
for bis snarl was not to be initiated, that
Douglas Jerrold sarcastically observed,
when the publisher mentioned the change
Of title, " It's all very well-I can IN.
derstand 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 Bent
ley's. At all events, the magazine
was commenced ON the lst of January,
1881, and Charles Dickens, then in the
Grst flush of his fame-for Sketches by
Boz" and the "Pickwick Papers" had
Just been published, and were in every
ones hRnds-was made its editor, ut q
salary said to exceed SIC, 900 per annum,
besides separate payments Of 70 guineas
q sheet for whatever he might please to |
contribute as author. solver Twist"
was commenced in the February num-
Der, with illustrations by George Cruik- |
shank. 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 parochiai orphan, to
whom he says, II am running away. |
They beat and illuse me, Dick, and am
going 70 seek my fortune some long way
of, Ildon't know where" AT the OPEN
ing Of the eighth chapter, however, Oil
yer is on his way to London; and at the
close he is an inmate of Fagin the Jew,
and companion of that free and easy
young gentleman, John Dawkins, (com-
monty known as " A.tfnl Dodger, and |
q few other choice but youthful aspirates |
of the same school, When the Quar-
terly Review criticised the book, it said |
that hr. Dickens had made great mis-
take in not keeping Oliver Twist in the |
country, instead Of taking him to the
thieves haunt in London, which had bet n |
destroyed over and over again. / hap
pened to know that Dickens intended to
carry out the promise of bis title, g Oil
yer Twist; or the Parish Boys Progress"
and to trace the life, struggles and sue
cess Of what Miss Brandon called a
"clod." He changed his purpose; and
George Cruikshank himself told me why. |
AS little bi: of literary history, place
it upon the R0Mad Table.
81 In London / was intimate with the
brothers Cruikshank, Robert and George,
but more particularly with the latter.
Having called upon hims one day at his
house lit was then in Mydleton Terrace,
PentonVille) had to wait while he was
finishing an etching, for which print
er,s boy was waiting. To while away
the time, 4 gladly complied with his sug-
gestion that should look over port
folio crowded with etchings, proofs and
drawings, which lay upon ghe sofa
Among these, carelessly tied together in
q wrap of brown paper, was q series of /
some twenty-five or thirty drawings, very
carefully finished, through most of which
were carried the now well known por-
traits of Fagin, Bill Sykes and his dog,
Nancy, the Artful Dodger, and Master
Charles Bates-all we'll known to the
readers of "Ohver Twist.." There was
no mistake about it; and when Cruik-
shank turned round, his work finished,
said as much
- Re told me that it had long been in his
mind to show the life of a London thief
by series Of drawings, engraved by
himself, in which, without single line
of letter press, the story would be strik-
ingly and clearly told. Dickens" he
continued, dropped IN here one day,
just as you have done, and, while wait
3 ing until could speak with him, took
up that identical portfolio, and ferreted
ont that bundle of drawings. When he
came to that one which represents Fa-
gin in the condemned cell, he studied
it fce half an hour, and told me that he
was tempted to change the whole plot of
his story; not to carry Oliver Twist
through adventures in the country, but
to take him up into the thieves den in
London. show what their life was, and
bring Oliver through it without sin or
shame. I consented to let him write up
to as manyo of the designs as he thought
would suit his purpose. And that was
! the way in which Fagin, Sykes and
Nancy were created. My drawings sug-
gested them, rather than individuality |
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