The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1866-02-08
The Circumstances Under which
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 cir
cumstanceD connected with. "Olivertwist."
You may not remember. perhaps, how
that story was first published. Mr.. Rich
ard Bently the London publisher, after he
had separated from his partner, the late
Mr.. Henry Colburn, resolved to have II
magazine of his own. Mr.. Colburn's New
Monthly was not ,nlv profitable specu-
lation, but had been made extremely use
full as medium through which Mr.. Col
burns publications could he widely and
strongly pulled. Mr.. Bently announced
his periodical as 1.-The Wits Miscellanv,"
but soon changed the title to "Bently's
Miscellany 1t is stated and believed, for
las Jerrold sarcastically observed, when
the publisher mentioned the change of I'll
tie, cts all very Welt can understand
why you should not call it THE Wits Mis-
cellany; but my dear fellow, there was no
occasion of going into the other extreme,
and calling it 'i5ently's.'" AT all events,
the magazine was commenced on the lst
of January, 1887, and Charles Dickens,
then in the first flush of his fame-for
Sketches by Boz" and the "Pil<wick Pa
pers had just been published, and were in
everyone's hands-was made its editor, at
q salary said to exceed $4,000 per annum,
besides separate payments of twenty-five
guineas n sheet for whatever he might
please to contribute as author "Oliver
Twist was commenced in the February
number, with illustrations by George
Iruik shank. The seventh chapter ends
with the flight of Oliver from Mr.. Tower
berry and that terrible beadle, Mr.. Bundle
and bidding farewell to his poor little friend
Dick, the parocIIIal orphan, to whom he
says, 81 am running away. They beat
and Ill use me, Dick, and l 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 clio g he is an
inmate of Fagin The Jew, and COMPANION
ofthat free and easy young gentlemen,
John Dawkins, commonly known as the
"Artful Dodger,") and a few other choice
but youthful asprants of the same school.
VINE" ."e i''i
"ooN' !" S"'i NAV i'
siea' "''"'''Ne ~ ""' r'7
III '''o oo"''''S' ''',' va
'''ie'es ','"''' III ,'
oesciioe' w 81 ,'',o "'e' ''''' i'Pin
ed to know tina; Dickens originally intend
eo 10 carry out the PROMISE "a lis nue.
oil'ei i"i''' vi ''e Oh 1911 s
gress' ana 10 trace l''e me- s'i "ssieS anu
success Oh Will MISS p'"''"o'' Calls "
'ciou.. he 'ha''%eu HIS P"iPo UNIV
ueorse Nr"ihhhaiih hii'i9e'' ''''' "'' why
AS a little bit of literary history, place
it upon the Round Table.
Tn London WAS intimate with the
brothers Cruikshank, ebert 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 ii printers
boy was waiting. To while away the time
l gladly complied with his suggestion that
| / should look over "A portfolio crowded
with etchings. proofs and drawings, which
! lay upon the sofa. Among these careless.
lv tied together i'm wrap of brown paper
was a series of some twenty-five or thirty
drawings, very carefully finished, through