New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-11
PRICE FOUR CENTS.

|
from whom, two or three years before, he had pur-
| chased the magazine containing bis first article.
There great rage in those days for carlcatur-
| ing the haps and mishaps of cockney sportsmen.
and the series Of drawings and sketches was
originally intended to record the doings Of MIN
rod Club :" but Mr. Dickens, being no great sports
man. objected TO this and demanded permission 10
write what he chose letting the pictures srse natu-
rally out of the text. So came into existence the
immortal Pickwick Club,-Mr. Pickwick himself
being drawn from the life and Mr. Wrinkle put in
for the express benefit of Mr. Seymour. The pre-
liminary advertisements informed the public that
(" the Pickwick Papers, the Pickwick Diary, the
Pickwlck Correspondence, in short the whole
of the Pickwick papers, had been pur-
chased from the patriotic secretary at an
immense expense, and placed in the hands of Boz,
the author of Sketches of Everyday Life and Ev-
eryday People, gentleman whom the publishers
consider highly qualified for the task of arranging
these important documents and placing them before
the public in an attractive form, and who is at pres
ent deeply immersed in his arduous labors" The first
number appeared the 3lst of March, 1896. Before
the second was issued Mr.. Seymour committed sui
| eide and Habot X. Browne C' PHI y was employed
to complete his unfinished task. For many years
afterward Phz and Boz were associated with the
monthly appearance of those serial novels, in
| green paper covers, which set all England and
America laughing and weeping by turns. As for
Pickwick, its success was almost unparalleled In
less than six months from the appearance of the first
number of the Pickwick Papers" says The Quar-
tery Rerier, the whole reading public talking
about them-the names of Wrinkle, Wardle, Weller,
Snodgrass, Dodson and FOgg had become familiar
in our mouths as household terms; and Nr. Dickens
was the grand object of interest TO the whole tribe
of 'Leohunters, male and female, of the metropolis
Nay, Pckwck chintZes figured in linen-drapers win
dows, and Weller cordurOys in breeches-makers' adj
| vertisements; Boz cabs might be rafting
through the streets and the portrait Of the author
of Pelham 'Crichton' scTaped down or
pasted over to make room for that of the popu-
lar favorite in the omnibuses. This is only TO be
counted for Oh the snppOsitiOn that fresh vein of
humOr had been opened; that a new and decidedly
original genius had sprung up; and the most cur
sorry reference to preceding English writer's of the
comic order viii show that in his peculiar walk,
Mr.. Dickens is not simply the most distinguished,
| but the first"
The critics as so often happens, were far behind
| the public. The AheRGtm remarked, after the APP
| pearance Of the ninth number: 1.-THE writer of the
periodical which is now before has great clever
ness, but he runs closely some leading hounds in
the humorous pack, and when he gives tongue per
chance a vulgar tOngue he reminds you of the bay
ing of several deep dogs who have gone before The
Papers of the Pickwick Club in fact are made up
of two pounds of Smollett, three of Stene,
handful Of Hook. dash of grammatical Pierce
Egan-incdents at pleasure, served up with an
original sauce piquante.p We wonder whether that
same contributor to The AheReUm is at this present
moment penning Mr.. Dickens's obituary.
No more reporting of speeches now! Pckwck was
still under way when Bentley made offer TO
the Young novelist become editor of his magazine
and TO furnish serial novel for its pages. The pro-
posal accepted, and the result was oliver
Twist" the two novels being actually written to-
gether month by MONTH and neither ever getting
more than a day ahead of the printers demand for
| manuscript. The green leaves of Pickwick never
| failed, believe, to appear on the appointed day;
| but "The Parish Boys Progress" once inter-
mpted for in June, 1887, apology appeared for the
author, who, lowing to the sudden death of dear
young relative" was compelled to seek short inter-
| val of rest and quiet The suit of Bar.
dell vs. Pickwick, with the plaintiffs
sequent incarceration in the Fleet, did more
PERHAPS than any other thing TO break
down the bars of the loathsOme debtors prison the
story of Oliver Twist, an American critic has well
said turned the cold poOr-hOuse inside out and
warmed il with the sun of human charity" Mich
oas Nickleby," which came next, at an interval Of
only few months swept away the barbarites of
Yorkshire schools, and, as we well remember,
called down upon the writer the dircst threats
from at least a score of real schoolmaster
who recognized their own lineaments in the
portrait of Mr.. Squeers. This has been pro-
nounced by keen critics the best of all
the Boz noves-a judgment in which,
fine as the book is we cannot agree. In it, however,
Mr. Dickens manifested more fully than in any of
his previous works his wonderful power of indi-
vidualizing common types of character, of whose
humor the world has been unaware, though it lay
open at every turn. Mr. Pckwick, Sam Weller, Mr..
Bundle, the Fat Boy, were creations: Mrs Nickleby
was discovery. Mrs. Nckleby," eXclaims Thaek-
cray clay undescribed until Boz seized upon herand
brought that great truth to light and Yet every man
possesses her in the bosom of his family" The same
power of Selling upon common but neglected types
appears in all his subsequent novels, though in the
next of the SERIES The Old Curiosity Shop" it is
less conspicuous than the development of his rare
power of pathos in the character of Little Nell OF
this delicate aud most beautiful creation, Walter
Savage Landor used to say that upon her Juliet
might for a moment have turned her eyes from
Romeo, and DeSdemona might have taken her hair
breadth escapes to heart. 1t was in Landors lodg-
ings at Bath, that Dickens ALREADY AT the of "a
or 2S q distinguished figure in literary society,
first conceived the fancy which resulted in the
conception of his chid-heroine; and Landor after
wards, in one of his characteristic outbursts
of extravaganza, avowed with tremendous
phasis that he had never in his life regretted any
thing 30 much as his having failed to carry out an
intention he had formed to purchase that house and
burn it to the ground. to the end that
ISOLATION should ever desecrate the birth place Of
Nell There was warm sympathy and attachment
between the eonine old poet and the young novelist.
1t was Lander whom Dickens painted in one of his
most amusing and yet most amiable characters, the