The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1879-02-14

Inc folioWlnx ~ from an artcie y.
Anthony Trollope:
In widespread popularity the novel
of Charles Dickens have, believe, OK
ceeded those Of any other British novel
list, though they have not yet reached
that open market Of Unrestricted com
petition which book reaches only wher
its copyright has run out. Up TO this
present time over 100000 copies OF
- Pickwick have been sold in thi.
country and the book is still copyright
property. In saying this ! make no in.
vidious comparison between Scott and
Dickens. l may indeed be In error in
supposing the circulation Of "Waverley''
TO have been less. As it Is open TO any
bookseller To issue SCOTS novels, it
would be difficult to arrive at correct
number. Our object is simply TO show
what has been the circulation of a pop
ular novel in Great Britain. The circu-
lation outside the home market has
probably been as great, perhaps greater,
as American readers are more numerous
than the English. Among the millions
Of those into whose hands these hun
dreds of thousands of volumes have fall
len there can hardly be one who has not
received some lesson from what he has
read. II may be that many dissent from
the mode Of telling which Dickens
adopted in his stories, that they are in
different TO the stories themselves, that
they question the taste and fail to inter-
est themselves in the melodramic Incl
dents and unnatural characters which il
is his delight 70 portray. All that has no
bearing on the issue which we now At
tempt 10 raise. The teaching Of which
we are speaking Is not instruction as to
taste or arts not instruction as to
style or literary excellence.
BY such lessons as Dickens taught
will the young man learn to be honest
or dishonest, noble or ignoble? Will
the girl learn ~ be modest or brazcn-
faced? viii greed be engendered and
VIII taste for vicious
pleasures be createdP VIII the young
of either sex be taught TO think it a
grand thing 10 throw off the conven-
tional rules which the wisdom Of the
world has established for its guidance
or will they unconsciouslv learn from
the authors pages 70 recognize the fact
that happiness is to be obtained by
obeying and not by running counter TO
the principles Of morality? Let memo
~ run back for few moments over
those tories and il will fail to find an i'm
modest girl who has been made alluring
to female readers or an ill-conditioned
youth whose career lad would be
empted 10 envy. No ridicule is thrown
On marriage constancy; no gliding is
given TO fictitious pleasure; no charm
> added to idleness; no alluring color
5 lent to debauchery; Pickwick may be
softer and Ralph Nickleby harder than
he old men whom we know in the
world; but the lessons which they
each are all in favor of a soft heart, all
strongly opposed to hardness of heart.
d. all Dickens's novels " Oliver Twist y
: perhaps artistically the best, as in il
he author adheres most tenaciouslv 70 \
me story and interests us most thor
'ughly by his plot. But the char
'cters are less efficacious for the
eaching OF lessons than in his
'ther tales. Neither can Bill Sykes
Tor Nancy, nor can even the
,reat Bundle, be credited with having
'een Of much service by dcterring read
rs from vice. But then neither have
hey allured readers as has been done
~ so many writers Of fiction who have
entured To deal with the worlds repro
'ates. 1t may be admitted in regard to
)ickens's young ladies that they lack
AZURE. Dora, Nelly, Little Dorrit,
lorenzo Dombey and host Of others
rowd upon our memory, not as shad-
VS. Of people we have really known, as
o Jennie Deans, for instance, and Jane
'yre, but they have affected US as the
ersonifications of tenderness and gen.
e feminine gifts. We have felt each
to contain, not a woman, but
omething which will help to make
lany women. The Boythorns, Tulk-
lghorns, Cherrybles, and Pickwicks
lay be as unlike nature as they will. 4
hey are unlike nature. But they new
charm the reader and leave
ehind on the palate Of his mind sweet
lvor Of humanity. Our authors he
res down to Smike are often outrage
US in their virtues. But their virtues /
re virtues. Truth, gratitude and man
self-respect are qualities which
oung man will be made not only to ad-
ire but to like, by his many hours
'ent over these novels. And so it will
with young women as 10 modesty, re- {
cence and unselfish devotion.
The popularity Of Thackeray has been (
Try much less extended than that OF |
ickens, and the lessons which he has ]
ught have not therefore been scattered !
ield so widely. 1t seems specially TO I
I've been the work of Thackeray to !
'ver with scorn the vices which in his I
snds were displayed in personages who |
ere only too realistic. WITH him there I
no touch Of melodrama. From first !
last you are as much at home with I
airy Lyndon, the most complete rascal |
srhaps that ever was drawn. "a with Z