New-York tribune., 1879-12-07
DICKENS THE MAN.
HOW HE LOOKS IN HIS LETTERS.

HOW HE IOOkS IN tlS ENC.
us ADULArIoN ny THr PUrHc-HIs RECEPTION
HERE IN 1s42-wHAT HE THOUGHT OF AMER
icAv NOTES IRREGULARITIES OF TuK LETTERS
FROM AMERICA.
III the personal character Of Mr. Dickens Is now
,ewly discussed, his own family havlne furnished
ample material for the discussion In the publication
large collection of his letters. is alone TO blame
Any inordinate admiration is ALWAYS followed by
reaction. The public Is wayward with its pets
The reading public is no exception To
the rule. Early In life il was the misfor-
tune Of Mr. Dickens TO receive great
deal Of unwholesome sdulation. Not one character
In ten could be proof against it. Mr.. Dickens snc-
seeded. in a certain sense of the word. from the
start. Mr.. Thackeray went through a wholesome
ordeal of neglect and failure The result was that
"Boz" was to the last something Of a spoiled child
while the author Of Vanity Fair " appears much
che more robust and manly in comparison. The
wo men have q radically different way OF
thinking and of doing things. single story may
make clearer the difference. At little supper AZ
the fremont House. in Boston. on the occasion of
bis last visit to this country Mr Thackeray' looking
round at the company quizzica sort of way,
SAID: "Do you Americans think that 1 shall
write a book about you when l get back to
Englandf Well, II / do you need not he
be afraid Of IL. You have been so
pleasant and hospitable have so welcomed
me 10 your hearts and tables have so nearly killed
me with kindness, that what could say of you but
good ~ Then when the kindly eve CLEANED through
the spectacles, all knew that he was
entle as well sharp-slghted. and we
gore thoroughly believed In his manliness
nd great. genial nature than ever. Per
iaps every one in the company thought of
Charles DIckens-it is reasonably certain that
rhackeray did. For 1t must be confessed that the
American Notes" were a great disappointment
,pon this side of the water-doubtless they were
anon the other. When the work was published.
uord Macaulay wrote TO Mr.. Napier, the Editor "f
The Edinburgh Rerie1c By-the-Dy. forgot 10 SAY
that wish Dckenss book 20 be keptfor ne. have
never uttered word on that subject, aud ]
have great deal In my head Shortly after. he
.hanged his mind. and again wrote: This morn
mg l received Dickenss book. have now read it.
y is impossible for Inc to review II and ! will not
cut II up. Ii seems o. whole, a failure." So
Ii was; but theu il all mildness and veracity.
compared with the worst parts OF the American
chapters of Martin Chuzzewit." which were merely
ross and uAfceling caricature.
What an astonishing reception we did give Mr..
Dickens in 1S42i We have not lost all our love
,f honizing. but anything of the kind would now
be impossible. No wonder when he came back to
rs, many years after, that he little
ashamed Of the American Notes." and talked
much of our Improvement in manners and customs.
improvement there was some of it was III the man.
But he was no longer the Adonis of 1912. who chai
enges our admiration in Maclise's fashiOnplate por-
trait. There Mr. Dickens seems to trying to rival
Count D'Orsay. But Maclise managed the beauii-
tfu flowing hair. the satin stock. the flash waist
,oat. the Obtrusive ewelry and the conscious coat
much better than our own Alexander did. The
American portrait looked exactly if the sitter
we're about to call for beer. Ii is little irritating
A, hov oil EUht heu ran
after Dickens. Nobody was too good to be pressed
into the service of the ovation-even the shv bash
ful Washington Irving was talked into trying to
make speech and as for our small poets, how
they did twitter and carol in praise of our
ssitorl In his book he professed not to
like it: it may be violently suspected that
be liked it very much. No desperate and
decided effort TO escape il was apparent. Tie had
great deal more Of it than would have been proff
cred, but for an impresson-probably tue one
that he rather enjoyed it. Nobody ko-tcued to Mr..
Thackeray. 1t would have been Il dangerous expert
ment. Fancy any girl writing to Mr. Titmarsh for
lock of his hairl Fancy young men crowding
about the door of the ateier in which he sitting
for his portrait, waiting for him to emerge! Let
admit that it all a foolish piece of business
and forget IL. II we can
There a curious popularity about the letters
written from America during Mr.. Dickens's last
VISIT lneN are not DONlSi anu altOgetner Sel-Su1l-
.ent as the first were. The writer is a little Oh his
guard against saying disagreeable things. He pru-
IDENTIFY puts them into the mouths OF his followers
lie tells his correspondent for instance, that Scott.
one of his staff, will have it that this beastly
country" IN which the blackguards in the railway
carriages "spit tobacco over his boots" There
is touch of Martin Chuzzewt IN this.
as if the writer hated to give up the
old grumblings and growlings. Again. " the rail-
ways and railway arrangements-bOth exceedingly
defective-seem TO have stood still while all other
things have been moving" This Will little amuse
Americans who have tested the arrangements of
English railways. However, Mr. Dickens did his
modicum of growing about the latter. What we
get from the book is a pretty definite impres ion
that he was not easily pleased. lie criti-
cal and exacting in everything, and could
cavil TO the ninth part of hair. Ii
is natural enough that there should be much
about Me and My Books and My Readings. but all
this is rather tiresome when spread through his
siderable volumes. Once the writer dned at Wash
ington with Mr. Secretary Stanton. IL must have
been a pleasant meal with some fodder not on the
bill of fare for Mr.. Dickens at wrote of 10 Miss
Dickens: " Mr.. Stanton is man of very remark
able memory, and famous for his acquaintance
with the mlnutest detail OF My books.
Give him a passage anywhere. and he will instantly
cap il, and go with the context lie was Com
mander-in- Chief here of all the Northern c
during the war, and never to sleep night
without reading something from NV books. which
were always with him." There taste
OF Dr. Mangod, in Of tho letters writ
ten from Boston: 1t Is the peculiar character OF
this people TO prize thing the uoro the less easily
il is attainable. Therefore, ~snt oy .bsenco. 10
get the greatest rush aud pressure spoe tho dive
farewell readings Ns~ Yssh' rbS ceaily