The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-21
DICKENS TITLES.
lie In said To Have Worked Long tn Find
Names tn suit Him..

He IL said To Have Worked Long tn Find
Names Ia suit Him.
Till lie had fixed upon his title, Mocmf-
Ian's Maya.iae says, Charles Dickens could
not get seriously &c work. He was in Ge-
noa in 1874. and had n Christmas story to
write. lie had never, he said, 80 staggered
upon the threshold before. The subject
was there. but he had not found n title for
il. nor the machinery tn work J.: with.
'Sitting down u morning resolute FOR
work. though against the grain, his hand
being out aud everything inviting to idle
ness. such a peal of chimes arose from
the city as he found 'maddening.' All
Genoa lay beneath him, and up from it,
with some sudden set of the wind, came
in one fell sound the clang and clash OF
all its stecples, pouring into his ears again
and again, IN n tunelcss, grating, dlscord.
ant, Earring, hideous vibration that made
his IDEAS spin roun and round till they
lost themselves in "A whirl 81 %vexation u
giddiness and dropped down dead"
A couple Of days later he wrote Forster
"a letter Of u sentence: 1--WE have heard
the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow"
A few days later he writes again: 1T IL n
great thing to bave my title and see my
way how to work the bells. Let them
clash pom me now from all the churches
and converts of Genoa. ! see nothing
but the Did London belfry ! have set them
in. In INV minds eye, Horatio." Thus 1t
was always with Dickens when setting
about "a new novel. Dependency, doubts,
difficulties and endless experimenting,
suggesting, sitting, rejecting of titles.
Then, Of = sudden, "a title found, and he
and he was of ON the composition of the
book. Never were the preliminary throes
field.o
Toward the end of isis he was making
holiday at Broadstairs, his mind running
ON "a subject. ~ have not" he writes
from there,
'Secen fancy writ.
With pencil Of light
On the blotter so solid omInandin the
sea-but / shouldn't, wonder III she were To
do il one of these days. Dim visions of
divers things are floating roun me. |
must go To work head foremost when |
get home" Home he goes. yet goes no
further. In February, 1919, he is in
Brighton. "A sea fog to-day, but ycster-
day inexpressibly delicious. My mind IL
running like "A high sea On names-not
satisfied yet, though" February % he
found titles of some sort-to-wit: "Mag's
Diversions; Being the Personal History of
Mr.. Thomas Mag,the Youger, Of Blunder-
stone Hose" Then Games series OF varia
tons in the expository part OF the title,
"Blunderstone House, after a time be-
coming Copperfeld House. Then came
"The Personal History Of MIR. David Cop
pcriield the Younger and His Aunt Mar
garet." February NJ lie sent Forster a list
of six names, winch may he found set out
at length II a great length in Life. For
ster and Dickens children finally deter
mined his choice anon the six, and the
title once settled all is plain sailing. He
went through this elaborate process with
most of his titles. There were a dozen
tentative titles for BLEAK House," most
Of them leading OH with 'Tom-All-
Alonc's," u fourteen for Hard Times"
II was the same with "a Tale of Two
Cities"