New-York tribune., 1902-12-31
From The London Globe.

DER
From The London Globe
When Mr Svinburne recently characterized
David Copperteld' and Great Expectations
rs the twin masterpieces OF Dickenss genius.
there no doubt many admirers of the nov
elist who cordially agreed with the estimate.
and few lukeW arm readers who were either in
different or vaguely antagonistic to it. The
effect of the Swinimrnean pronouncenent on one
Dickens worshipper-who pens the present lines
was 10 ma ke him lake down from the shelf
and re-read book for which he had always had
a special liking. Beyond question Great Ex
pectations' is fun of the mastery touches which
nobody else could have conveyed quite as Dick
ems did. and II must always remain among the
worthy monuments of his marvellous powers.
How often ] have read the book should not
like to say" writes Nr Wilfred Hargreaves in
The Connoisseur. and the pleasure of doing
so is as keen Il was years ago. But this
Is not the time or the place for a panegyric Of
Great Expectations Long since ] found a
certain passage in it something of a stumbling
block. II is sentence relating TO Estella's
mother. in the vivid description of the dinner at
Mr. Jagger's. where Bentley DrunlTule. Pip
Herbert ana Startop confronted with the
housekeeper OF the iron wrists. To suit the
novel in any of its later editions. give the ref
erenoe as chapter XVI. paragraph Il.
No other attendant than the housekeeper ap-
peared She set on every dish: and ] always
Years arerward, made a dreadful likeness of
that woman. by causing a face that had no
other natural resemblance TO II than It derived
from flowing air. TO pass behind a bowl OF fam
ing spirits in dark room"
II VIII be noticed that there is a certain mean
ing in the word air" in the passage Just
quoted. but the idea resulting from the last two
clauses is lacking in the precision that Dickens
loved and invariably practised. BY an extraor-
binary blunder, these words exactly as they
stand have been printed by Dckens's own pub
fishers for years in edition after edition OF the
novel and yet owing to the meaning which
does happen partly owing to the eccentricities
- our languageD 10 linger in the sentence no
body seems 10 have detected that anything is
wrong with IL. and the blunder-for blunder
there is. shall presently see-looks as
though il might go forever. Surely the new
BiQgraphicai Edition viii not perpetuate IL in
face ~ the present note. or have the present
holders of the copyright continued the error
long that they viii be like the sentlenlan n
who relgiously wound up his timepiece every
night for seventeen years before he discovered
That IL WAS eight-day clock? Their property
IN Great Expectations however. is rapidly
eNpiring-as one sees by the recent issue of a
sxpenny edition (stil with the misprint)-and
the market Will soon be swamPed with new edi-
tions A Tale of Two Cities is freshly out of
copyright. and large number of publishers
have not been able to keep their hands off n
When there is similar abundance of editions oP
Great Expectations issued by publishers no.
tightly swathed in tradition as the old firm
il IS reasonable to hope that the air will be
cleared. and replaced by the proper word For
have iust had the satisfaction of proving
beyond the possibility of doubt that an old
surl1ise Of mine is perfectly correct-tnstead of
flowing air. what Dickens Intended and