The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-10
ABOUT THE GREAT WIZARD
OF LITERATURE, DICKENS.
Ramble With Dr. kingsbury Through the Pleasant
Fields of Fiction. Tol TOY, Melville, Mer-
riman, Drummond

/ have but rarely ever read q critical
paper on Charles Dickens that regarded
as sufficiently appreciative and fairly in
terpretative of his genius. 1t is not I'M
common, IN later years, TO find deprecia-
ton and ridicule. And stin he was
genius of the 'rarest and most engaging
gifts and has given of a legacy to the
world of readers not less than four or five
novel;; of the highest merit. Two months
ago readable discussion OF him appeared
i'm one OF the best English Reviews-''rne
Nineteenth Century and After 1t has
many good points, and fair amount of
appreciation. The writer pronounces his
style is bad as possible; his "senti-
mental passages as Eauseating'; his
Would-be fine writing as absurd, and 50
on. and with no understanding of wo-
man. He says all this is true and Vet
his reputation is lett unframed, and de-
lcares he is greater than most writers.
Yes, he is greater than ninety-nlne out OF
a hundred, and by very great deal
Really who but Scott, and Thackeray
are deserving to occupy the same seat IN
the British Pantheon? George Eliot
MARY Ann Evans), Harry Fielding, per-
maps, htIGuiIh hO'iN0
Hardy must sit below, but not far off.
1t is said 20 be a fact that the late great
German soldier, Won Moltke, read DICK
ems in his declining years for entertain
ment and solacement The writer referred
10 above thinks the great attractive
quality of Dickens was love-" and it was,
he holds, his inspiration" The English
critic thinks "Fagen is IS real as Shy
he diSHnV-
ery that Shy.ock lis really the nearest APP
proach to gentleman in the Merchant
of Venice" The writer thinks his first
regular novel, "Oliver Twist, has really
six or seven characters of first rate vi
tality." He says that lit is almost a
perfect story from beginning to end l
have not read it in perhaps fifty years
but do not recall it with such gusto as
to class it with half dozen of the au-
thor's immortal productions. He thinks
BLEAK House has "but one immortal
"Chadband" He thinks the best judges
are agreed that the two most vivid
works are the "Pickwick Papers and
David Copperield." They are simply
great. / could read either once year
and be glad all the way. l have stated
within a year that L classify Dickens
best as David Copperfield,' Great Elk
pectations," Martin Chuzzlewit, Pick
wick" "A Tale of Two Cities But
there are other most famous and delight
full novels that no lover of Dickens Will
willingly let die The English critic
thinks him unfit to rank with the great
est artists Perhaps but l do not be-
lieve Il. He thinks Dickens literally de
spised" the academic" drill masters. But
he concludes in this way of contradiction
"He cheers US beyond any writer that
ever lived: and he bores us more than
the daily newspaper. he stands alone:
Charles Dickens"
Some time in February do rot re-
member the date, the Dickens Fellow
ship in London celebrated the ninety
second anniversary of the birth CT Charles
Dickens 1t richly deserves to be held in
remembrance by all lovers of Dickens,
and they count around the woyld by hun
dreds of thousands, even perhaps mil
lions. He not only charmed with his
marvellous stories, but he excelled all fic-
ton writer's, Scott alone excepted, with
his creations OF characters, so many of
which are immortal in literature. Mr..
w. L. Alden, in one of his recent London
letters to the New York Saturday Re-
view,' wrote this:
.'One thing We certainly owe to Dick
ems and that is the discovery OF Dickens
Land. He has invested London and Ro-
chester and half dozen other towns with
an interest they would never have had
if he had not shown them to us in his
books Rochester would always be an in
teresting old town, Tor does it not con-
tain a cathedral and a castle? But by
lar its greatest interest lies in the fact
that it possesses the inn at which the
Pickwickians stopped on the night OF the
hall which Mr.. Jingle attended in Mr..
Tupman's coat. Dickens Land Is to many
Of Us the most delightful part of Eng
land. and the cyclist who travels the Dover
Road, and stops for refreshment at the
Leather Bottle Inn, where Mr. Tupman
fled after he had been Tilted, finds the
spot of more interest than any of the
historic places through which the road
passes.
Probably the greatest writer that Rus
sra has yet produced is Count Tolstoy,
tordinarily misspelt TolstoD, who has
written at least one great nOvel-''Peace
and War He wrote recently that he
considers Charles Dickens ''the greatest
novel writer CT the nineteenth century.
lie also declared that his works impress
cd him with true Christian spirit, have
done, and will continue to do, great
deal OF good to mankind The editor of
the New York Saturday Review" says
Of Tolstoy's opinion that 1.-The large ma
ior;ty of English and American readers
of Dickens will receive Count Tolstoy S
Judgment with the more qualification be-
cause it has always been their own.
This is the popular judgment, but proba-
BILE not the opinion of the NEST cultured
readers and the ablest and most discover
ing critics. Familiar with the writings OF
most of the more famous critics of the
last seventy-five years. l do not recall an
opinion that places Dickens in genius and
artistic skill above Scott and Thackeray
But he was and remains the most popu
lar. and certainly of the first rank. in the
charm of his great production. 1 have
seen books by the great Russian recently
announced by three American publishers
and all spell it "Tolstoy."
There are two American books that ap