Evening star., 1934-05-13

UCQttOU VI tttS CWT WTCSpOUuCUCC uWUs
uhere the intimate letters OF
Charles Dickens to his iuife. They;
begin pith the days OF the great
nopelist's courtship OF Catherine
Hogarth and lead through their
marriage and its early harmony
and later unhappiness to the sep
aration Which meant the tragic
parting OF their todys..
ICopyrisht. 1894. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc. in North America
and by the Times, London, everywhere else.
AL Rights Reserved.)
"HE continued attention bestowed
on the life Of Charles Dickens
Is commensurate with the last
i ing popularity Of his novels.
More than most great writer's
he lived in the public eye; and the
public eye has been as scrutinizing as
kindly. But at one period Of his con-
temporary fame it failed in charity.
seeing the wrong reason for his sep
aration from his wife. He himself
made public protest against the
ISLANDERS upon his household, but could
not say in print what he wrote in
private letter: poor Catherine and l
are not made for each other"
This has long been accepted as the
explanation Of their agreement to diff
fer. Forster in his biography threw
some light upon their incompatibility,
and the host Of Forsters successors
have cast their little rays, not always
without distortion. The recent death
of Sir Henry F. Dickens, K. c., the last
surviving child of Charles and Cath
crime Dickens, has released for pu5li-
cation a mass Of correspondence In
the British Museum which probably
says the last word on the related
characters of husband and wife.
1t tells no secrets; 1t touches no
scandal; and 1t consists of the letters
of the husband alone. BY implication,
however. it supplies any reader ac-
customed to reading between the lines
with the material for a mental por-
trait of Catherine Hogarth, If not OF
Mrs. Charles Dickens. As he already
knows Charles Dickens as we'll as pen
can draw him, the reader can form
his own conclusions how far the two
images are humanity complementary.
DduS utCI LApAahatAVhs
The correspondence falls naturally
into three unequal parts. The first
part contains the letters written by
the young and unknown journalist
to the girl he had chosen for a wife:
the second, domestic communications
and travel descriptions by the eminent
author; the third, few brief notes
and scraps extorted by common cour-
tesy from a lost husband. When she
deposited the original manuscripts in
the British Museum, Mrs. Perugini
(Kate Dickens) left with them the
following explanatory statement:
Shortly before my mothers
death in 1879. she placed in my
hands the letters written to her by
my father, before and after their
marriage. She wished me to do
with them as might think best,
only stipulating that, at some fu-
ture date, they should be made
public. They would show the world,
she said, that my father had once
loved her; and would make it ap-
parent that the separation which
took place between them in 1858
was not owing to any fault on her
side. As it has been enormously
suggested, I believe, that her sister,
Miss Georgina Hogarth, was in
some way responsible for that
separation, I take the present op-
portunity of entirely exonerating
my aunt from any blame in the
matter.
After due consideration, I de-
termined upon offering the care Of
my mothers gift to the authorities
of the British Museum. They
kindly accepted the trust, and my
fathers letters remain precisely as
they we're when I received them
from my mother; the erasures in
them being her own and made be-
fore they came into my possession.
The cause of the parting Of my
father and mother is not unknown
to me: but as look upon their
separation as strictly private ar
rangement, arrived at between
themselves, I do not enter upon
any details respecting it, for con-
slider it to be a subject with which
the public has no concern.
Dickens Feelings Hurt.
1t was on April 2, 1886, that Dick
ems married Catherine Hogarth, the
eldest daughter Of his fellow journal
ist, George Hogarth, whom Forster
calls "an accomplished and kindly
man" Most of the letters in the
Perugini collection are undated. but
the first we come on has the addition,
May, 1886" in feminine handwrit-
ing, apparently that of Mrs. Dickens
herself. This is an important clue.
The letters, as will be seen in a mo-
ment, shows that the lovers had then
been engaged three weeks. Presuming
it to be correctly placed. it not only
sets the key to the whole correspond