Charles Dickens

Text extracted from opening pages of book: CHARLES DICKENS 1812-1870 UNA POPE-HENNESSY FIRST PUBLISHED 1945 THIS EDITION FIRST PUBLISHED BY TUB REPRINT SOCIETY LTD BY ARRANGEMENT WITH CHATTO & WINDUS 1947 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. A R. CLARK, LIMITED, EDINBURGH TO RICHARD Acknowledgements I OWE a deep debt of gratitude to the late Mr. Walter Dexter, editor of The Dickensian and prime authority on every aspect and detail of the life of Charles Dickens. He lent me books, he showed me unpublished letters, and, more valuable than any other form of help, discussed with me the problems that inevitably arose in dealing with the novelist's relations with his family and his contemporaries. All my questions were replied to unequivocally and with patience. It is a source of great regret to me that he is not alive to read the book he saw in typescript. My warm thanks are due to Mr. William Maxwell of R. & R. Clark, Ltd., Edinburgh, for lending me for four years a copy of The Letters of Charles Dickens ( edited by Walter Dexter for the Nonesuch Press). It is a book I could neither buy nor borrow from a library, and as my work is for the most part based on these Letters it will be understood how vital and important was this loan. In these days of austerity it would be waste of paper and labour to print the very long list of books I have read or con sulted. 1 must, however, mention the comprehensive biblio graphy included in Charles Dickens, by William Dibelius ( 1916), as being extremely helpful, and add that I have made use of Mr. Ellis Cummer's book, Dickens' s Works in Germany ( 1940) with appreciation. Fresh light is thrown on Dickens's family life in Mr. and Mrs. Dickens, by Walter Dexter (1935), and in Dickens and Daughter ( a record of conversations with Mrs. Perugini), by Gladys Storey ( 1939). For help over photographs I wish to thank Sir Eric Maclagan and Mr. Carl Winter of the Victoria and Albert Museum; Mr. A. Hind of the British Museum; Dr. Wittkower of the Warburg Institute; and Lord Glenconner. I must also express my gratitude to the Earl of Lytton for showing me over Knebworth, the cradle of the Guild of Literature and Art. Special thanks go to my kind friend Mr. C. F. Bell for reading through both typescript and proofs, and to my son, John Pope-Hennessy, for constructive criticism. U. P.-H. Ladbroke Grove, 1945 vi List of Contents page Introduction ix Chapter 1 The Family Background i 2 Clerk and Reporter 17 3 The Gallery 26 4 The Undertow 5 1 5 Marriage and other Matters 65