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Search - Works: Our Mutual Friend: Vol. I.

Works Our Mutual Friend Vol I
Author: Charles Dickens

OUR MUTUAL FRIEND By CHARLES DICKENS WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY ANDREW LANG In Two Vols.-Vol. I . WITH THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIOXS - I898 - INTRODUCTION - THER c E a ll scarccly be R greater colitrast, in two works by tlie snnie hand, than the col trnstb etween Grcnt , pectntiorzs ttiid Ozrr JIt lrtrlcll Frie zd. The foril er is tei-se, the l... more »atter is diffuse. The story of Pip has an excellciit plot, on shicli interest m11 be concentrated. The plot of Otrr ll, rtttclFl rie rd is, first, obscurely stated. c have to pick up what we can, froill Blortimers mum blings at the eneerings table, about the lnan from Nowhere. ire hare again to collect what we lnny from the obscurities of a final klaircissemalt between John Harmon and Bella, as from the similar conversation in Little Dom t. In a Postscript, Dickens replies to the charges of improbability against a11 eccentric will. The charge is not, really, against improbability, but against conventionality. Stixnge tcstall ents occur much more frequently in riovels than they do in real life. In novels they are the most won1 of cells. There is n , ficeZle mol-c vo m-the i. esuscittrtio11 of R character supposed to have beer1 drowned. Sobody is ever drorvned, in n novel the ictilll of R watery a a r e w ould disnppoil tu s, indeed, if he did not reaplieas, and come up smiling when hc is wanted. The man thus lurking, for his own purposes, is s stock figure of Dickenss he represents n formula of the authors constructi e fancy. Tllus the plot is a thiilg foreseen, J-et l el plexed in statement. Much more is it perplexed by a stailding soume of inischief to Dickens, the inordinate length of a tale riinnillg through noilthly numbers. It lllust be filled up, sonleho v, and the groups of subolulinate characters dilute the interest. Writing as himself, and not as lip or David Copperfield, Dickens porsues his favourite topics. Hc has another attack on the ndnliilistlntion of the Poor Laws, which, no doubt, deserves criticism. But a l orel is not cz treatise or a tract. He 1. etui. n to 72is Book of Silobs, with the Vcneerings, and Lady Tippins, and T V IIIIO I IP d . yTi ppins is the inother of Edith, in Do nbey, over again, and T vemlow is Cousiu Feenix orer again. This kind of satire was not what Dickens excelled in. he he repeats himself and his worst work, ill his worst n annner, and with much exaggeration of caricature, the reader is inevitably fatigued. To fill that great tale of pages, curiosities in human nature and occupation had to be collected and Mr. Venus, with his workshop, vas picked up from the quick as the story went on, and inserted mecl anically. The virtuous vulprity of thc Boffins is a spectacle to which we hare already beell invited several times. r ll l ey give this large work the air of oi co f the Christmas Books on an iinlnense scale. Thus Ozir Jiz, tz aL Frierrd takes its place v-i th Dont bey a ltd Son-the dolls dressmaker doing duty as little Paul-and with Little Do rrt. These books are sucll 0s a illall prodiices because lie is novelist, and his professioil is to write novels. lhey are not genuine expressions of something thnt he felt obliged to express not stories which interested hiin SO 11111ch that he could not refrain from telling tllein. They answer, in Dickenss work, to Plrilip, if to anything of Thackerays to St. Ilo racas IVeZl, if to anytlling of Scotts. Nobody call honestly call thein worthy of the author, or of engrossing interest, or naturally designed pictures of life...

ISBN-13: 9781408621608
ISBN-10: 1408621606
Publication Date: 1/31/2008
Pages: 580
Rating:

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Publisher: Read Books
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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