Modern and Victorian Times: mesage from Christopher Holden
Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 14:15:07 -0100
My dear Mr Holden,
You ask me whether the world is a better place now than it was in
Victorian times. The simple answer is that I find it impossible
to say. One thing I can say, though - a thing I have said many
times in my books one way or another - is that there is nothing so
morally debilitating as a belief in the superiority of the past.
You may have heard of the way I amused myself by inventing titles
for the dummy book backs fixed to the door of my library, which I
disguised as yet another bookshelf. One set of uniform backs I
entitled "The Wisdom of our Ancestors." I labelled individual
volumes: "I Ignorance, II Superstition, III The Block, IV The
Stake, V The Rack, VI Dirt." The Inimitable has his choleric moods.
I dedicated much of my writing career to showing what was wanting
in my time: the ignorance, the want, the indifference of the wealthy
and powerful, their incompetence adding to their indifference. Some
things have changed for the better. Many things have. But it is hard,
sometimes, not to read the twentieth century as a recapitulation of
mistakes made in the nineteenth.
Yet this is to be resisted I feel. Dwell upon the problems we have,
and their solutions. Comparing age to age is no solution at all.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author