Re: questions

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Wed, 24 Sep 1997 09:56:58 -0100 

My dear Sir, or Madam,

  Every writer of stories has an incomparably intimate recollection of his
own life history.  Assiduity, imagination, sympathy - they can yield
knowledge of the lives of others, but not knowledge comparable to that of
one's own life.  I do not suppose, then, that any successful writer of
fiction can be such, neglecting these events.  They must underpin his books.
  There are dangers, however.  Most of us, I suppose, have arrived at and
passed turning points in our lives, which to remember is painful.  These
sing the sirens' song for the novelist.  Approach too close and you founder
upon the rocks.  What should be fiction degenerates into self-justification.
  The turning point in my life, about which I still hestitate to speak, was
my father's incarceration in a debtor's prison and my toil, at the same
time, in a shoe-blacking warehouse.  I was scarcely more than a child.  I
have certainly drawn upon these melancholy experiences in my books.  Some
might say that, when I wrote "David Copperfield," my ears were stopped with
insufficient wax to mute the fatal song.  Perhaps, though, they should
recall that the part of the book dealing with David's childhood started life
as an autobiographical exercise on my part.  I was able to shape the matter
into publishable form only by fictionalising it.
  You are interested in my book "Great Expectations."  I like to think that,
in this, I used my childhood experiences in a way at least as interesting.
Pip is not a young gentleman deprived of his birthright and struggling to
regain it.  He is the orphan brother of a blacksmith's wife, who dreams of
becoming a gentleman, is granted his wish, and finds it leads him down paths
he is ashamed of.  I like to think that Pip balances David, that in "great
Expectations" I question, as it should be questioned, the assumption - my
assumption as a child and young man - that doing well and rising in life are
unambiguously good.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
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>How did your childhood affect your later writings, in particular Great
>Expectations.
>
>

======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author