Re: influences
Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Wed, 19 Nov 1997 11:33:37 -0100
My dear Mr Keating,
The fiction writer of your age, my dear sir, considers himself an artist
first and foremost. I considered myself an artist too, but I began my
writing career as a journalist, and never felt that, in my fiction, I was
creating something entirely distinct from my journalism. "A Christmas
Carol," for instance grew out of an idea I had for a pamphlet denouncing the
neglect of the poor and needy in what we called "the hungry forties." The
idea expressed itself eventually in the form of fiction because, among other
reasons, fiction was I what I did best.
I do not think any of my books fails to address problems of the era.
"Pickwick Papers" and "Little Dorrit," for instance, denounce debtors'
prisons, "Nicholas Nickleby" and "Hard Times" bad schools, "Great
Expectations" and "Our Mutual Friend" snobbery. Most of my books
contemplate the changes brought about, during the early part of Queen
Victoria's reign, by growing industrialisation, and the adjustments in
people's lives that came in its train.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________
>Dear Mr.Dickens,
>
>I'm doing a report for school on how events and life in the Victorian
>age affected your writing. I know that you made refrences to child
>poverty in "Oliver Twist", and it would be great if you could provide
>more examples of the same. Thanks alot,
>
> Stephen Keating
> Nf, Canada
>
>
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author