Re: questions
Charles Dickens (cdickens@rmplc.co.uk)
Thu, 27 Nov 1997 15:24:07 -0100
My dear Sir,
I published "Great Expectations," originally, as a serial in the weekly
journal I owned and edited, "All the Year Round." Were the Inimitable not
famous for his soft and forgiving nature, he might take offence at the
suggestion he was paid by the word for the book. Some of the least eminent
newspaper reporters were in my time paid by the line. "Penny-a-liners," we
called them. My memory is not altogether clear on this point, but I may
have accepted payment in this form, in my 'prentice days as a reporter, aged
seventeen or eighteen. Since I was my own employer, when I was writing
"Great Expectations," I would have scarcely paid myself in such a fashion.
Fate decreed the reading public should not know the ending of "Edwin
Drood." I do not feel justified in overturning the decree of fate.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
____________________________________________________________________________
________
>Dear Mr. Dickens,
>
> As your works have become classics of no small account, I beg to inform
>you that I am currently having the singular and not wholly comprehendable
>experience of perusing the pages of your novel Great Expectations. I
>wonder if you would entirely fail to slash my throatlet, or consider it a
>bad side of human nature, if I asked you a trifle of a request of an
>explanation of the writing style of this not incompletely world renowned
>book, that is; was it originally published as a serial, and was Dickens...I
>mean were you, paid by the word for your great (in size, fame, and title)
>novel. Also, I am intensely curious as how you would have finished weaving
>your tale of the Mystery of Edmund Droodge, if you had not chosen to
>abruptly go into retirement. Thank you for your time and good luck for
>your books in years to come.
>
>
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author