Re: questions

Charles Dickens (cdickens@rmplc.co.uk)
Thu, 27 Nov 1997 15:24:11 -0100 

My dear Misses Mary, Jenny, Meghan and Jillian

  What an extraordinary imputation, that I should be in love with my
sister-in-law! Are you not aware that that is one of the relations forbidden
in the Book of Common Prayer?  Are you not aware that, even should his wife
die, a man may not legally marry her sister?  Such at any rate was the case
in my time.  I have many sisters-in-law, moreover.  Two I revere: my wife's
sisters, Mary and Georgina.  Mary was, I believe, the purest and gentlest
creature I have ever known.  No man ever had a better friend than I had in
Georgina.  But to suppose me in love with either is bizarre.
  My favourite, among all my books, is "David Copperfield."
  Your question about my dwelling on past misfortune is an intelligent one,
but let me reply with another - or two.  Can you make a good story out of
uninterrupted happiness?  Would you want to read a novel in which the
central figures were happy at the beginning, continued to be happy
throughout, and were still happy at the end? I put it to you that my books
did not grow out of a propensity to dwell on past misfortune: rather that I
was obliged to dwell on past misfortune in order to write my books.
  Perhaps you should learn from the fact that you move immediately from this
matter, to ask about the chief attributes of Miss Havisham's character.  Is
she not a prime example of a dweller on past misfortune?  And what results
from that?  A blighted house, mischief for all those with whom she comes
into contact, a young girl perverted into a monster trained to break hearts.
I modestly suggest that my books are a better product of painful memories.
Miss Havisham grew substantially out of my imagination, and my awareness of
how dwelling on past unhappiness could corrupt. There was, however, a poor
mad creature, dressed all in white, who wandered the West End of London
during the 1850s, from whom I took some hints.
  There was no love-triangle, as you put it, between my wife, her sister,
and myself.  How you can imagine Biddy and Estella as representing two
sisters, I cannot conceive.  As I have always done since our ways parted, I
decline to speak about my wife.  She is a poor confused creature about whom
it is best to be silent.
  Needless to say, after they left home, my children and I were ever in
constant correspondence.
  I am proud of my writing.  It is what I hope to be remembered by.  My
impression is that my family and friends, whatever else they may think about
me, are not ashamed to be close to the writer of my books.
  Gad's Hill Place was not a house I acquired as a child, though I coveted
it, and did eventually acquire it in 1856.  I no longer live there.  I no
longer live anywhere in particular.
  It would not be fitting, I think, for me to give my views of your
generation of writers.  And I rest content with my published works.  My face
was represented so many times, and in so many different media, during my
lifetime, that I'm inured to its appearance in the strangest of places.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
____________________________________________________________________________
________


>Dear Mr. Dickens,
>
>       Would you say that you were in love with your sister-in-law?  What book
>that you wrote was your personal favorite?  Instead of focusing on your
>past misfortunes with such intense vigor, why didn't you realize your
>obvious opportunities for happiness which were easily accessible?
>       What attributes are you attributing to in Miss Havisham's character, and
>who is the person that you are basing her character on?  Are Pip, Estella,
>and Biddy what you percieve the love-triangle between your late
>sister-in-law and you ex-wife?  Do you ever regret leaving your wife?
>       Do you keep in touch with any of your children?  Are you proud of them, or
>have they supremely disappointed you?  Are you proud of your writing?  Do
>you feel as though your family or other aquantances are proud of your
>writings?  Do you still live in the house that you aquired when you were a
>child; the house that you had always dreamed of owning?
>       What is your opinion on today's style of writing?  Do you still write?
>Are you proud to have your face on the back of the bags in the chain book
>store called Barnes and Nobles?
>       Thank you for entertaining our questions.  We all hope that you continue
>to have a happy and prosperous life!
>
>Sincerely,
>Mary, Jenny, Meghan, and Jillian
>
>

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