Re: project

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 10:30:09 -0100 

My dear Miss Webster,

  Like most writers of fiction, I should think, I wrote books about things
near to my heart, and they were near to my heart because of the events of my
life.
  Two things stand out, I suppose, in "A Tale of Two Cities," one profoundly
personal, one political.  I wrote the book at a time when my marriage was
ceasing to be such except in name.  For many years I had lived unhappily
with Mrs Dickens.  When we agreed to part, I felt that I had been "buried
alive," and was now "returned to life."  Dr Manette's propensity to be drawn
back into an unhappy past was something I was able easily to imagine,
because I experienced something like it.  The fact that the doctor's past
includes prison, and work to do with boots and shoes, may have been
prompted, I suppose, by my memories of earlier unhappiness, of a time when
my father had been gaoled for debt, and I was set to work in a shoe-blacking
manufactory.
  The political content of "A Tale of Two Cities" is a warning.  Throughout
my life I stood up for the poor and dispossessed.  Mr Carlyle's book on the
French Revolution afffected me greatly.  Thither, but for the grace of God,
went her Majesty's kingdom, it seemed to me.  I tried to show, in the book
that, unless the powerful accepted responsibility for the welfare and
happiness of the powerless, dreadful consequences would follow.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
____________________________________________________________________________
________
>
>        Dear Mr. Dickens,
>
>                I am writing a project about your novel A TALE OF TWO
>CITIES. For my written component I must
>compare your life story and that of your novel. I must decide if you've
>based the novel around the major
>themes in your life. My thesis is the following: Do the social, political,
>educational, religious, and economical
>situations written about by Charles Dickens in A TALE OF TWO CITIES reflect
>his life? Could you please send me a
>few of your thoughts on the matter. Please do not feel obligated to answer
>every aspect of this question. A general
>overview will be of great help.
>
>                        Faithfully yours,
>                                        Sarah Webster (Canada)
>
>
>

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