Re: Other letters by Dickens

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:51:45 -0100

My dear Sir,

  You make no error in sending me your message.  Alas, I cannot comply with
your request.  I cannot tell you how many letters I have written.  The
Clarendon Press, I understand, is publishing a new edition of them.  In
thirty-three years, nine volumes have appeared, over 7,000 pages, and the
edition has only reached 1861!
  Will you be content if I quote you, verbatim, one cheeful letter I sent to
my good friend Forster, just one hundred and sixty years ago, from this
house, 48 Doughty Street?  I hope so.

    My dear Forster,
      You don't feel disposed, do you, to muffle yourself up, and start
    off with me for a good brisk walk over Hampstead Heath?  I know a
    good 'ous there where we can have a red hot chop for dinner, and a
    glass of good wine.
      All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  I am as dull as a
    Codfish.

    Faithfully thine CD

    If you can, say "Yes" & I'll come down to you.

Familiar as you are with today's postal services, there are probably details
of this which puzzle you.  You should understand I sent it by a servant, who
brought a reply in little more than half an hour.  And I was able to go down
to Forster's lodgings - downhill, that is, towards the river, and to
Lincoln's Inn Fields where Forster lived.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________
>Please e-mail me any letters that were written by Charles Dickens for a
>report I must do for school.  Thank you.  Please respond if I am in error in
>sending this.
>
>

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