Re: Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Fri, 1 May 1998 12:00:57 -0100
My dear Travis Turner,
You have hit upon one of the features of life in my time (and a little
earlier), that people of your generation most readily laugh at. Women were
given to fainting. The provision we made of remedies against it - smelling
salts and burnt feathers - are testimony enough for you, I should think. It
has been said that tight-lacing - corsetry designed to give the illusion of
a slender waist - might have had something to do with it. Fashion
undoubtedly did. In my book "Nicholas Nickleby," I wrote of the young
Morleena Kenwigs rehearsing swoons as a preparation for womanhood. But
whatever the cause, women did faint.
You will perhaps be tempted to laugh even more when I say that I believed,
and continue to believe, that womanly qualities are different from manly
qualities, and are to be valued at least as much. I take the view that a
woman's propensity to be overcome by her feelings is very often
proportionate to the depth and goodness of those feelings. This is not a
view much applauded in your day, I know, but I see no reason to change it.
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
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>We've been studying the book A Tale of Two Cities. Out of sheer curiosity
I was wondering what the significance of Lucie's occasional fainting was.
thanks.
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
Travis Turner
>
>
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author