Re: Mr. Dickens can you please help me

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Wed, 2 Sep 1998 15:26:31 -0100 

My dear Mr Skeley,

  It is difficult, you will understand, for a writer to see how his work
reflects his own time.  The writer just writes what he wants to.  He doesn't
pause and ask how it reflects his era.
  What I can tell you, however, is what I wanted from my readers when I
wrote "A Tale of Two Cities."  I wanted them to reflect that what had
happened in France in the seventeen-eighties and nineties could happen in
England in the eighteen-fifties and sixties.  In France there had been an
explosion of vengeance, bloodshed and cruelty, thanks to the neglect of the
dispossessed by the powerful.  In England the powerful were neglecting the
dispossessed.
  I think my theme came to me because of my lifelong indignation at my
country's hard usage of its poor.  You can see that, I suggest, in my second
novel, "Oliver Twist."  And it came too because of more recent experiences
in the eighteen-fifties: the shameful misconduct, for instance, of the war
in the Crimea, and the dreadful sufferings inflicted on ordinary soldiers
thanks to this misconduct.  The army high command, the civil service, the
government had all acted with the blithe indifference of the ancien regime.
  It is scarcely for me to say that a particular way of reading my book is a
good one, but I am inclined to think there is plenty for you to talk about,
the way you have chosen.


Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________
>Dear Mr. Dickens,
>
>       I am writing an essay for my tenth grade english class about your
>novel, A Tale of Two Cities.  I was thinking for a topic about using how the
>work reflects the time period in which you were writing.  I was hoping that
>you would give me an idea first of all if this is a good subject and second of
>all what were some things that influenced that work.
>Thank you very much.
>
>Sincerely,
>Peter Skeley
>
>

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