Re: Hard Times
Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Fri, 27 Nov 1998 10:11:29 -0100
My dear Mr Bolton,
How very gratifying for you, to be so real. I trust this doesn't disbar
someone as unreal as myself, writing a hundred and twenty-eight years after
his death, from helping you.
You should perhaps recall that sound writers do not seek to reflect
contemporary views. They may well do so, but what they seek is to express
their own views, and to have them prevail. I suppose my views on childhood
have more in common with those of some of the poets - Mr Wordsworth for
instance - than with those of the philosophers of my era - the Utilitarians
and the sages of the Manchester school. I believe profoundly in the
importance of fancy to the child - of story and imagination and the
fabulous. Fancy is the soil in which the growing soul can flourish. It
wilts among dry grains of fact.
I like to think I showed this, as powerfully as I could, in my book "Hard
Times."
Faithfully yours,
Charles Dickens
____________________________________________________________________________
____________
>Dear Mr. Dickens,
>
> If I am to suppose you are the real Charles Dickens, who died a good
>number of years ago, I shall need proof. Perhaps you could tell me
>something insightful about the depiction of children and childhood in
>Hard Times, and how you reflected the contemporary view of childhood.
>I should be very grateful for your help.
>
> Sincerely Yours,
>
>
> The REAL J. Bolton
>
>j.m.bolton.97@westhill.ac.uk
>
>"And nothing more."
> E.A. Poe
>
>
======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author