OME RECENT DICKBNSIANA;

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2217, 1 August 1914, Page 9

OME RECENT DICKBNSIANA;

!'■' A; Dickens Memorial. ; r . Every bookman who -has-.a set' ;of ~ ~ Dickens ciJiis shelves-, and the smallest ;, of: libraries is 1 but; .poorly•;■ furnished .'■■; Tvhich does not Include -such ia set, should hie. him forthwith to 'his' bookseller's, and expend Itheitoodest sum of ' ; six; shillings on.''The >Bookman Dickens ; Extra,'' . recently, published >by Messrs. - Hodder and a copy of ■this, delightful. ■•Volume,..a goodly folio, ,-" sent me by Messrs.: , Whitcombo and , "Tombs, "Llber ,, .hna passed, two or three .hours of uhaHoyed pleasure; ; Dickens /■articles have.been appearing from time; . i to, ; time iii'i "The' Bookman", ever since ■that excellent jJublieatioh made its first \ appearance. - The first copies, sold in Wellington.of the first number were, I believe, purchased-by myself and' Mr,' : (W..-P; EeeVesi : then; and, to this day,: a; , confirmed lover of books and all-bbokbh- . ness. The-most,.important of these' articles are here I '-: collected,., "': together' ;■■■ with muphVnew matJter';- by snch ardent ; Dickens devotees: as Chesterton 1 , Alfred? Noyes, B. M. Matzj;and ; William , Dβ Morgan, who has proved- by his "Joseph .Vance", and: "Alice For.Shbrt" , that ,• -. Dickens methods can be profitably employed oven by twentieth .century novel-" •■'■'■■ ists:' I: welcome,';::too, ~ iSwiribuirne's splendid essay (rescued/- ; from • "The Quarterly Eeview"),;' entitled : "The : Greatness of .Dickens,',',, and the noble lines by which William.: Watson, celebrated the.Dickens Centenary in 1912. Forgone article alone, "The True Story of. David Copperfield," i>y Sir William Epbertson ~ Nicol, ; 'this' >.- "Bookman ■; Extra," is well.wprth;buying, for there-. .'. in_is given the;'stbry of Dickens's oourt- •% ship of Miss Maria. Beadnell,' the original ; of Dora Spenlow in,,"Coppern'eld," aid, alas, : twenty years, later, of Flora Finching'in "Little Doriitt;" ,The love letters which Dickens wrote.to Miss Beadnell, and which a friend, Henry. Kolle, su'r- .. Teptitioiisly conveyed to the young lady,; ■: ■: were privately published .by an American bibliophilic society m-1912, ahd.throw a .': lnos't curious : light on ■ the' early, life' of .'the' novelist, 'who, ; at ihat time, being tired of ihis life as a lawyer's clerk; was studying shorthand '" in order to gain'employment ais aParlia-, ■mentary Press reporter.' : t : '.

"The Original Dora. ■? :' ,' These, let tors are , still unavailable to the ordinary public, but Sir W. Robert- .'■'. eon Micol picks'out the\'!ti.-t-bits,"'ahd,' .by their, aid, proves beyond doubt, that ; : Miss Beadneil, the daughter of a private i; banker in Lombard Street, was the'original _of Dora, and Flora. , The Dora of real life .finally rejected her'suitor, who,' as all the world knows by • ffais time, , " married * Miss 'Catherine.- .Hogarth, .daughter of a Mr.' George,' Hogarth, ■■ who, as one , of the editors .of the' "Mo'rn- , //ing gave; the youthful . author one, of his first literary comihis- ;■■' ■ missions, the "The Sketches by Boz." Twenty years later Dickens met his old flame again.. She-.was'nbw; a'Mrs. Henry Winter, arid—well;'her portrait.is clrawn; ae : Flora'Finching, in "Little Dorritt,' , and you can study it , for yourselves; . The.''B6z":of 1855 was completely disenchanted: Mrs; Winter's /: husband failed, and she appealed, to iher _";■; 'old friend.' But,-asSir. .William'>Jfii T icol : tells us, Dickens:declined to. bb iifawn .into responsibility, land'suggested .that :■■■ her father, ■whp'iad-lefti£4o,ooo,.oii'ght. .. ;; to Her husband .'..entered'' the Church,- and died in 187 J., the original of : Dora and Flora herself, passing away '.'■ "' ■in 1886. If the literary contents , , of' the /■"Bookman Dickens Extra", are -'interest- ■"■'. . ing, tho ; illustrations are , even more so. As Mrs. Gamp said of "thy drinks," ■they ' are "all good." [ They include coloured plates from drawings by Frank Reynolds, fararid away 'the best of ,all latter-day:iDickens', illustrators, Cecil '■• Aldin,.Rayen.Hill; G. ; 15: Brock, 1 Hugh 'Thomson, and '.the 'late Fred Barnard, . "■ ,and /considerably. <>veY a' hundred, half- '■'.: • tone :illustrations;if scenes 'and characters in Dickens's works)-portraits of the: ■: novelist, his .family,' , / and'- intimate' friends,' faceimiles"of ■ Letters,/and p.icr ■ tures of buildings .and/\placee ■ insepar- ' ..ably connected, ■.with This ;■'books! 'The "Dickens Extra". ; is a veritable Dickens Cyclopaedia.- A' : finer'or more permanently interesting tribute to the memory ■/■' of \"The'lnimitable" could not be', de- ■ sired. '"''■ -.' ■'." ~- ' ''.-■'/'-:•■ '■ '•' v '/■ -.■-,'•

The Original of Sydney Carton. All good Dickensian3 should make a point of securing a copy of, "The Cornh'll Magazine" for May. It contains an article entitled "Charles Dickens and the. Law," by Sir Edward Clarke/the eminent English K.C. Sir Edward lives, - he,tells us,' in the Temple, ,and froia his Tvindowe in 2 Essex' Court" can look down "on the fountain -where Tom Pinch used i to,meet'--:his sister, and irher,e John,Wcstlock/appeared one day when {tiith was coming up , the steps." ; Much of. what Sir Edward Clarke says as;:."to--the.- legal "scenes ..aind- characters in: "Pickwick,". "Bleak''House," aoidother, of Dickeus's hovels has been said before, by. the late Sir Frank Lockwoo.d, Mr; l'ercy Fitzgerald, .and by:that most erudite of Dickensian commentators, the' late Mr.■.. Frederick; Kitten: •' Nevertheless, Sir-.Edward makes some new points,, one of which is ofi special peculiax interest to New Zealauders, especially Wellingtqhians.- .This is his confident identification' of the late Mr. Gordon Allan, ; ari English barrister, who, for-some years, practised his profession m : Wellington, ae,.thd,originaLof. Sydney Carton. For tho benefit of. my readers who aro interested in Dickensiana, and there must bo many, such, I copy out the-passage in which the identification just referred is made: .—, , .;.- Carton—Memory, Carton—was the , jackal to a famous lion who striit- ' ted for a. showy hour on the public stage.': Strjvrer, "stout, loud, red, ■ ,'blutf, and .free from every drawback -.'.', of \ delicacy,"' shouldered himself into Parliament as . member for Marylebone, and a year before "Tho Tale of Two Cities" was published made his most,. 1 notable , forensio • effort in defence, of Dr. Bernard, • charged with complicity, in the attempt to murder the Emperor Louis Napoleon;: It,was: at 2'Dr. Johnson's Buildings, iii the Temple, that , Stryver, Q.C., and; Memory Carton " their wpriing chambers, ,and in . ' real ilife' their .names were Edwin James and Gordon' Allan. Neither , of them wasquite so -bad as he was , painted. Stryver/ lied freely,, but /he was not a drunkard. Carton never. sank so low as ho ; was depicted in thb bopk • nor ever -roseperhaps because thooccasion never oame-rto tho sublime self-sacrifice which Dickens so nobly I Edwin James was detected in ■roguery, and disbarred, and disappeared from England; and soon . after Gordon Allan wasfourid at his "high chamber, . in a well ofhouses," almost starving. The i • generosity of his brother-barristers ; gave four hundred, pounds to equip ,: him with books and clothing, to help him, to start a new career in another land.

"Sydney Carton" In New Zealand. The lato Mr., Gordon Allan,, referred to above, will bo : remembered by and New Zealand-. ers generally as a very familiar figure in the capital city in the eighties of the

! last century; "Liber" well remembers the sale of his,library.and personal effects, and. possesses ■an odf volunio of Moliere's. plays belonging to Mr. Allan, and containing several notes .(on-"Tar-tuffe"). in his handwriting. Mr. .'Allan was' a fine French scholar, and 'at one time, so I believe, gaveilessons in French at Wellington College. Allan was always a ' very' welL-dressed man; in fact, somewhat ".old buck-'-ish in his dress, and deportment. : I have heard it said,that he habitually wore a very high collar, and.there was a story cur-rent-that, this was to hide a long. scar. Whether this story be well founded or not, I cannot say. If it be, it would be interesting to, speculate whether.: at the close of his Sydney Carton's career, the unhappy young barrister had attempted suicide. . '....'■'•

Concerning stryver. That tho Stryver of the story was Edwin James Dickens himself admitted. In Edmund Yatcs's ''Recollections and Experiences," one of the best books of gossip on men and things of the Victorian, period ever published, this tioint is made quite clear. ;• James advised Edmund tates, in the latter's unfortunate quarrel with Thackeray, a quarrel which resulted in. the younger man having to resign from the Garrick Club, and Dickens was ■ :Yates's .'.'backer." Yates tells :how he took Dickens, "who had never, seen' James," tea , consultation, and continues:—,- ,-i. . . - . , Mr. James laid himself out to be : : specially .agreeable;:' Dickens was \ quietly observant. ■ About- , four ■ months after" appeared the early numbers of "A'.Tale of Two Cities, ,, '/■in which a prominent part was - played by Mr. .Stryver. ;. After reading the description, I said to Dickens: "Stryver'is a gpod ; like-■ . ness!" .He smiled. •■ : "Not bad, >I : think;" he said,' "especially aftjer only one sitting'.", v . ; : ...-■.'-.. The Originals of Jaggers and Buzfuz. .. Sir Edward Clarke deals : with other legal-characters 'in'".Dickens's works. Jaggers; the shifty criminal lawyer'in ' Great Expectations," he identified as Mr. ■J; ■G. Lewis, of Ely Palace, Hoiborn,, who was, I Believe, the fouridei of the famous firm of solicitors, -Lewis and 'Lewis.- -Sergeant Buzfuz, it has : generally been understood, was in real life,- Se-rgeant . Boinpas. ' His ' son) an-English County Court Judge, conndently claimed the, honour for his father.; But Sir Edward ! Clarke compares 'an .address to the jury, given by >ir ; Williani;Follett, counsel for the plaintiff in a crim'. con. action (brought by: a Mr. : Norton: 'against the , famous Lord .Melbourne) '.with the oration de hveredby Buzfuz in the yet more lawbus, if imaginary case of "Bardcllv. Pickwick"; and points out some quite extraordinary resemblances. . Altogether, the "Cornhill" article is full of interesting Dickens gossip,' and, as I said, should not be overlooked by Dickens lovers. ' ■-•''. • ;

MISCHIEF-MAKERS mMjNiAiaJ^E*

. Of recent years the world's knowledge of the mischief ■wrouglit^riot-'pjily/ tov cattle, horses,. Jaati himself, by certain micryicopic. protozoal organisms lias been; greatly enlarged. The need of a work which' should deal with these eneiniesof-lifo in- a readable and popularY but nohe the 'less accurate way, has long been felt. The want is now, met by , a book entitled ' "Some Minute Animal Parasites or Unseen Foes in the Animal World" (Methuen and Co.).' .The, author/' Mr. H. B. Fantham, D.Sc, and Miss Annie Porter, D.Sc, are expert authorities on the subject' dealt with in the book, lie former being in. Parasitology at the Liverpool School Of Tropical/ Medicine, and the latter being-a:"Beit Memorial Research Fellow and an ■ as-' sistant Quick Laboratory at' Cambridge;' The authors remind us that as the book has been: 1 framed with. the jejea of being of service to many differ-, ent classes of 'readers,- it is written in a semi-poyular. yet: scientific vein, the few technical terms used being! fully explained. : :, So .far '.as- possible, , that side, of -Protozoology;; that comes in direct contact with human life i and needs .has been- chosen:in preference to that which deals with the more theor- ! etical and, speculative, side. Diseases of man, cattle, horses; poultry, game, fish,", and bees, ■ due to : parasitic Proto-. zoa, thus occupy a largo proportion , .of the book. . The Uganda eleepmg sickness,, the scientific name- of which: is human • trypanosonias,. the connection between malaria and mosquitoes, -the parasitic ■ causes of yellow fever, , , and also: !pf' Ted water, and other , cattle diseases, are subjects which -are treated at-some length. The'economic side of the mischief wrought by flies and other parasites also receives attention.' Even the seemingly most magnificent. insects appear'to'have their yet .smaller para-, sitesi- a; specially : curious, and.interest-, irig: description of- the Crithidia pulicis, which is parasitic in the human flea,' Piilex imtans,- being given in'.the third chapter of the.book.-. Those who havo read the fascinating works of M. Fabfe, tho famous French entomologist, will find in this work by Mr. Fantnain arid Miss Porter much' curious information . explaining and supplementing what the French scientists.has'.placed before :the public in so popular a form.The .illustrations and diagrams in the book are- all' new, the drawings having teen made, from the authors' own specimens. , (Price, 65.)