DICKENS IN LOVE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10765, 13 May 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

DICKENS IN LOVE.

•What is properly il._-f-iitj.-tl as a real addition to tin- pubh.-hed lacta which throw light on the liie-slory o! Dickens j- a little book privately circulated i" Yiiiorica called "Charles Dickens and Maria Beadncll/' an interesting summary ot which is given by "Claudius i_i.-.iV : in the British' Weekly. The hook, which is edited by x'rofessor George Pierce Baker, of harvard University, consists of "private correspondence between Charles Dickons and .Mrs Henry Winter U'ce Maria Headiiell), the original of Dora Spenl,,w in ' David Copperficld ' and tlora liiuiiiiig in ' Little Dorrit.' " Those unpublished letters by Charles Dickens found their way into the Hands of an American collector, and .'•t'mtain the story of Dickens' passionate love story. Moreover, "the letters verit'v many disputed points in ' David l\>pperticld~' and show that in important respects the lovo affairs of its hero were those of Dickens himself. They : ,i-o prove conclusively that in ' Little ilornt' Dickens narrated much of ids ~.-. ti experience. We know now who Dora in 'David Copperficld' was. and we know what we never could have be[iVved. that the same Dora in ' Littlo Dorrit ' is assigned the garrulous part ~[ Flora Finching." George Ueadnell, the father of liana, -.wis a Lombard street banker. He had two other daughters, Margaret :uid Anne, who subsequently married the two friends by whom the novelist u is introduced into the banker's do:r,. -tic circle. In 1830, when the novc-li-t first became acquainted with the Ueadnells, he was not quite IS. Maria j;.-:irliicll was a year his senior. •At this time (says the British \V, <4:h) Dickens had given up his work in a !;iw office, recognising the painful j -novness of his advance, and with tre- | ii.melons labor and speed had conquered i tiie mysteries of Gnrney's system of t.hi:rtiiand. He was on the eve of be,'.>.,i;ig a member of the staff of the •True"Sun.' Young Dickens fell at .nice in love with Maria Beadnell, and M-iria flirted with him very desper-

[Jut the young reporter, with his way :,« make in life, and with no very de-t-i.'.'d views as to how to do it, wan ronsidereci hardly eligible for the (l-.iMichter of ;t prosperous bank man:i!;.■•:". and his love-making W as regarded amused tolerance; an attitude v.'iicli Maria seems to have shared. Maria was sent 1o school m Paris, and DHvens cherished in secret his pas-jir-n. Maria behaved to Dickens much ;.- Fs-irlla behaved to Pip. ■>he made use of me to tease other inlnrirers, and she. turned the very familiaritv between herself and me to the ;.,<-oii;it of putting a constant slight on ..-..■ di-votion to her. If I had been lier -.ci-tarv. steward, lialf-brother, poor

;. Htion— if I had been a Younger V":'ior of her appointed husband—l :,,;;lrl not- have sceinivl to myself fiirrii-■;• from my hopes whe-i I was nearest r ,, her I never had one I:.,ur's happiness in her society, and v.-r my mind, all round the four and

.■nt v- ho'irs, was harping on the hari:e-:< of having her with me unto

IPS 3 Dickons realised that his

... r ( uost was hopeless. Tie appealed a vain to the girl whose caprices mad- '. !i ■-.] and gladdened him alternately. !•■ find endured more from his sweot- . -it than probably any creature •-.thinu ever bore from a woman be- .,:■•■. Hut the end of it all was a mid ■ ;.lv that held out no hope, and so the ".liiti; came, and for 20 years they saw more of one another. That Dickens . !• himself cruelly treated is not sur-

T.iwards the end of the year of his

.':-i.i:ssal he began to print in the "Old ?.;.i>:r:dv Magazine." the first of his •'•v-.>>tr!t« i s bv Box." which were pulit:-■:■■:! i't lolume form in 1836, the jear D:.-:-:--iis married Miss Hh- .;:!!. In many of the ".Sketches" the f.■■■.! '.:<'■}] circle "can be traced. Hut i.i :•;.■:•■ < f his hard work, "he had :or,:r,,;irr= of the mood described in F!- •■ ■••-tone's appeal to Lizzie: 'I have r -r h. r-,1 oiiit of you since I lirst saw

i. Oh. that was a wretched, miser- ,!■■ flay for me, that was a -.-iflied miserable day! . .

Yon ar-:> part of my exiat;):>rt of myself. Voi: have been !■-. line I have over read, since I nine here, the rough common boy »r.or heart >o'i wounded f.vn

' You have been in every prosI have ever sfo;t since—on the :■::• -. nil tlie sails of the ships, on the ::-!■•-.-. in the clouds, in the light, in • 'iarkne>>, in the wind, in the -.-. •■'-. in the sea. in the streets. You b"rn the embodiment of every .:■. "::! fancy that my mind has ever :■■•• acquainted with. - - • f' ll . f; .": i-.i.-ss you. Go'l forgive you! . .

A' <;..',:». all none!" •i l-.--iis' heart refused to succumb ' • Mow. though its effect never left • \V< mama-re for a time was :.•■- .'-..f.u-h. but lie felt "the one ■'•. : ' i■--" had been missed. When ■r ; !>io_'raphv reached the point . !■•■ fell in love with Maria Head- ■".'<■ .-oulfl not proceed with it, and

; li.- set himself to the writing i' ■;■! CiipperfieloV into which he . f.uji soul. This was the book

••:' in'- hooks which he liked best. if. 1.,.,,] i„ his heart of hearts a ;•■■ child, and his name was David i':::'<,>!.!. As he was writing, his >;.;! hesitation occurred in con- ■, ivith the child-wife, Dora, who •■. •.. '!!•:e,,-M from Maria Headnell as lie

: r..l her and imagined her." i :■'.-».rtiarv, 1545. Maria Beadnell •■:>i-ried to Henry Louis Winter. - then 34. Ten years after her ri • Mrs Winter wrote to

■•TV■■:■:--us was delighted. He replied " •:: ';■-. if not exuberantly. He rer'.';■■': their fd'l trysting place, her .:■ '.'. •; i.ik. his liapri'mess, his misery. . . He said that he had never • ;•• name Maria without start- .... He referred her to !)• r,,.,porneld.' and told her she • e'the touches of herself in !'■--. >' ~ple liad praised him for the '-■ : ■ i -. -making in ' David Cnppcrt-;!." net knowing that it was truth, :,, t e nor less. Ho asked her re hook, and to think ' How :::.it bov must have loved me, ■' •: vividiv this man remembers

they meet. And sooner saw his old love than i w is quenched, for time had d havoc on his youthful idea of the meeting that mav be formed by reading 1 i- ivrote in "Little. Dorrit. 1 I r i rinching, and lie Arthur i 'ii will be found sufficiently >ns. Ives to be true to an old no proof of an inconstant \ictlv the opposite, when ill not bear close comparison ihtv. and the contrast is ;i to it. Such was Clennaiii's ' tii- youth be had ardently mi lit. and bad heaped upon I » kid-up wealth of his :ifd illumination. That wealth i in his desert home, like ( ru aie's money : exchangci one, lying idle in the dark t 1 he poured it out for her. that memorable time, bad, until the night of his v completely dismissed her s-ociation with his rrrscnt I >s if she bad been dead tn'ght easily have been for knew), he had kept the old Past unchanged, in its «ld And now. after all. the Patriarchs eoollv walked >ilor. saying in effect, *Be [> to tlirow it down and it it This is Flora.' Flora. i! had grown to be very ■nd short of breath: but >t much. Flora, whom he u lilv, had liecome a peonv : , i sis not much. Flora, who ■* I <nchantiiur in all she s-->id iJit was diffuse and silly. 1 v itirh. Flora, who had boon I irtless long ago. was de--r be snoiled nnd artless now. I ' „ > fital blow." I rs must turn up the pages 1 Tlnrrit" and read for.tbcm- > poignant passage in its oni, 1 'a the story is tragic enough. '* i- sought to continue .the 1 me with her old admirer. 1 ' it success. Dickens did not I tt anv warmth. Then Mr \ ' tiipd. and the chagrined wife M - i to the lover of her girlhood 1 'p wtihnut avail. And so the r " Irr ds Ion? before Mrs Winter's I—6,