LETTERS FROM DICKENS

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 12

LETTERS FROM DICKENS

RECENT SALE IN LONDON A remarkable series of 40 letters from Charles Dickens to George Cruikshank formed part of a sale of books and manuscripts held at Hodgson’s, in Chancery-lane in London, on December 9 and 10. The letters were written during the period 1837 to 1848, though the precise dates cannot usually be ascertained, since Dickens had a bad habit of putting no more than “Friday night,” or some such words, at the head ,of his correspondence, says a writer in The Observer.

One or two are in a very early hand, very different from his well-known later writing. Nearly all of them relate to Cruikshank’s work as illustrator of various books by Dickens, notably “Oliver Twist.” The earliest begin formally “My Dear Sir,” which is succeeded later by “My Dear Cruikshank,” and by “My Dear George.” Evidently Dickens scanned his work very carefully for, or perhaps even wrote it with an eye to, situations which would make good illustrations.

The letters are full of such references as:—

I think you will find a very good subject at page 10, which we will call “Oliver’s reception by Fagin ana the boys.” MR BUMBLE’S TEA

Often, too, he sends detailed instructions, such as those for the plate of “Mr Bumble and Mrs Comey taking tea”—instructions from which one presumes that Cruickshank was designing this particular plate before seeing Dicken’s manuscript: —

I have described a small kettle for one on the fire—a small black teapot on the table with a little tray and so forth —and a two-ounce tin tea cannister —also a shawl hanging up—and the cat and kittens before the fire. All of which details faithfully appear in the finished illustration to Chapter 23 of "Oliver Twist.”

Another letter contains a particularly interesting reference: — I find on writing it that the scene of Sikes’s escape will not do for illustration. It is so very complicated, with such a multitude of figures, such violent action, and torch-light to boot, that a small plate could not take in the slighest idea of it. Yet few readers of “Oliver Twist” would not hold that Cruikshank’s drawing of Bill Sikes on the roof trying to escape, is not one of the most dramatic of all his illustrations.