"But he was not a revolutionary. His heroes are not even reformers. They are ordinary people who have made a simple commitment to decency. George Orwell, who had probably aspired to recruit Dickens to the socialist cause, reluctantly concluded that Dickens was not interested in political reform, only in moral improvement: 'Useless to change institutions without a change of heart—that, essentially, is what he is always saying.' In fact, a major target of Dickens’s satire is liberalism.... [I]n nineteenth-century England the typical liberal was a utilitarian, who believed that the worth of a social program could be measured by cost-benefit analysis, and very likely a Malthusian.... One of Dickens’s memorable caricatures in 'Bleak House' is Mrs. Jellyby.... We see her at home obsessively devoted to her 'Africa' project, while neglecting, almost criminally, her own children.... But Dickens is not ridiculing Mrs. Jellyby for caring about Africans. ... [S]he was based on a woman Dickens had met, Caroline Chisholm, who operated a charity called the Family Colonization Loan Society, which helped poor English people emigrate. And Mrs. Jellyby’s project is the same: she is raising money for families to move to a place called Borrioboola-Gha, 'on the left bank of the Niger,' so that there will be fewer mouths to feed in England. She’s a Malthusian. "
From "The Crisis That Nearly Cost Charles Dickens His Career/The most beloved writer of his age, he had an unfailing sense of what the public wanted—almost" by Louis Menand (The New Yorker).
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Dickens created one of the greatest archetypes of a social justice warrior in all of literature: Madame DeFarge, knitting names for the guillotine.
"In fact, a major target of Dickens’s satire is liberalism...."
Same with Mark Twain, but liberals regard him as some type of liberal, and named an award after him that they give to the very kinds of people he skewered. Maybe that is fitting.
"And Mrs. Jellyby’s project is the same: she is raising money for families to move to a place called Borrioboola-Gha, 'on the left bank of the Niger,' so that there will be fewer mouths to feed in England. She’s a Malthusian."
"And that's what I'm gonna be," vowed the young Margaret Sanger as she closed her book and headed for dreamland. "And I'll call my effort the Negro Project."
Thank you, that was actually worth reading.
Although the author was practically Dickensonian in the huge delay before actually getting to the "Crisis"
Useless to change institutions without a change of heart...
Personnel is Policy...
Plus c'est la même chose, plus c'est la même chose.
Dickens has been translated to the big screen, the Broadway stage, and TV. But it is only when read that the full weight of Dickens' serialized authorship can be appreciated. He doesn't fill his books with lists for the entertainment of the readers, as did Cervantes and Rabelais, but he can take pages and pages to set a scene with participants and complete a bit of dialogue. Yet it is still a good read, usually, unlike a lot of Hawthorne or JF Cooper.
It is perhaps because he had room to include almost everything in his sometimes rambling works that it is possible to find almost anything you look for, as described in this post.
Dickens is ridiculing Mrs. Jellyby for ignoring her own children while spending all her time on colonizing Englishmen on the banks of the Niger. He calls her a Telescopic Philantropist. And he satrizes her thus:
"In-deed! Mrs. Jellyby," said Mr. Kenge, standing with his back to the fire and
casting his eyes over the dusty hearth-rug as if it were Mrs. Jellyby's biography, "is a lady of very remarkable strength of character who devotes herself entirely to the public. She has devoted herself to an extensive variety of public subjects at various times
and is at present (until something else attracts her) devoted to the subject of Africa, with a view to the general cultivation of the coffee berry--AND the natives--and the happy settlement, on the banks of the African rivers, of our superabundant home population. Mr.
Jarndyce, who is desirous to aid any work that is considered likely to be a good work and who is much sought after by philanthropists, has, I believe, a very high opinion of Mrs. Jellyby."
Dickens was in favor of reform but disliked reformers, considering them killjoys, hypocrites, and oddballs. In other words, he knew them as they were.
Holy crap- does this journalist sound like he’s writing a 7th grade book report, to you? Not very factual.
Not that I’m any expert on paragraph formation- I can observe and relay: neither does he seem to be.
I would have known that, Andrew. But I never was able to complete that book. Did you find it good reading? I’ve tried again as an adult. And made it in only a few pages.
I like Bleak House. I wouldn't call it the best. My ranking:
Pickwick Papers
Oliver Twist
Great Expectations
David Cooperfield
Tale of Two Cities
Martin Chuzzlewitz
Our Mutual Friend
Bleak House
Hard times is good for the satrical figures of Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby. But as a novel its not the best. Almost every Dickens novel is readable has SOME good parts. you can say the same about Thackeray and Tolstoy.
@farmgirl,
Honestly, A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite novels. It's also one of the few books I was assigned to read in high school that I read again, just for pleasure. His depiction of the French Revolution is vivid and powerful. As is often the case with Dickens, some of the characters stick with you long after the book is over. Especially Madame DeFarge and Sidney Carton. I'm sure some people find the book too sentimental, but it worked for me. The final scene in the novel is both beautiful and devastating.
This is a decent article, but it states things that have been known, discussed, and taught for the last fifty years. This is same take on Dickens I encountered in a grad. course in the Victorian novel in 1966. Dickens was a a real entertainer, a showman, who wrote to make a decent living. He was immensely popular with middle class readers in England and the U. S., and the serialized chapters of his novels had huge followings. In NYC and Boston, people attended public readings of the latest episodes in local taverns. His work was not shaped by
marxism or any other top down social or political reform theory. A major theme was usually that the good heart, generosity, and sympathy
might help the impoverished, and the author, fortunately, is unable to shoehorn Dickens into any contemporary theories or isms. Dickens is just Dickens.
Hmmm . . . what about Nicholas Nickelby?
I read it in HS as well- required. Idk why I didn’t get into it. We were assigned The Jungle in History. Neither of those books have stuck w/me. Yet, I’ve read Jane Eyre 4x. Might read it again, just remembering:0)
Politics in Dickens day were complicated. Working people didn't necessarily trust the Whigs, liberals, and reformers who were seen by later historians as their champions. That's because the reformers often wanted to control and remake the masses and smooth the way for economic development, which wasn't always in the immediate best interest of the workers.
Dickens was also complicated and not reducible to a simplified ideological pattern. That may be because his rise in the world meant that he wasn't securely and confidently a member of a particular class, but straddled several.
"Hard Times" is a satire of utilitarianism.
"Hard Times" is a satire of utilitarianism.
Dickens also created memorable, archetypical characters like madame DeFarge and Oliver Twist, and he offered his middle class readers graphic windows into the difficult lives of England’s lower classes that were invisible in much Victorian fiction. Moreover, “Tale of Two Cities’” which I read in 10th grade, has stayed with me for about 65 years as a window into the French Revolution. In grad school, i remember several students proposing to write their masters theses on the sociology or economics of Dicken’s novels. Most of these proposals were rejected because these topics were thought to be too obvious to any careful reader. That probably would not be the case today when marxist criticism and deconstruction are trendy.
Enjoyed the article. Thanks, Althouse.
"George Orwell (Born 1903), who had probably aspired to recruit Dickens (Died 1870) to the socialist cause..."
Socialism just might work for zombies.
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