登陆注册
4712500000038

第38章

"I cannot read Dickens!" How many people make this confession, with a front of brass, and do not seem to know how poor a figure they cut! George Eliot says that a difference of taste in jokes is a great cause of domestic discomfort. A difference of taste in books, when it is decided and vigorous, breaks many a possible friendship, and nips many a young liking in the bud. I would not willingly seem intolerant. A man may not like Sophocles, may speak disrespectfully of Virgil, and even sneer at Herodotus, and yet may be endured. But he or she (it is usually she) who contemns Scott, and "cannot read Dickens," is a person with whom I would fain have no further converse. If she be a lady, and if one meets her at dinner, she must of course be borne with, and "suffered gladly." But she has dug a gulf that nothing can bridge; she may be fair, clever and popular, but she is Anathema. I feel towards her (or him if he wears a beard) as Bucklaw did towards the person who should make inquiries about that bridal night of Lammermoor.

But this admission does not mean that one is sealed of the tribe of Charles--that one is a Dickensite pure and simple, convinced and devout--any more than Mr. Matthew Arnold was a Wordsworthian.

Dickens has many such worshippers, especially (and this is an argument in favour of the faith) among those who knew him in his life. He must have had a wonderful charm; for his friends in life are his literary partisans, his uncompromising partisans, even to this day. They will have no half-hearted admiration, and scout him who tries to speak of Dickens as of an artist not flawless, no less than they scorn him who cannot read Dickens at all. At one time this honourable enthusiasm (as among the Wordsworthians) took the shape of "endless imitation." That is over; only here and there is an imitator of the master left in the land. All his own genius was needed to carry his mannerisms; the mannerisms without the genius were an armour that no devoted David had proved, that none could wear with success.

Of all great writers since Scott, Dickens is probably the man to whom the world owes most gratitude. No other has caused so many sad hearts to be lifted up in laughter; no other has added so much mirth to the toilsome and perplexed life of men, of poor and rich, of learned and unlearned. "A vast hope has passed across the world,"says Alfred de Musset; we may say that with Dickens a happy smile, a joyous laugh, went round this earth. To have made us laugh so frequently, so inextinguishably, so kindly--that is his great good deed. It will be said, and with a great deal of truth, that he has purged us with pity and terror as well as with laughter. But it is becoming plain that his command of tears is less assured than of old, and I cannot honestly regret that some of his pathos--not all, by any means--is losing its charm and its certainty of appeal.

Dickens's humour was rarely too obvious; it was essentially personal, original, quaint, unexpected, and his own. His pathos was not infrequently derived from sources open to all the world, and capable of being drawn from by very commonplace writers. Little Nells and Dombeys, children unhappy, overthrown early in the melee of the world, and dying among weeping readers, no longer affect us as they affected another generation. Mrs. Beecher Stowe and the author of "Misunderstood," once made some people weep like anything by these simple means. Ouida can do it; plenty of people can do it.

Dickens lives by virtue of what none but he can do: by virtue of Sairey Gamp, and Sam Weller, and Dick Swiveller, and Mr. Squeers, with a thousand other old friends, of whom we can never weary. No more than Cleopatra's can custom stale their infinite variety.

I do not say that Dickens' pathos is always of the too facile sort, which plays round children's death-beds. Other pathos he has, more fine and not less genuine. It may be morbid and contemptible to feel "a great inclination to cry" over David Copperfield's boyish infatuation for Steerforth; but I feel it. Steerforth was a "tiger,"--as Major Pendennis would have said, a tiger with his curly hair and his ambrosial whiskers. But when a little boy loses his heart to a big boy he does not think of this. Traddles thought of it. "Shame, J. Steerforth!" cried Traddles, when Steerforth bullied the usher. Traddles had not lost his heart, nor set up the big boy as a god in the shrine thereof. But boys do these things; most of us have had our Steerforths--tall, strong, handsome, brave, good-humoured. Far off across the years I see the face of such an one, and remember that emotion which is described in "David Copperfield,"chap. xix., towards the end of the chapter. I don't know any other novelist who has touched this young and absolutely disinterested belief of a little boy in a big one--touched it so kindly and seriously, that is there is a hint of it in "Dr. Birch's School Days."But Dickens is always excellent in his boys, of whom he has drawn dozens of types--all capital. There is Tommy Traddles, for example.

同类推荐
  • 百愚禅师语录

    百愚禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 友人邀听歌有感

    友人邀听歌有感

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Lorna Doonel

    Lorna Doonel

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 壶关录

    壶关录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 北溪字义

    北溪字义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 观世音菩萨秘密藏如意轮陀罗尼神咒经

    观世音菩萨秘密藏如意轮陀罗尼神咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 垂钓诸天

    垂钓诸天

    厌烦了都市的勾心斗角,北风回到乡下的老宅。养几只鸡,几只鸭,想过着采菊东篱下悠然见南山的生活。万万没想到命运给北风开了一个天大的玩笑,自家的古井居然能垂钓到来自各个世界的物品。钓起来一只大公鸡都能打的北风满院子跑。北风无语问苍天,要是那天钓起来头龙可怎么办啊?!ps:新书上传,求推荐,求收藏!五百推荐票加更一章,两万封顶!新书期间作者菌会适当补更,其余上架后爆发!
  • 记忆魔法工具箱

    记忆魔法工具箱

    《记忆魔法工具箱》是世界记忆冠军多米尼克·奥布莱恩最新作品,也是他从事记忆训练20余年来开发的第一套互动性学习用品。《记忆魔法工具箱》包括1张记忆路径图,一本记忆指导手册,50张记忆卡片,在读完指导手册之后,读者可以使用记忆路径图和记忆卡片来进行记忆训练,从而更好地强化自己所掌握的记忆技巧。《记忆魔法工具箱》共分为四章,内容包括:第一章你所不知道的记忆秘密;第二章记忆技巧等。
  • 农家俏娘:皇上借钱又不还

    农家俏娘:皇上借钱又不还

    说到穿越木槿心一直都不信的,贵女公主一样没有,钱权势?活着都不容易!极品的亲戚,肚子里的小包子还不知道爹是谁,但是,吾左手饭菜右手银针,翻云覆雨。小包子说:娘!俺想睡在钱堆里!
  • 从故事中学会勤俭节约(教青少年为人处事的故事宝库)

    从故事中学会勤俭节约(教青少年为人处事的故事宝库)

    尧之“宫殿”, 君子以俭德辟难。 学会勤俭节约,从历史学起。勤俭节约是青少年应该学会勤俭节约的传统美德。
  • 谜桶

    谜桶

    写实推理小说的最高峰!无懈可击的逻辑推理,百无一疏的证据收集;能否破解最缜密完美的不在场证明?“不在场证明”大师克劳夫兹成名作;侦探文学黄金时代的开山之作;不可思议的杀人事件。精心布置的繁复谜局;一次挑战逻辑思维的神奇之旅!
  • 分瓣橘子给你

    分瓣橘子给你

    简介:还没有想好要怎么写n次元,以后有空会回来的。
  • 重生小助理

    重生小助理

    叶蕊穿越武侠世界五年,再回到现代时感觉自己萌萌哒。不就是个大明星的小助理嘛,她怎么可能做不来!大明星酷帅狂拽,叶蕊表示流云飞袖分分钟秒死他!大明星演技爆表,叶蕊表示她可是穿越又重生的人!大明星逗比发作,叶蕊表示她可是专治逗比三十年!且看小助理如何成长为娱乐圈一代天后。
  • 花颜策

    花颜策

    太子云迟选妃,选中了林安花家最小的女儿花颜,消息一出,碎了京城无数女儿的芳心。传言:太子三岁能诗,七岁能赋,十岁辩当世大儒,十二岁百步穿杨,十五岁司天下学子考绩,十六岁监国摄政,文登峰,武造极,容姿倾世,丰仪无双。花颜觉得,天上掉了好大一张馅饼,砸到了她的头上。自此后,她要和全天下抢这个男人?---------------云迟:立在青云之端,学的是制衡术,习的是帝王谋,心中装的是江山天下,九重宫阙里,翻手为云,覆手为雨,执掌社稷朝堂,将自己修剪得无欲则刚。花颜:自诩是尘埃之下,有七情六欲,不喜天子堂,偏爱市井巷,踩着十丈软红,遍尝人间百态。觉得最好,莫过于青山绿水,你许我一生,我伴你一世。————————————————————————————————如果《妾本惊华》让您欢喜,《纨绔世子妃》让您热爱,《京门风月》让您留恋,《粉妆夺谋》让您不舍,那么,这本《花颜策》,我想,可以这样定义,它是一本每日写着,都会惊艳我自己的书。新的一年,新的开始,愿您与我一起,惊艳这本时光,温柔这段岁月。姑娘们,【收藏】+【留言】,我的文章,您的陪伴,明月静好,春风安然。
  • 历代崇道记

    历代崇道记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。