December 9th 2015

The Prodigal has suspended his temporary love affair with the sisters Brontë and has taken to enjoying the works of Dickens. I am putting it down to Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and all of those timeless ghosts. As mentioned previously in this diary the ‘Penny Post’ was introduced in 1840 and was the brainchild of Sir Henry Cole.

The first Christmas cards were commissioned by the same Henry Cole and illustrated by John Callcott Horsley in London on the 1st of May 1843. That same year on December 19^th A Christmas Carol was first published. A curious set of coincidences; perhaps.

Most people regard this great work as a sentimental seasonal story wherein is brought about a volte-face in a cranky old gentleman; one Ebenezer Scrooge. The reality of the background to the development of this tale is somewhat more complex and is reflective of the relationship between Dickens and his father combined with the treatment of the poor, especially boy orphans. It is considered that Dickens’s childhood was one of repeated humiliation caused by his father’s actions and activities.

While many public spirited and conscientious people of the 1830’s and 40’s railed in public sermons and printed in pamphlets their concerns about the poor and their children Dickens believed the best way to reach the broadest segment of the population regarding his feelings about poverty and social injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas story that would reach a wide audience. The Industrial Revolution is credited with a great many advances in society in general yet it was the biggest single factor at that time in casting countless thousands of ordinary working people into abject poverty.

In 1843 Dickens toured the tin mines in Cornwell where he saw children working in appalling conditions. Further visits to various industrial schools in London reinforced his views of the suffering of the hungry illiterate street children of Britain’s big cities.

When his father, John Dickens, was committed to a debtor’s prison in Southwark by his creditors, life became almost intolerable for young Charles and the rest of the family. Charles never forgave his father for this descent into poverty and the humiliation it caused him being cast into servile labour with other poor boys who scorned his diminished status. It is presumed by those who have studied Dickens extensively that the character Scrooge represents his father.

A Christmas Carol, written in 6 weeks and only 45 pages long has had a profound effect.

While ‘A Christmas Carol’ is one of the best loved and most celebrated of Dickens’ writings it is but one of a large body of work written by Charles in his prolific lifetime. Other great works include “The Pickwick Papers”, “Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield” and “Great Expectations”.

The Prodigal’s favourite of all the Dickensian novels is without question ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. It must be construed that a lot of folks agree with me as this Dickens tale is cited as the biggest selling novel in history.

While I have never seen it suggested it has occurred to me that George Orwell’s 1933 Memoir, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, might be influenced to some extent by the Dickens novel. The theme is very similar. Orwell’s memoir is his account of living in both cities and the central theme is once again, poverty. In Paris Orwell describes life as a casual worker in restaurant and hotel kitchens and the attendant poverty of the employees. The London experience is written from the perspective of a tramp and his fellow mobile homeless and hostel companions again living on the margins.

At any event “A Tale of Two Cities” is set in or around the time of The French Revolution in 1789. Once again Dickens central theme is the massive inequality in society. Written in 1859 the novel is set in London and Paris. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same period. It follows the lives of several characters through these events.

While the story itself is unforgettable, the language is superlative, the style of writing is Dickens at his best it is the opening paragraph of the novel that sets it truly apart. Never since have the opening lines of any novel compared, even remotely.



"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only”.