house around his family and himself»
John Forster's biography of Dickens amusingly relates the ter-
mendous preparations for the Christmas festivities that took
place in the novelist's household» Nothing that could possibly
contribute to the success of the intimate gathering escaped
Dickens' vigilance» and once all the ingredients were inside,
he corked his house up tight and gave himself over to a bliss
that was as small in scope as it was great in intensity» This
passion for cosiness, hemmed in by a chaos of uncosiness, is
evident in nearly all his books» In Pickwick, Oliver Twist,
Dombey, Chuzzlewit, Bleak House, and even The Mystery of Edwin
Drood, we encounter the stout old gentlemen, flushed and
cheery, snuggled up to the hearth with their mugs of toddy,
their ears cocked to the howling wind, their heads shaking over
the fate of sailors tossed on the bitter vraves outside» And how
wreathed with mists these Christmas tales are! Yet the London
fogs serve only to swaddle the tiny nugget t that is Bob Crat-
ch.it's living-room»
And who can forget the memorable Christmas feast the Pickwick-
ians celebrate in Mr»Wardle's kitchen at Manor Farm? The wind
doesn't blow, it bellows down the chimney, and the sleet pounds
against the windows as if a wrathful giant were outside throw
ing stones» And behold - there sit the well-fed English gentle
men at the enormous fireplace, round a mighty wassail bowl in
which red apples bobble up and down, hissing and sputtering»
Good old merry England!
Mr.Wardle raises a Christmas carol "in a good, round, sturdy
voice," which sends the poor relations, Dickens says, into
"perfect ecstasies of rapture»" What a marvelous background
these poor relations provide! Within the enclosure of sleet and
snow they form an inner bulwark, round the redly glowing core
of cosiness, a rampart against the outside world, a constant
reminder of what the festivities might have been, had they not
been (by the grace of God) what they -were. But all this is not
yet enough for Dickens» He bricks up still another wall, so
that those inside can never escape» Listen!
232
