Zomer- Herfst 2006 no.57- 58
John Forster, Life of Charles Dickens.
Uitgeverij Diderot - ISBN: 90-77932-03-8.
634 biz., paperback.
Het winternummer van The Dickensian meldt
dat de biografie van Dickens, geschreven door
John Forster, recent weer in druk is versche
nen, en nog wel door een Nederlandse uitge
verij, Uitgeverij Diderot (www.diderot.nl).
Zoals bekend is deze biografie zeer gezagheb
bend (de Moeder aller Dickens' biografieën),
anderzijds niet geheel volledig of diepgravend,
onder meer omdat Forster discretie ten
opzichte van zijn vriend in acht wilde nemen.
Het zij hem vergeven, latere biografen hebben
dit gecompenseerd.
Het is hier niet de plaats om alle biografieën
van Dickens te bespreken (suggererend dat ik
dat zou kunnen, wat niet het geval is). De
beginnende biografie-lezer wijs ik op de rede
lijk recente, uitgebreide en goede biografie van
Peter Ackroyd. Echter, als u denkt dat u wel
een biografie wilt lezen, maar niet meer dan
één, dan is het de moeite waard om nog even
te wachten totdat de biografie is verschenen
waar Michael Slater nu aan werkt, en waar
over hij zal spreken tijdens de komende
Annual Conference. Te verwachten is dat we
dan een werk hebben dat zich gaat kwalifice
ren als de ultieme biografie.
Paul Ferdinandusse
7
this time, however, Cedric had built up such a coterie of convivial characters who took such pleasure in
the them that he decided to carry on by himself. So the Dickens Pickwick Club was born. It was not the
first: the City Pickwick Club was founded in 1909, for example, and the Pickwick Bicycle Club in 1870.
Cedric was intimately involved in both.
The format of his own club hardly changed over the past 30 years. At about 5.30pm the bar is opened.
Each member is given a sobriquet taken from a character in the immortal book, and it is Whiffin who
calls "Wittles Gentlemen Wittles". All present reply "Muffins". A fine edition of The Pickwick
Papers is then tabled, grace is said and members attack a meal that is heroic in its political incorrect
ness.
Potted shrimps are followed by silverside of beef and dumplings, treacle tart by stilton. The officers
present their reports at one minute each and toasts are drunk to absent friends, fathers and sons pres
ent, and guests. After the Loyal Toast comes the big speech of the evening to the immortal memory of
Charles Dickens. There are more toasts and, after grace, The Pickwick Papers is removed but the bar
remains open. It says much for the fascination of the club that at one typical evening recently members
sat down from Dublin, Sydney, the Netherlands and Texas. So deep is the affection felt for Cedric in
America that the Philadelphia Pickwick Club is to hold its own memorial service for him in April.
The dinner last December was well up to the usual form. The "immortal memory" was proposed by the
jazz musician Campbell Burnap, "official and personal trombonist to Mr Pickwick", in a remarkable
speech on Dickens and music laced with a number of recorded tunes with a Dickensian connection.
Cedric was in his customary roaring form. He asked for the usual silence for those members who "had
gone ahead to the great tavern where we shall all meet again".
Later he remarked almost in an aside that he would not be with them at the next annual dinner.
But he knew that it would go on as ever, spreading and celebrating what he called, in the last of his five
books, the miracle of Pickwick.
Cedric Dickens, steward of Charles Dickens's legacy, was born on September 24, 1916. He
died on February 11, 2006, aged 89.
