(National Review, 1855) and this critic like
others remarked that the "honest doubt"
about religious beliefs made him more
congenial and characteristic at a time when
such doubts were widespread. Or to quote
one of the dozens of attempts to account
for Dickens's unprecedented popularity:
"There is not a fireside in the kingdom
where the cunning fellow has not contrived
to secure a corner for himself as one of the
dearest, and by this time one of the oldest
friends of the family" - and that Temple Bar
critic similarly writes of Tennyson as "the
cherished poetical god of readers narrow
domestic hearth". After mentioning
Dickens's humour, all-pervading charity,
tenderness, purity and comprehension of the
national character, this reviewer ends that,
above all, it is due to "his deep reverence of
the household sanctities, his enthusiastic
worship of the household gods" Fraser's
Magazine 1850).
Not for nothing was Dickens's weekly
titled Flousehold Wordsand Tennyson's son
Hallam records that "Upon the sacredness of
home life, [my father] would maintain that
the stability and greatness of a nation
largely depend; and one of the secrets of his
power over mankind was his true joy in the
family duties and affections." Overseas
visitors to England at this time often
commented on the strength of domestic
sentiment: clearly Dickens and Tennyson
sincerely participated and memorably
expressed this. And notice that "purity." John
Forster got angry with the French critic
Hyppolyte Taine for demanding greater
frankness: an author "should be too much of
a philosopher to remember that he is a
respectable citizen. But this is what Dickens
never forgets." Some pompousness and
hypocrisy here, no doubt: but when Dickens's
marriage broke up and (it would seem) he
was involved in a liaison with Ellen Ternan
the affair was conducted with "respectable"
surreptitious caution: no openly-flaunted
Bohemian rejection of conformity there.
Another area of sentiment popular at a time
and shared by Dickens and Tennyson was
that "tenderness" (Trollope's "sweetened by
pathos"). Little Nell and Tennyson's May
Queen "died" within a couple of years of
each other (1840, 1842) and were often
linked in later attacks on "Victorian
sentimentality", though they and other such
pathetic figures - often victims - had
appealed greatly in their day. As Forster
recorded, The Old Curiosity Shop was "a
story which was to add largely to his
popularity [and] more than any other of his
works to make the bond between himself and
his readers one of personal attachment".
Fraser's Magazine was repeating a
commonplace when calling Dickens a "friend
of the family". It is a reminder of his very
special status at an unusual cultural moment:
Thackeray too inspired "friendly" feelings,
but succeeding generations of novelists did
not.
Recall too Fraser's remark on Dickens's
"exquisite comprehension of the national
character and manners." Both he and
Tennyson were profoundly English (which
entailed disadvantages and narrownesses,of
course, as well as advantages) and were apt
to launch into praises of the British, or
■Anglo-Saxon," character ("It has been the
greatest character among the nations of the
