it, fictionalising it for his new novel.
On the other, he reprinted it in
Household Words, word for word. Two
mediums through which Dickens
wanted to convey one message.
Writing in 1973, Tom Wolfe defined
what he saw as a 'New Journalism': the
distinctions he makes stand as a useful
critical entry to an examination of
Dickens' work in this field. Wolfe
distinguishes between 'old-style'
reporters, and a 'new' journalism that
approximates and aspires to literary,
novelistic writing. On the one hand,
according to Wolfe, is the traditional
view of reporting. "Scoop reporters"
competed with their counterparts in
other newspapers, or wire services, to
see who could get a story first and
write it fastest" Dickens started out in
life as just such a scoop journalist - "I
have often," he recalled, "transcribed for
the printer from my shorthand reports,
important public speeches in which the
strictest accuracy was required... writing
on the palm of my hand, by the light of
a dark lantern, in a post-chaise and
four, galloping through wild country,
all through the dead of the night"23.
The important thing here, as Ackroyd
points out, "was the rivalry between
newspapers...to provide, the next
morning, as full and accurate a
transcription of speeches from the
previous evening"24.
But it is the other form of
journalism identified by Wolfe, the
'New Journalism' of his title, that
provides the most fertile critique of
Dickens' technique. Wolfe talks of
"journalism that would ...read like a
novel. Like a novel, if you get the
picture"25. The key to this movement is
realism: "there are four specific devices,
all of them realistic, that underlie
emotionally involving quality fsicl of
the most powerful prose, whether
fiction or nonfiction"26. For Wolfe, 'New
Journalism' is opposed to novel writing,
competing with it for "the top rung of
the ladder". For Dickens, however, the
relationship is symbiotic. Ackroyd, with
typical critical bias, says that "If
Household Words becomes the secular
companions of Dickens's imaginative
work, a novel such as Bleak House can
in turn be seen as a fantastic and
mysterious counterpart to Dickens's
journalism"27. But can this hierarchy,
with the journalism being seen as a
poor relation, or companion, of the
fiction, really be maintained? In Wolfe's
terms, Dickens' journalism, composed of
a matrix of various subjects and various
authors, is drawn together under Dick
ens' iron will to create a whole that
competes successfully with the fiction.
Wolfe argues that journalism is superior
to fiction precisely because it is more
'realistic', its relation to the 'real' world
is that much more intimate: that
because of its nature, it must stay close
to ordinary experience, rather than
escaping into what Wolfe pejoratively
describes as "Neo-Fabulism". Dickens'
journalism, the nineteen volumes of
Household Words and the twenty-four of
All The Year Round which he edited, are
successful by the same token. They
work as a huge Rougon-Maccjuart of
English society over the period 1850-70,
and because of Dickens' extraordinarily
tight editorial control, it is as legitimate
to regard them as Dickensian products
as the novels.
A chronological survey of Dickens'
career as a journalist demonstrates his
passionate, almost obsessive, desire for
absolute editorial control. We have seen
40
