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CHARLES DICKENS' DEATH IN 1870
AND"HIS POPULARITY IN THE NETHERLANDS*
Edina van Daalen
The heading above hints at a subject-matter which takes so many words to state that it cannot be put in a
title. This subject-matter is what the publicity in Dutch newspapers and magazines on the occasion of
Dickens' decease in 1870 - he died of a brain haemorrhage on the ninth of June - tells about his
popularity in the Netherlands at the time, how this showed in the Dutch publications of his works in the
years before, and whether this publicity had a noticeable effect on the circulation of Dickens' works in the
following years. For this purpose a list of publications has been made which is defined for a period
running from some ten years before the author's death until five years after. As will be shown, no far-
reaching conclusions can be drawn from this list, but an interpretation can put us on the way.
To find articles on Dickens in Dutch newspapers and magazines (literary as well as general) I went to the
Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague; in the depot I found many newspaper articles, which I copied from
microfilm. 1 do not recall that there was a Dutch newspaper from 1870 that did not pay any attention to
Dickens' death, except maybe those which appeared on the Dutch East-Indies. These 1 left out of
consideration.
The search for articles in literary magazines was not so successful. I have only found an article on
Charles Dickens in Het Leeskabinet in the KB. In the Leiden university library I found articles in the
Leidsch Dagblad, the magazines De Nederlandsche Spectator and Onze Tolk and, significantly, in the
Nieuwsblad voor den Boekhandel.. All in all I have collected articles from ten daily newspapers, three
weekly magazines and one literary periodical. It is enough to get an impression of Charles Dickens' fame
in The Netherlands in the nineteenth century.
Among all the articles found in the various Dutch newspapers which concerned Charles Dickens, those in
Het Nieuws van de Dag, Kleine Courant were the most remarkable. This newspaper published a
discussion of Dickens' authorship, in four parts, which was printed on the front page. No other newspaper
discussed Dickens' merits in such depth and to such an extend. On the other hand, no newspaper criticised
his works so severely as did Het Nieuws van de Dag (hence NvdD). For example: according to the NvdD
Dickens' enormous popularity with the Dutch audience -something which was also affirmed by other
newspapers- was beyond all doubt. His greatness, however, was not. It was argued by the NvdD that the
sense of loss felt at his death was yet no proof of Dickens' pre-eminence as an author, and that it could
well be that ftiture generations would place him a few steps lower on the literary scale than the present. It
was felt that his works did not stand on the same high level as, for instance, George Eliot's.
The NvdD even took the argument a step further and suggested that the kind of fame Dickens enjoyed
could be proof against true greatness:
Misschien zou men zelfs kunnen beweren, dat wie waarlijk zeer groot is, niet zo
haastig komt tot algemeenen roem, omdat hij niet zoo spoedig algemeen begrepen
word.1
This sounds like a strange way of reasoning; but the thought behind it, that a writer cannot be very
popular and very great at the same time, is not uncommon. None the less, as can be read in the coverage
preceding the discussion, the NvdD judged that Charles Dickens was "ontwijfelbaar de grootste
humoristische novellist van zijn tijd".2 It is also noticeable that the journalist of the NvdD had a distinct
This was the final essay for the studie subject Het Engelse boek in Nederland. Date: 21 June, 1995. This is a revision.
1 "Charles Dickens 1", Nieuws van de Dag, 20 June 1870, front page.
2 "Gemengd Nieuws", NvdD, 11 June 1870.
